Шмот 5:4 Комментарий: Rashi, Chizkuni, Da'at Zekenim & Ramban

תפריעו את העם ממעשיו means ye detach and take them away from their work, because they listen to you and believe that they may refrain from the work. Similar are: (Proverbs 4:15) “פרעהו pass not by it”, i. e. keep it far from thee, pass not by it; (Proverbs 1:25) “and ye withdraw (ותפרעו) all my counsel”; (Exodus 32:25) “for it is פרע” i. e. it had removed itself from the proper path and had made itself a thing to be abhorred (but cf. Rashi on this verse where he explains the word by מגולה — נתגלה שמצו וקלונו).

!לכו לסבלותיכם, “go back to your labours! “The reason why the tribe of Levi had been exempted from performing slave labour when the Egyptians first began to enslave the Israelites was that Pharaoh pretended to share that burden with them in order to encourage them to perform these labours for patriotic reasons, building fortifications against potential invaders. This is how the sages interpreted the word: בפרך in Exodus 1,13, i.e. as meaning: בפה רך, “spoken softly.” Pharaoh had appealed to their loyalty and told them that by performing this labour they could prove that they were loyal Egyptians citizens. The Jews of then [as we know only too well from all the Jews serving in the German Kaiser’s army in the first world war, 12000 of them giving their lives for the aggressive designs of Germany, Ed.] were only too eager to prove their loyalty, not suspecting how they would be exploited. At that time the tribe of Levi remembered what their founding father Yaakov had said to them on his death bed, that Levi was not to be one of his pall bearers as that tribe was destined in the future to carry the Holy Ark on its shoulders. They therefore declined at the time to participate in the building of fortifications, and Pharaoh did not make an issue of this as also the Egyptians had a caste of priests who Joseph during the years of famine had completely excused from any taxation. Furthermore, we found a Midrash according to which Avraham already taught his son Yitzchok the whole Torah (the written Torah that would be given to the Israelites in the desert) Yitzchok in turned transmitted it to Yaakov, and Yaakov to Levi, who in turn transmitted it to his direct descendants. Seeing that these people had not learned any vocation, they were not physically suitable to perform the kind of physical labour the other tribes were used to. They were therefore rewarded by G-d not to have to share this burden with their brethren. (Compare Torah shleymah by Rabbi M. Kasher item 32 on our verse.) According to that, Pharaoh told Moses and Aaron not to try his patience and be content that they, being Levites, were not required to do slavelabour.

לכו לסבלתיכם, “get to your labours!” Rashi comments that Moses and Aaron did not personally have to perform manual labour, as they belonged to the tribe of Levi which was exempt from that. Accordingly, what Pharaoh meant was that they should attend to their affairs and not meddle in those of the other tribes. (Sh’mot Rabbah 5,15.) According to the Midrash there, the members of that tribe already at the very outset, when Pharaoh “invited” the people to build fortifications and show their patriotism, explained that they could not engage in such manual labour as they were destined to perform different holy tasks in the Temple in the future. They would not engage in such activities regardless of how well Pharaoh would pay them for this. They remained exempt from such labour. When Moses grew up and saw that the other tribes were forced to work seven days a week, he went to Pharaoh and explained to him that unless he gave these people at least one day of rest during each week, instead of their producing more bricks, they would fall over dead from exhaustion and produce no bricks at all. This made sense to Pharaoh, and he empowered Moses to tell the people that they could select one day of the week as their day of rest. A miracle occurred and they chose the Sabbath as their day of rest. This is why Moses was able to tell the people (Exodus 16,29) that G–d had given them a day of rest on the Sabbath. They themselves had already chosen this day as their day of rest while still slaves in Egypt.