Midrash sobre Êxodo 3:1

(Exod. 10:21:) THEN THE LORD SAID UNTO MOSES: STRETCH OUT YOUR HAND TOWARD THE HEAVENS <THAT THERE MAY BE DARKNESS OVER THE LAND OF EGYPT>….¹Note that both Tanhumas seem to omit the beginning section (Exod. 10:1–20) of parashah Bo. The missing passage seems to include a whole parashah of the so-called triennial cycle. This text is related (to Ps. 105:28): HE SENT DARKNESS, AND IT BECAME DARK; [FOR THEY DID NOT DEFY (maru) HIS WORD]. The darkness which the Holy One sent upon Egypt was very severe. R. Aha said: <It was> because they did not accept the {regulations middotaw} [authority (marut)] of the Holy One over themselves.²By interpreting the verb maru as coming from the same root as the word for authority, R. Aha has interpreted the second part of Ps. 105:28 to mean: FOR THEY DID NOT ACCEPT THE AUTHORITY OF HIS WORD. Similarly Tanh., Exod. 3:1; Exod. R. 14:1; M. Pss. 105:9. Our Masters have said: What is the meaning of THEY DID NOT DEFY (MRH) HIS WORD? <It is> in reference to their having disregarded (rt.: MRH) the word of the Holy One. The Holy One said to the ministering angels: The Egyptians deserved to be smitten with darkness. Immediately they agreed and said: Yes. Not one of them rebelled (rt.: MRH) against the Holy One. (Ps. 105:28b:) THEY DID NOT DEFY (MRH) HIS WORD. (Vs. 28a:) HE SENT DARKNESS, AND IT BECAME DARK. To what is the matter comparable? To a king whose servant sinned against him. So he said to someone: Go and give him fifty lashes. He went and gave him a hundred. Thus he increased <the punishment > on his own. So did the Holy One send darkness over Egypt, and the darkness increased. (Ibid.:) HE SENT DARKNESS, AND IT BECAME <even more> DARK.

... Our teachers have said: Once, while Moses our Teacher was tending [his father-in-law] Yitro’s sheep, one of the sheep ran away. Moses ran after it until it reached a small, shaded place. There, the lamb came across a pool and began to drink. As Moses approached the lamb, he said, “I did not know you ran away because you were thirsty. You are so exhausted!” He then put the lamb on his shoulders and carried him back. The Holy One said, “Since you tend the sheep of human beings with such overwhelming love - by your life, I swear you shall be the shepherd of My sheep, Israel.”

And Moshe was a shepherd and a gentleman in a fire out of the bush. Rashbi tells what God Almighty discovered from my name and would talk to Moshe out of the bush, what this bush is tougher than any tree in the world and every bird that enters it does not go right out of it but cuts limb organs, so that Egyptian labor is difficult before the place of every slave in the world. A slave or slave Ben Horin never left Egypt but only Hagar said (Genesis 2: 2) and Pharaoh would go on him and send him and his wife and all that he had: Merom and he would talk to Moshe out of the bush as long as Israel was in such trouble