Комментарий к Шмот 2:23

And the Children of Israel sighed from their labor and they cried out. And their groaning rose up to God from their labor. At this moment, the salvation began. Once they started to cry out, then immediately "their groaning rose up" - meaning that it catalyzed the salvation. For until this moment they had no awakening to scream and pray. And because the Holy Blessed One desired to redeem them, [therefore] the scream was awakened within them. And this is the beginning of redemption, when a person is roused to scream to God. Similar to what King David, peace be upon him, said (Psalm 66:20), "blessed is God for not taking away God's prayer and kindness from me." Meaning that if there is prayer within him, then God will shine kindness upon him. For before God desire to bring salvation a person does not even acknowledge their own lack, and they are not at all aware what they are lacking. But when God desire to redeem them, God shows a person their lack, and the person therefore becomes aware that all of the outgrowths of their lacking derive from this primary root. And God sends the person the strength to pray and scream to God, and they begin to make a lot of noise about this to God - and then God shines kindness upon them.

[ויהי בימים הרבים ההם AND IT CAME TO PASS DURING THOSE MANY DAYS during which Moses was sojourning in Midian, וימת מלך מצרים THAT THE KING OF EGYPT DIED, and the Israelites felt the need of help; and therefore ומשה היה רעה “And Moses fed the flock” and help came through him. For this reason these chapters are placed in juxtaposition].

AND IT CAME TO PASS IN THE COURSE OF THOSE MANY DAYS. Scripture uses the expression “in those days” or “on that day” only when alluding to a brief current event, but of a past event it says, and it came to pass afterward.¹⁰⁹As in Judges 16:4. In that case then, it should have said here, “and it came to pass afterward that the king of Egypt died.” It is for this reason that our Rabbis have said¹¹⁰Shemoth Rabbah 1:40. that because they were days of suffering [for Israel], Scripture calls them “many” although alluding to a brief current event.¹¹¹In other words, Scripture is really referring here to a specific current event, namely, the death of the king, and yet it uses the term “many” — and it came to pass in the course of those ‘many’ days — instead of saying “in those days.” To a suffering people — as Israel was at that time — even a brief period appeared as a long one. So also have the Rabbis said¹¹²Shemoth Rabbah 1:32. in connection with the above-mentioned verse, And it came to pass in those days when Moses was grown up,¹¹³Above, Verse 11. that his growth was unnatural, meaning, sudden and fast.¹¹⁴Ramban is thus confirming what he stated above, i.e., that the Scriptural expression in those days alludes to a brief current event. Hence when it says in the case of Moses’ growth, and it was in those days and Moses was grown up, the Rabbis interpreted it to mean that his growth was brief and sudden. Under all circumstances, the period [covered in the verses], and the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel cried out and their cry came up unto G-d, was [altogether] a brief period of time.
However, we might also explain that in the course of those many days refers to the days of suffering and hard labor which were exceedingly many, as the exile became very prolonged. It was this [long period of suffering and hard labor] which caused them to cry out, and their cry came up unto G-d. Similarly, the verse, And it came to pass after many days, the word of the Eternal came to Elijah, in the third year,¹¹⁵I Kings 18:1. means that there were many days [of famine] and afterwards this event, [related there in the Book of Kings], occurred.
In my opinion, the purport of this verse, [And it came to pass in the course of those many days], is to allude to those days when Moses was a fugitive from Pharaoh. Indeed he was but a youth when he fled, as the verse said, And when Moses was grown up he went out unto his brethren,¹¹³Above, Verse 11. suggesting that immediately when he grew up and became self-conscious and they told him that he was a Jew, he longed to see the burdens, toils and oppressions of his brethren. On that [first] day on which he went out, he smote the Egyptian, and on the second day, they denounced him [to the authorities] and he fled. He was thus at that time approximately twelve years of age, as our Sages have mentioned,¹¹⁶Shemoth Rabbah 5:1. and at any rate not twenty,¹¹⁷Ibid., 1:32. and when he stood before Pharaoh he was eighty years old.¹¹⁸Further, 7:7. In that case, he was a fugitive from Pharaoh for about sixty years, [and it is with reference to those sixty years that Scripture speaks of those ‘many’ days].
It is likely that at the end of that period, Moses came to Midian and married Zipporah, since when this word [of G-d that he return to Egypt] came to him, he had begotten of her only his firstborn son Gershom¹¹⁹Verse 22. [while Eliezer, his second son, was born during his journey to Egypt].¹²⁰See Rashi further, 4:24. This proves that Moses’ arrival and marriage in Midian were towards the end of his sixty-year absence from Egypt.
Scripture however mentions nothing of [the entire period of] his flight excepting, And he dwelt in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well,¹²¹Verse 15. since nothing happened to him in those other days which Scripture found necessary to relate. And it is logical. He who flees from the reach of a government does not tarry in a settled place or its environs. Instead, he flees from place to place in remote regions. Thus he stayed away for a long time, hiding himself and feigning to be a stranger, going about from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people,¹²²Psalms 105:13. and at the end of that time he came to Midian and stayed there. This is the meaning of the verse, And he dwelt in the land of Midian.¹²¹Verse 15. It would have been fitting for Scripture to say, “and he went to the land of Midian,” but instead it implies that he did not dwell in any city until the end [of the period], when he came to the land of Midian and there he dwelt.
Now due to the fact that Scripture mentions his flight from Pharaoh and his dwelling in Midian, and it immediately relates that he was made to return to Egypt by command of the Holy One, blessed be He, it alludes to this entire period by saying, And it came to pass in the course of those many days, meaning [those days] when Moses fled from before Pharaoh and during part of which time he stayed in Midian. At the end [of that period], the king of Egypt died, and the Divine Revelation concerning it came to Moses and he was returned to Egypt and redeemed the children of Israel. It is for this reason that Scripture does not say, “and it came to pass after many days,” for the purport of that would have been that [the death of the king of Egypt] occurred long after Moses dwelt in Midian. But that is not so, for the expression those many days refers to all that is related above.

ויהי בימים הרבים ההם, after Moses had slain the Egyptian and Pharaoh had tried to execute him for murder, and Moses had fled from his presence and remained in hiding until he was 80 years of age when G’d decided to speak with him, the King of Egypt who had tried to kill him died (only now). The Children of Israel had merely groaned under his persecution all this time. G’d now saw their suffering, while Moses during all that time had been a shepherd of his father-in-law’s flocks. At that time G’d appeared to Moses and commanded him to return to Egypt (3,1). Moses was unwilling to return to Egypt as he was still afraid of criminal proceedings against him, until G’d told him (4,19) that there was no cause for this, as all the people who wanted him dead had already died themselves. This is why the Torah reports here וימת מלך מצרים, so that we would understand what 4,19 is all about. The entire literary construction is similar to Genesis 9,18 וחם הוא אבי כנען. [verses 19-21 after that are in parenthesis before the Torah continues about Cham. Ed]

And the children of Yisrael sighed from the labour and cried out. It's a bit difficult to mix them, and to teach "they sighed and cried out from the labour". It seems that the sighing was internal and because of the labour; however, the crying out wasn't dependent on the labour. For they thought that they were worthy of redemption due to their deeds, even without this harsh labour - however, in the eyes of God they were wicked and sinners and unworthy of redemption except due to their labour, as it is written "For I am very angry with the nations... for I was a little angry, but they helped forwards the evil" (Zechariah 1:15). For this reason it's said "their cry for help... went up to God, because of the work" (Shemot 2:23) - that "they helped forwards the evil", as is said.

בימים הרבים ההם, from the day Moses had fled from Egypt in his youth until Gershom had been born when he was close to 80 years of age. We are assuming that Eliezer was not much younger, and we know that he was only born when Moses was already on his way back to Egypt. We know that that Moses was 80 years of age t that time.

מן העבודה, on account of the bondage. They did not appeal to G'd to save them from their situation; they merely groaned, something which people who feel that their burdens are too great are wont to do out of a sense of helplessness. The Torah informs us that although this outcry was not a direct appeal to G'd for help, it did reach the ears of G'd because their situation was indeed intolerable; this is why the Torah adds that the reason G'd responded was מן העבודה, their bondage was too intolerable. However, G'd did not respond to a prayer but to a general groaning, i.e. נעקתם (verse 24).

ויהי בימים הרבים ההם, “it happened during these many years, etc.” Our sages explain that the reason these years are described as “many,” is the fact that all these years were filled with pain for the Israelites. They therefore appeared as lasting far longer than if they had been years filled with happy events. Nachmanides writes that it is not customary to refer to years as ימים ההם, “those years,” or יום ההוא, “that day,” unless one wants to pinpoint a certain time during which an event not yet discussed took place. When the event in question is already history, the Torah customarily introduces such a narrative with the words ויהי אחרי וגו', “it was after a certain event, etc.” Accordingly, we would have expected the Torah, at this juncture, to write: ויהי אחרי הימים הרבים ההם וימת מלך מצרים, “it happened after those many years that the King of Egypt died, etc.” By writing בימים ההם, “during those years,” the Torah alluded to the nature of these years, i.e. that they represented a most painful period to the Israelites, and that when the king died, they used the opportunity to cry out to G’d on account of their sorry condition, and that G’d immediately responded to their outcry. The period described was not really so long in astronomical terms. We can therefore explain, in conjunction with the description of Moses’ growing up in the palace Pharaoh, until he went out and for the first time met his brethren, as a result of which he smote an Egyptian, that he was possibly 12 years of age but certainly not over twenty, so that he spent 60 years or more in exile, seeing that the Torah describes him as being 80 years of age when he first approached Pharaoh. (Exodus 7,7) We may assume that he came to Midian only toward the end of those 60 years. We know that when G’d first appeared to him he had only fathered Gershom, as when the angel tried to kill him for failing to have circumcised his son Eliezer, the latter could only just have been born. Seeing that according to the narrative, the reader may form the impression that Moses’ slaying the Egyptian, finding refuge in Midian, marrying Tzipporah, and encountering the burning bush, and his subsequent return to Egypt, that all these events occurred with practically no interval between them. The Torah therefore mentions that many years had passed between different events reported here as if they occurred successively within a short time capsule. The “long” period of which the Torah speaks here referred to time already elapsed. From the time the King of Egypt died, matters moved at a much faster pace.

He was stricken with leprosy . . . If the verse means that he actually died, why did B’nei Yisrael cry? Perhaps the king to reign after Pharaoh will be benevolent. Perforce we must conclude that he was stricken with leprosy, and a leper is considered as dead (Nedarim 64b).

The Torah mentions the king’s death so that Moses would hear about it, seeing that the king had been seeking to execute Moses, as we know from verse 16 וישמע פרעה את הדבר ויבקש להרוג את משה, “Pharaoh heard about the matter, and he tried to kill Moses.” In chapter 4,19 G’d Himself told Moses that all the people who had an interest in seeing him killed had already died.

V. 23. בימים הרבים ההם, in diesen vielen Jahren, die seit Mosche Flucht bis zu den so eben erzählten Begebenheiten verstrichen waren. (Siehe zu V. 15.) Der Zusammenhang, in welchem der Tod des Königs mit dem Aufseufzen von der Knechtschaft steht, ist, dünkt uns, klar. So lange die Urheber einer so großen staatlichen Gewalttat, wie die Knechtung eines ganzen freien Volksstammes, leben, ist Hoffnung da, es werde endlich das Gewissen erwachen und eine Änderung des auf Gewalt gebauten Unrechts herbeiführen. Geht aber einmal die, wenn auch aus schreiendstem Unrecht erwachsene Institution mit der Staatsgewalt in andere Hände über, die sich des Ursprungs derselben nicht bewußt sind, und denen sie ein überkommenes Staatsregal ist, so wird sie als überkommene Einrichtung geheiligt, durch Herkommen sanktioniert, die neue Regierung hält sich gar nicht berechtigt, an dem von den Vorfahren Überkommenen zu rütteln, setzt ohne weiteres die Legalität alles Vorgefundenen voraus, und die mit macchiavellistischer Gewalt geknechteten Freien sind zum ewigen Pariastande verdammt. Das ist der Fluch der Verjährung in der Entwicklung der Staaten. Die Vergangenheit bestellt einen Acker mit Blut und Tränen, und die Gegenwart erntet ihre Ernten in vollendeter Gewissensruhe von dem Boden des kalt accompli und hat keine Ahnung mehr von dem Fluche, der an jeder Ähre hängt, die sie zum frohen Genusse heimträgt. — So lange der König von Mizrajim lebte, hofften Israels Söhne auf eine mögliche Änderung ihres Loses. Als der König von Mizrajim starb, sahen sie sich für ewig zu Sklaven verdammt und seufzten auf von diesem Sklavenlose. — אנח .ויאנחו verwandt mit אנה: von einer Persönlichkeit ausgehen, daher אני und אנחנו oder אנו (wo somit אנה und אנח zusammenfällt): die Person, von welcher etwas ausgeht, die erste Person. אַנֵה: etwas von sich ausgehen lassen, etwas fügen, geschehen lassen. הֵאָנַח, das Echo eines in seiner Persönlichkeit tief Getroffenen: seufzen (vergl. נהיתה oben V. 21) זעק: laut aufschreien (siehe Bereschit 17, 17). שוע ,שועתם wie השע ממני וגו׳ ,שעה: sich jemandem zuwenden, שַוֵעַ jemanden aufrufen, sich uns zuzuwenden. Wiederholt heißt es, dass ihr Seufzen und ihr Aufruf der göttlichen Gerechtigkeit מן העבדה war. Ihr Seufzen und Hilferuf galt nicht ihren Lasten und Mühen, sie waren kräftiger Natur, konnten viel ertragen, und diese Behandlung konnte sich ändern. Allein über עבדתם, über dies Sklaventum, zu welchem sie sich nun mit dem Tode des Königs für immer verdammt sahen, darüber schrieen sie. Über das an ihnen verübte Unrecht riefen sie Gott, den Richter, an.

וימת מלך מצרים, the King of Egypt died;” as long as that king had been alive, the Hebrews had been hoping and praying all the time that he would die soon. They hoped against hope that his anti-Hebrew decrees would die with him. When none of his decrees was annulled even after his death, they sighed; they realised that there was no relief in sight and for the first time in 86 years they turned to their G–d in prayer. An alternate interpretation: they felt that their potential leader Moses would now be able to return to Egypt without having to fear an indictment. G–d also used this opportunity of their prayer to reveal Himself to Moses at the bottom of Mount Sinai, at the burning bush, setting in motion the process of their redemption.

ויהי בימים הרבים ההם, “It was during these many years, etc;” the reference is to the 400 years that G-d had told Avraham that it would take before His promise to him that his descendants would be redeemed from the land in which they would be slaves would be fulfilled. The Jewish people in Egypt now felt that the time for them to be redeemed had arrived.

וימת מלך מצרים THE KING OF EGYPT DIED — he became stricken with leprosy (and therefore may be spoken of as dead; cf. Numbers 12:12), and he used to slaughter Israelitish children and bathe in their blood as a cure for his disease (cf. Targum Jonathan and Exodus Rabbah 1:34).

AND THE KING OF EGYPT DIED, AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL SIGHED BY REASON OF THE BONDAGE. “He was stricken with leprosy [and hence may be considered as dead], and he was wont to slaughter Israelitic babes and bathe in their blood.” Thus the words of Rashi. This is a Midrash of the Sages.¹²³Shemoth Rabbah 1:41.
In line with the plain meaning of Scripture, [it is to be explained that] the custom of all subjects of a wicked tyrant is to hope for and look forward to the day of his death. But when the Israelites saw that the king died, they wailed bitterly lest a godless man may come to reign,¹²⁴Job 34:30. who will be more wicked than the preceding king. They said, Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost,¹²⁵Ezekiel 37:11. and thus they chose death rather than life.¹²⁶See Jeremiah 8:3. This is the sense of the word na’akatham (their groaning),¹²⁷Verse 24. for they groaned with the groanings of a mortally-wounded man.¹²⁸Ezekiel 30:24.

One can also explain that there were two groups in Yisrael. The good amongst them cried out and prayed to God to save them from the weight of the labour, but the lesser among them didn't pray to God - they cried out like merchants to God, and regarding them it says cried out, and for this reason it didn't combine them together, since it says And the children of Yisrael sighed from the labour - these are the good ones, who prayed to God, for the principal of prayer is in the heart. And cried out - speaks of the lesser ones, who cried out like merchants. For this reason it says "And their call for help ascended to God" (ibid.) - from the groups, those who called for help to God from the labour, their calls for help ascended, but not from the crying group who did not pray.

וימת מלך מצרים, the same Pharaoh who had been pursuing Moses wanting to execute him. This is why he called his second son Eliezer, as then he realised that he had finally been saved by G’d from the sword of Pharaoh.

וימת מלך מצרים, “the King of Egypt died.” According to our sages the King did not actually die, but was smitten with a form of leprosy. Jewish children were slaughtered as their blood was supposedly capable of alleviating his condition. According to the plain meaning of the text, normally, when a king who ruled harshly dies, the survivors hope that the new king would treat his subjects more kindly. In this instance, the Israelites found out that the new king was even worse than the old one so that they turned to G’d in prayer, begging for Divine intervention on their behalf. Some commentators say that what happened is that contrary to accepted norms, when the king dies the prisoners are given an amnesty, in this case the Egyptian prisoners did indeed get a pardon, but no Jewish slaves were allowed to return to their homes. This finally triggered the Jewish people turning to G’d in prayer.

The Torah may also teach us something that David referred to in Psalms 118,5, where he speaks about מן המצר קראתי קה, "I have called upon the Lord out of distress, etc." One of the prayers to which G'd responds is the one that is prompted by the distress a person finds himself in. We find that Jonah prayed from similar motivations (Jonah 2,3) when he said: "I called out because I am in distress." The Torah testifies that G'd responded to the distress the people found themselves in. According to our analysis the word שעוה means prayer, as well as an outcry prompted by pain; this is hinted at by the Torah's use of the words מן העבודה ויזעקו; the Torah is quite correct therefore when it introduces G'd's response as being in response to שועתם instead of זעקתם. The Torah wanted to point out that the outcry of the children of Israel consisted of two elements, i.e. both זעקה and שעוה.

ויאנחו בני ישראל; our sages in Berachot 58 say that אנחה is the kind of sigh which breaks half a person’s body. They quote Ezekiel 21,11 as proof for their statement. We read there: בן אדם האנח בשברון מתנים, “Now you, Ben Adam, groan with breaking loins, etc. The loins are half way from one’s feet to one’s head.

הרבים ההם, “these many.” When times are bad (for the people under discussion) then the expression for “many” used in the Torah is רבים. When times are good, even for a long period, they are referred to as מעטים, “few.” The reason is that as soon as the good times are over, the people who have enjoyed them consider them as having been too short.

And some say that this "crying out" was that they said openly to the faces of the Egyptians that it was for the death of the king, as though they mourned him. But the "sighing" was internal, from the labour, for out of fear they couldn't say in front of the Egyptians that they were crying out from labour. And we don't mix them this way.

ויזעקו, they cried out of frustration about their miserable fate and their enslavement. A similar expression for venting such feelings of frustration occurs in Isaiah 14,31הלילי שער זעקי העיר, “Howl, o gate! Cry out, o city!”

The stress on the words מן העבודה may indicate that the prayer/outcry rose up to G'd without the help of any intermediary [such as the accompanying prayer of the patriarchs Ed.] because it was due to the intolerable burden of their workload and working conditions.

ויזעקו ותעל שועתם, they cried out, and their outcry rose (to heaven). The outcry by the Israelites reported here (after 86 years of oppression) proves that their suffering had reached new heights. We find such a reaction to excessive oppression in Job 35,9 “because of contention the oppressed cry out; They shout because of the power of the great.” [in that paragraph, alas, the complaint has no address, no one addresses the only One Who can help. Ed.]

וימת מלך מצרים, “the King of Egypt died.” G-d advanced the time of his death. As soon as that king had died, G-d appeared to Moses at the thorn bush and told Moses to go back to Egypt. Seeing that all the people who had been interested in killing him or seeing him killed had died already, (4,19) G-d did not want Moses to be in a position of refusing the leadership of the Jewish people due to fears for his personal safety. He had already found sufficient arguments to decline G-d’s request as we will read shortly, without raising the subject of his personal fear. He went as far as telling G-d to look for someone else. (4,13)

ותעל שועתם אל האלוקים מן העובדה. G’d’s response was not due to their repenting and praying, but He simply was angry over the excessive cruelty with which the Egyptians treated the Jewish people This is why He added (when He spoke to Moses in 3,9) וגם ראיתי את הלחץ אשר מצרים לוחצים אותם, “and I have also seen the pressure that the Egyptians keep imposing on them. [perhaps the reason why our author does not consider the Jews’ repentance and prayer being a factor is the fact that the attribute with which G’d responded was still the attribute of Justice, אלוקים and not the attribute Hashem as he explained to Moses in 3,9 Ed.]

ויאנחו בני ישראל, “the Children of Israel were groaning;” they were well aware that their G-d had decreed a period of 400 years of mixed bondage and being treated as aliens at the time He concluded the covenant of the pieces with Avraham in Genesis chapter 15. They had mistakenly thought that the period of 400 years commenced from the day that covenant had come into force. They did not know that if they had paid close attention to the wording of that covenant, they would have realised that the countdown could not have started until the day Yitzchok was born, as the promise was not to him (Avraham) but to Avraham’s descendants (Compare Genesis 15,4). A different interpretation of the reason why the Israelites are described as groaning at this point: As long as the old king had been alive, they had hoped that with his death the harsh decrees against them would “die” also because the custom was that a new king would free all prisoners. But now the decree of their enslavement was not cancelled. When they found out that they had hoped in vain, they groaned and prayed to G-d, as they were on the verge of giving up hope. [This was the first time in 86 years that they prayed to G-d. Ed.]