Comentário sobre Êxodo 14:2

וישבו THAT THEY TURN backwards; all the third day they were moving nearer towards the Egyptians, in order to mislead Pharaoh, so that he should say: They have lost their way, as it is said, (v. 3) “so that Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, [They are entangled in the land]”.

דבר אל בוי ישראל וישובו, "speak to the children of Israel so that they will turn backwards, etc." Anyone who reads this verse cannot help wondering why G'd would give an order designed to trick Pharaoh into pursuit of the Israelites, when He has many other means at His disposal to bring about the same result?

וישובו ויחנו פי החירות, “they turned around and encamped at Pi Hachirot. G’d ordered the Israelites to turn around facing Egypt at Pithom renamed Pi Hachirot, seeing that this was the place where they had become free (from slave labour) according to Rashi. The Torah added the words “in front of Baal Tzefon,” as a further means of identification because that idol had survived destruction. All of these details were important to help Pharaoh persuade himself that the Israelites were worth pursuing. When the Torah reports that G’d said to Moses: “I will strengthen the heart of Pharaoh so that he will pursue them” (verse 4), He referred to three causes which would determine Pharaoh’s course of action. 1) Their non-stop day and night travel which would persuade Pharaoh that they were in fact escaping, not following his instructions. 2) Their turnabout convinced Pharaoh that the people were completely lost in the desert. 3) that they should make camp near Baal Tzefon which would give Pharaoh the impression that this deity had impeded the Israelites’ ability to journey forward. The term ”בעל something or other,“ is usually associated with a deity such as בעל זבוב, אלוהי עקרן, בעל פעור, and others. G’d allowed this deity to survive in order to mislead Pharaoh. This is an illustration of Job 12,23: “He causes nations to deceive themselves resulting in their destruction.” The additional words (verse 3) נכחו תחנו על הים, ”opposite it you are to make camp,” was to give Pharaoh the impression that this deity had used the desert to encircle the Israelites, to make them prisoner. This verse contains an allusion to what the Israelites would observe later at the sea.

Is Pisom. . . [Rashi knows this] because the verse comes to tell us at which border they encamped, yet we do not know of Pi Hachiros, for it is not mentioned in Scripture. Thus, it must be Pisom.

לפני בעל צפון, “before Baal Tzefon.” According to Rashi, this was the only idol that had remained intact of all the Egyptian deities. G–d had arranged this in order to mislead the Egyptians into believing that this deity was more powerful that He. Pharaoh thought that the deity had deliberately tricked the Israelites in order to enable him to destroy them by means of water. [as a previous Pharaoh had attempted when he drowned the male Jewish infants. Ed.] This is why the Torah wrote in verse 10 that ופרעה הקריב, instead of ופרעה קרב, “Pharaoh had presented an offering,” instead of “Pharaoh approached,” as this phrase is usually translated (Compare Mechilta B’shalach 2,2). An alternate interpretation: the use of the transitive form of the word קרב is meant to tell the reader that the Israelites were inspired to engage in penitence when they saw that they were being pursued.

וישבו, “so that they shall turn back;” G-d said that He did not want the Egyptians to be able to say that Moses and Aaron had deceived him when they said that all they had requested was to travel three days into the desert (Exodus 8,23).

ויחנו לפני פי החירת AND ENCAMP BEFORE PI-HAHIROTH — This is identical with Pithom (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 14:2:2), but now it obtained the name of פי החירת, because there they became בני חורין free-men (חירת is explained as חרות freedom). This was two high, precipitous rocks and the valley between them was called פי הסלעים the mouth (opening) of the rocks.

Because there they became free men. . . It is called Pisom, an acronym for “Peh sasum” (sealed mouth). This is because an idol was there which did not allow any slave to escape. But now they became free men there, because Hashem altered Egypt’s ruling star in the heavens. So now [the place] was called Pi Hachiros, named after their attaining freedom (cheirus). We need not ask: Why was it not now called Cheirus? And also, why was it not previously called Sasum, rather than Pisom? For Rashi explains: “They were two high, upright rocks and the valley between them was like a mouth (peh).”

In view of our awareness that G'd wants to try and put Israel in a favourable light so as to justify the favours He does for His people, it is even harder to understand how G'd devised a scheme which resulted in the Israelites expressing their dismay at the developments which followed in the most sarcastic manner when they accused Moses of leading them into the desert to die as if there were not enough burial grounds in Egypt (14,11). Actually, the arguments the Israelites used against Moses were not new ones as the Torah itself testifies. However, G'd displayed extreme wisdom here by luring Pharaoh into the kind of sin (pursuit of the Israelites) which would give Him an opportunity to demonstrate to Israel that He would exact true vengeance on Pharaoh. G'd did not want to spell out more detail than to say that the Israelites' action in turning backwards would encourage Pharaoh to pursue them, as a result of which G'd would deal with him severely. Having thus informed the Israelites of what to expect they should have been able to face these developments with calm. Unfortunately, even though the Israelites had been warned what to expect, G'd did not succeed completely as we observe from the reactions of various groups of Israelites in the verses following. Having read of the Israelites' reaction after G'd had given them advance notice of Pharaoh's pursuit you may imagine how much more violent their reaction would have been had this development taken them entirely by surprise.

נכחו תחנו, “and encamp facing it (the deity)!” Rabbi Yehudah found it difficult to understand why the Israelites had been instructed to encamp at that location facing the sea., He quoted the Talmud in tractate Sanhedrin, folio 13, where it is stated that it is forbidden to ask a friend to wait for him a few minutes so that he could take a closer look [or photograph] a certain idolatrous statue. Why would G–d have asked the Jewish people to face this statue while encamping nearby? I suppose the prohibition applies only to human beings, not to G–d Himself. After all, we are told that G–d judges the gentile nations every Sabbath and every Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (Compare Rashi on the Talmud in tractate Rosha Hashanah folio 30.) In addition, seeing that the Torah had not been given as yet there is not really a problem.

לפני פי החירות, “facing a place called: Pee Hachirot, the entrance to Hachirot;” according to Rashi, this place was identical to the fortification of Pittom, one of the first two cities to have been built by the Israelite slaves. The reason why the Torah refers to it by a different name here was that it was the first town the Israelites encountered as free men. (חרות, freedom) The Egyptians had no cause to complain about the newly gained freedom of the Israelites as pointed out by Pessikta zutrata, (compare Torah schleymah, item 9 on this verse) where it is stated that it was the accepted practice of the Egyptians that if he succeeded in getting as far way as Pittom, he would have gained his legal freedom. An alternate exegesis: the words לפני פי החירות, mean that the reason why the Torah mentions that location is to mislead Pharaoh into thinking that the Israelites had gotten lost, as a result of which they had second thoughts about leaving Egypt, and the proof is that they encamped at that location, one familiar to them as they had built the fortifications in that town, it being known to them as Pittom.

לפני בעל צפון BEFORE BAAL-ZEPHON — It (the idol of this name) alone had been left by God of all the gods of Egypt and, this, too, in order to mislead them — that they should say that their god was a difficult one to overcome. It was with reference to this that Job expressly said, (Job 12:23) “He causes the nations to err (מַשְׂגִיא, is taken in the sense of מַשְׁגִיא from root שגה to err) and then destroyeth them” (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 14:2:2; cf. Rashi on this passage).

It alone was left from all the gods of Egypt. . . I.e., this god was left even though it is written, “Against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgments” (12:12).

נכחו, “it was opposite;” a place called פי החירות, “perhaps best translated as “gateway to freedom.”תחנו על הים, (Moses instructing the people in the name of G-d) “you will encamp alongside the shores of the sea.”