Комментарий к Шмот 11:2

דבר נא SPEAK נא — The word נא is always an expression of entreaty. Here it means: I entreat you, admonish them about this which follows (impress this injunction upon them), so that righteous man, Abraham, may not say: the prophecy (Genesis 15:13) “they shall serve them, and they shall afflict them” He permitted to be fulfilled in them, but the promise (Genesis 15:14) “and afterwards they shall go forth with great substance” He did not bring to fulfilment for them (Berakhot 9a-b).

דבר נא באזני העם וישאלו, they needed to be encouraged to ask for this as they might have worried about the Egyptians pursuing them in order to retrieve their riches. It worked in reverse; the very fact that the Egyptians chased after the Israelites, i.e. reneged, was the immediate reason G’d came to the Israelites’ assistance and drowned their pursuers. That is what made them absolutely free.

וישאלו, to be an outright gift, just as in Psalms 2,8 שאל ממני ואתנה נחלתך, “ask of Me, and I will give your inheritance.”

כלי כסף וכלי זהב, “vessels made of silver and vessels made of gold.” Why did Moses not include a reference to garments, as the Torah had done 3,22? This reference to garments surfaces again when the Torah describes that the Israelites “borrowed” these from their neighbours immediately prior to their departure (12,35). Some commentators say that the reason was that “shlepping” along all kinds of garments was more of a handicap for the people on their impending journey, so that G’d omitted reference to the garments, to indicate that this was entirely voluntary; they did not have to ask for clothing. The Israelites, when it came to the departure, decided to fulfill G’d’s commandment in its entirety, hence they also asked and received fancy garments.

וישאלו איש מאת רעהו, “let them each ask from their fellow Egyptian male, etc.” This “request” was not similar to a man or a woman asking his or her respective neighbour for some tool on the understanding that after he or she has finished using it it would be returned it to its owner. Here G’d’s instructions were to ask for the respective items as outright gifts. It was understood that G’d would make the Egyptians feel well disposed toward the Israelites so that they would willingly comply with their requests for such gifts. The last thing G’d had in mind was that the Israelites, at the very moment when their redemption was at hand, would leave behind the impression that they had fooled their neighbours and pretended that they would give back the items in question. According to Jewish law whenever a servant is released from service after he has toiled for the agreed period of time, he is entitled to receive a stake from his erstwhile master to enable him to start his economic independence. This is spelled out in Deut. 15, 13-14: “but when you send him away free, you shall not send him away empty-handed. Furnish him out of your flocks, your threshing floor, and vat, with which the Lord has blessed you.” If this law applies to treatment of a fellow Jewish servant whose wages the master has paid six years in advance, how much more so were the Jewish slaves in Egypt entitled to receive some silver trinkets in compensation for over 200 years of slavery for which no wages had ever been paid.
We may find the expression רעהו both in the masculine and the feminine form as peculiar when applied to Egyptians who could hardly be described as equal to the Israelites so that this definition would apply. We have to answer that prior to the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai all human beings were treated as equal before the law. Hence the expression רע “fellow human being” was appropriate. Ever since the giving of the Torah Gentiles are not again referred to by that description. Seeing that G’d had offered the Torah to the Gentile nations and they had refused it they no longer qualified as equals. Henceforth Jews were described as brothers and companions of G’d as we know from Psalms 122,8: “for the sake of My brothers and friends, I pray for your well-being.” Our sages in Baba Kama 113 explain the phrase לכל אבדת אחיך (Deut. 22,3) as “your brother, but not a Gentile.” In other words, a Jew does not have to go out of his way to restore lost property to a Gentile seeing he is not his brother anymore. The same law applies to the prohibition of charging or paying interest to others. While the Torah forbids this inasmuch as it writes: “you must not charge interest to your brother” (Deut. 23,20), this excludes those whom the Torah does not recognize as our brothers, i.e. the Gentile.

“Speak, please, (Na):

נא can only indicate. . . Rashi means that נא written here can only indicate pleading [but in other places it can mean “now”].

וישאלו איש מאת רעהו ואשה מאת רעותה כלי כסף וגו', the meaning of שאלה here is not the same as when women “borrow” kitchen utensils and the like, it being understood that these will be returned to the lender. G’d, i.e. Moses, commanded the people to ask for these trinkets, garments, etc., as outright gifts. G’d would see to it that the Israelites asking for this would be considered by the Egyptians as deserving of this so that they would gladly part with the items in question. This did not involve any misrepresentation on the part of G’d, the Egyptians being perfectly aware that nothing they would give their Israelite neighbours could even remotely compensate them for the wages these people had never received during all these years. In that connection, consider that a Jewish servant (for whose services his master paid six years’ wages in advance to the servant’s creditor) at the end of his 6 years of service must be given an ex gratia payment by his master so that he can establish himself economically. (Deuteronomy 15,13-14). How much more so would the Israelites be entitled at this time to a small installment of all the money owed them for 210 (or 86) years of slave labour!

SPEAK NOW IN THE EARS OF THE PEOPLE. I.e., after you depart from Pharaoh.

V. 2 u. 3. Die im vorigen Verse ausgesprochene Bestimmung, dass Pharao sie völlig und für immer forttreiben wird, ist ein fernerer Beweis für die schon oben zu Kap. 3, V. 22, nachgewiesene Bedeutung des שאל מאת (nicht מעם) als: sich etwas zum Geschenke, nicht zum Darlehn, erbitten. נא .דבר נא setzt immer ein Widerstreben bei dem andern voraus. Siehe Bereschit 12, 13 אמרי נא usw. Es hatte eben das Volk in der eklatantesten Weise seine sittliche Gediegenheit erprobt. Drei Tage lang waren in Blindheit gefesselt ihre Dränger ihnen ohnmächtig preisgegeben; drei Tage lang ihnen alle ihre Schätze in deren Wohnungen offen gestanden, und kein Jude hatte die Gelegenheit benutzt, auch nur eine höhnende, neckende Rache an ihnen zu üben, keiner weder eine Person noch eine Stecknadel angerührt. Diese sittliche Größe ließ Gott eben in dem Augenblick, als den Ägyptern wieder das Augenlicht gewährt ward und sie alles Ihrige unangetastet fanden, endlich den Widerwillen der Ägypter gegen die Hebräer besiegen und mehr noch als die Wunder, die er geübt, machte diese sittliche Größe seines Volkes den Mann Mosche in den Augen der Ägypter groß. Es mochte wohl Mosche und dem Volk widerstreben, diesen sittlichen Sieg wieder einigermaßen durch solche Bitten aufs Spiel zu setzen. Allein es war Gottes Wille, dass sein Volk nicht arm ausziehen sollte — waren doch alle die im Sklavendienst dahingegangenen Geschlechter völlig außer Stande gewesen, das Geringste für sich zu erwerben, und der erste Grundstein zum Wohlstand seines Volkes sollte durch die Anerkennung seiner sittlichen Größe abseiten seiner bisherigen Verächter erworben und geweiht sein. Daher dies: נא. Dabei drängte die Zeit. Zwölf Stunden waren nur noch bis zum andern Mittag. Daher: דבר נא באוני העם, rede ihnen zu, bewege sie zu diesem Schritte. Während daher Mosche vor Pharao stand und in dem Augenblicke, in welchem Pharao Mosche mit dem Tode bedrohte, bereitete sich das Volk schon zum Auszuge vor und feierten er und sie draußen den größten moralischen Sieg über ihre Herren und Dränger, die mit dieser anerkennungsvollen Freigebigkeit eine, wenn auch immerhin kleine Sühne der Vergangenheit zu zollen sich bewogen fühlen mochten. Aus dieser Erfüllung lernt sich die hohe moralische Bedeutung der Verheißung: ואחרי כן יצאו ברכוש גדול.

דבר נא, “speak please;” Moses was to do this at this time as they would not have any time to do so once Pharaoh would discharge them unconditionally, i.e. even expel them. If the people had made these requests still earlier, Egyptians would have demanded that they would give back what they had borrowed, seeing that Pharaoh had refused to allow them to leave permanently.

Speak to them about this. . . You might ask: Since Hashem told it to Moshe, is it not obvious that he will tell it to B’nei Yisrael? The answer is: Moshe did not intend to instruct them about this because [if they fail to return the borrowed items] it will be like holding stolen property. However, Hashem considered it as having received wages for their work (Sanhedrin 91a). Another answer: [Moshe was concerned that] the Egyptians will be troubled by the loss of their property and will chase after them. Therefore, Moshe needed to be told to instruct them.

וישאלו איש, “they each asked for, etc.” they complied with what G-d had asked them to do, so that He could fulfill His promise to Avraham that after servitude to a land other than the land of Canaan, they would leave that country as free people with a great deal of wealth. (Genesis 15,14). Some commentators insist that the expression: וישאלו refers to asking for an outright gift. (Rabbeinu Chananel) They claim that Psalms 2,8: 'שאל ממני ואתנה וגו, “ask something of Me and I will grant it,” is proof of this.

מאת רעהו, “from his friend or comrade;” to the question of: “since when were the ordinary Egyptians the personal friends of the Israelites?” The answer is that after the plagues had ceased, the Egyptians’ attitude towards the Israelites underwent a drastic change, and they became very willing to let them use their vessels.

כלי כסף וכלי זהב, “silver vessels and golden vessels.” It was no more than a fair exchange, seeing that the Israelites left behind their houses and their fields which no one compensated them for. We read already in Genesis 47,27 ויאחזו בה, that the sons of Yaakov instead of or in addition to being shepherds, also became land owners.