Комментарий к Шмот 2:14

מי שמך לאיש WHO MADE THEE A PERSONAGE (lit., a man), and you are yet only a boy (Midrash Tanchuma, Shemot 10).

WILT THOU SPEAK TO KILL ME? “From here we learn that Moses had killed the Egyptian by merely pronouncing the Tetragrammaton.”⁸⁴The Tetragrammaton (Shem Hamphorash or Shem Hamyuchad) is the Proper Name of G-d. It consists of four Hebrew letters, the utterance of which is now forbidden. It is translated here as the Eternal. By pronouncing this Name, Moses needed no weapon to accomplish his purpose of bringing about the deserved death of the Egyptian. Thus the language of Rashi, and it is also a Midrash of our Rabbis.⁸⁵Shemoth Rabbah 1:35.
But I wonder. If so, who told the wicked one⁸⁶“The wicked one” — so called by the Torah in Verse 13: and he [Moses] said to the wicked one, ‘Why do you smite thy fellow?’ that Moses killed him? Perhaps Moses placed his hands upon the Egyptian and cursed him in the Name of G-d,⁸⁷See II Kings 2:24. [and the Hebrew who was now quarrelling with Moses saw him doing that]. This would explain the term vayach (‘and he smote’ the Egyptian).⁸⁸A similar use of the term is found in the case of the Assyrian army that was smitten outside Jerusalem by the angel of G-d. It says there, And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Eternal went forth ‘vayach’ (and smote) in the camp of the Assyrians (II Kings 19:35). Now just as in that case vayach does not signify a physical act of striking by hand but rather the inflicting of defeat by supernatural power, so also here in the case of Moses. (Bachya.) It may be that because the Egyptian had fallen dead before him [after he had pronounced the Tetragrammaton over him], Moses feared that they may report him and so he buried the Egyptian in the sand. The Hebrew who saw him doing that reckoned that Moses had caused [the Egyptian’s death somehow, even though he did not know that he had killed him by pronouncing the Tetragrammaton]. Perhaps he thought Moses had killed him by the sword, as he saw only the burial.
In line with the plain meaning of Scripture, scholars say⁸⁹Ibn Ezra in his commentary here, and R’dak in his Book of Roots, under the root amar. that the expression, wilt thou ‘omer’ (speak), means “think,” since we find amirah (speaking) referring to the thought of the heart. I said in my heart;⁹⁰Ecclesiastes 2:1. I say, that an untimely birth is better than he.⁹¹Ibid., 6:3. It is obvious that Ramban’s intent in selecting these two verses from the Book of Ecclesiastes is to show that the term amirah (saying) as such is equivalent to amirah b’leiv (speaking in one’s heart). Hence the Book of Ecclesiastes uses them interchangeably. But here there is no need for this, for [the intent of the Hebrew’s words to Moses] is as follows: “Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? Is it because thou dost desire to kill me as thou didst kill the Egyptian that thou reprovest me and sayest, ‘Why smitest thou thy fellow?’”⁹²In other words, Ramban is saying that the expression atah omer (thou sayest) alludes to that which Moses had said in Verse 13: Why smitest thou thy fellow? The Hebrew thus said to Moses: “Is it because you desire to kill me as you killed the Egyptian that you reproved me by saying, ‘Why do you smite your fellow?’”

הלהרגני אתה אומר?, because I am striking my fellow ?

הלהרגני אתה אומר? Are you stirring up a quarrel to get me killed?

מי שמך לאיש, “who has appointed you as a dignitary?” He implied that Moses was far too young to have been given any position authorizing him to act on his own. He added the word ושר, in order to say that even assuming that you were old enough and mature enough, no one has appointed you as an authority, שר, over us to unilaterally execute anyone. He added the word שופט, judge, to emphasise that even if you had the legal status of being a judge, you would not have authority over us. (Israelites)

He killed [the Egyptian] with the Divine Name. [Rashi knows this] since the verse states הלהרגני אתה אומר (Are you saying to kill me), rather than הלהרגני אתה מבקש (Are you planning to kill me). This shows that Moshe killed him through speech. Who told him that the Egyptian was killed by the Divine Name? We could say [that the wicked man knew how Moshe killed the Egyptian] since he saw that Moshe buried him in the sand but he did not see Moshe lift a hand against him. Thus he deduced that Moshe killed him with the Divine Name (Re”m).

V. 14. Das "מי שמך לאיש" offenbart schon früh einen Charakterzug, der uns noch heute kennzeichnet und in welchem alle unsere nationale Untugend und — Tugend wurzelt. 600000 Männer haben nicht den Mut, gegen nichtjüdische Schergen ihre Kinder zu verteidigen, aber einem Juden gegenüber ordnet keiner sich unter, da gibts keine menschliche Autorität, und die berechtigtste Zurechtweisung muss sich darauf gefasst machen, als die Gleichheit aller verkennende Anmaßung zu werden. Diese Untugend haben wir noch nicht ganz verlernt, nachdem wir schon so lange in der Galutschule geschult worden, welch ein ungefügiger Stoff müssen wir vor dem Betreten dieser Schule gewesen sein! Nicht den gefügigsten, den ungefügigsten Menschenstamm — עז שבאומות — hat sich Gott erwählt, ihm gab er sein אשדת, sein Feuergesetz, in seiner Überwindung sollte sich zuerst die Feuerkraft seines Gesetzes erproben. Harte Schläge des Geschickes mussten uns hämmern, damit wir so hart wurden wie Stahl und so — biegsam wie Stahl. Gott gegenüber biegsam; unbeugsam, hart und fest aber aller menschlichen Autorität gegenüber. Diese "Nackenhärte" kann auch ausarten und sich in dem Gegenstande verirren. Allein ohne sie wären wir nicht das unsterbliche Gesetzesvolk geworden.

מי שמך לאיש שר ושופט, “who has appointed you as lord or judge?” The word איש here was a reference to Moses’ youth, to the fact that he was below the minimum age for having risen to such a position.

הלהרגני אתה אמר lit. WILT THOU SPEAK IN ORDER TO SLAY ME — From this we may learn that he had killed him by the mere utterance of the “Shem Hamephorash” (Midrash Tanchuma, Shemot 10; Exodus Rabbah 1:30).

כאשר הרגת את המצרי, .on account of an Egyptian hitting an Israelite.

ויירא משה, as a result Moses became careful and fled.

הלהרגני אתה אומר?, “are you going to say something which will kill me?” From this phrase we learn that Moses had killed the Egyptian by cursing him in the name of the ineffable G’d. This does not contradict what the Torah wrote, i.e. ויך את המצרי, “he struck (dead) the Egyptian,” (verse 12) The Bible uses the verb הכה to describe words, such as in Isaiah 11,4 והכה ארץ בשבט פיו, “and he will smite a land with the rod of his mouth.” (the Messiah when he comes.) Although, according to Sanhedrin 105, what Solomon means in Proverbs 17,26 when he says גם ענוש לצדיק לא טוב, is that the righteous should never place themselves in a position of causing or administering punishment, even when the victim would be a confirmed heretic, this situation did not meet the criteria discussed in the Talmud. The victim of Moses was guilty of raping a married woman, and clearly deserving the death penalty, as our sages derive from the words ויפן כה וכה, that Moses saw not only what this Egyptian had done in the field, but what he had done prior to this in the house of the Jew whom he had killed. Nachmanides questions this whole line of exegesis, writing that if Moses had used the holy name of G’d to kill the Egyptian, who had told the quarrelling Jew about this? He reasons that possibly Moses had placed his hand on the Egyptian prior to cursing him, so that the words ויך את המצרי, “he struck the Egyptians,” may be understood literally without contradicting the opinion that his death was caused by G’d honouring Moses’ curse. When the Egyptian suddenly fell dead as his feet, Moses became afraid and covered him with sand, The wicked Jew who had observed all this realized that either G’d had caused the death of the Egyptian, or if he had not observed the actual death, assumed that Moses had killed him with the sword, and that therefore he had buried him to obliterate the fact that the man had been killed violently, seeing he only had seen Moses burying the corpse. If we follow the plain meaning of the text, the words אתה אומר, need not refer to words spoken by mouth at all, but may describe someone’s intention, as in Kohelet where Solomon repeatedly introduces a thought with the words אמרתי אני בלבי, “I used to say in my heart.”

Wicked people who were informers. The word דלטורין means “informers.”

ויירא משה AND MOSES FEARED — Explain it in its literal sense: he was afraid of Pharaoh. A Midrashic explanation is: he felt distressed because he saw that there were wicked men among the Israelites — common informers. He said: Since this is so (מעתה), perhaps they are not worthy to be delivered from bondage (Midrash Tanchuma, Shemot 10).

אכן , Moses had come to the realisation that he had been wrong when he buried the Egyptian thinking that no one had observed his death and burial. It turned out that the matter had been witnessed.

ויאמר אכן נודע הדבר, when the snitch said these words to him, in the presence of others, he did not kill him seeing there would be no point in doing this, seeing he had already reported what Moses had done to the authorities.

אכן נודע הדבר, “indeed the matter has become known.” Ibn Ezra equates the word אכן with the expression אם כן, “if so, etc.” Rash’bam changes the meaning to אכן אם כן, “if indeed it is different from what I thought, and the matter has become common knowledge.

To be subjugated by oppressive work. Although there had been a decree upon the descendants of Avraham: “And they will enslave them and afflict them four hundred years” (Bereishis 15:13), nevertheless, Moshe questioned [Why they were oppressed], since it is written (Devarim 24:16): “Children shall not die for [the sins of] their fathers.” Alternatively, [Moshe’s question was that] Avraham and Yitzchak had other descendants, so why was subjugation not decreed upon them. Alternatively, although “they will enslave them and afflict them” had been decreed, but oppressive work had not decreed upon them. And this [i.e., their oppressive work] is what puzzled Moshe (Maharma”i).

אכן נדע הדבר SURELY THE THING IS KNOWN — Explain it in its literal sense: the fact that I have killed the Egyptian is known. A Midrashic explanation is: now there is known to me that matter about which I have been puzzled — how has Israel sinned more than all the seventy nations, that they should be oppressed by this crushing servitude? But now I see that they deserve this (Exodus Rabbah 1:30).