Parshat Shemot
by Rabbi Avi Billet
When Moshe and Aharon show up in chapter 5 to speak with Pharaoh, it is easy to see how Pharaoh would be utterly confused by their presence. Here are two people, one of whom is known to be from the tribe of Levi, a tribe which is not enslaved, and the other is his apparent brother, who hasn’t been in Egypt in quite some time, and together they are demanding that the slaves be released for some religious excursion? It could very well be that the Israelites have never even expressed any kind of religious fervor, so the request is further coming out of left field!
Malbim analyzes Pharaoh’s response, which came after the clarification that “we are asking for a 3-day journey into the wilderness,” in which Pharaoh said “Why, Moshe and Aharon, are you interrupting (תפריעו) the people (העם) from their activities? Go back to your own burdens (לסבלותיכם)!” And in the next verse, he tells them they don’t have to go to their burdens any longer, because the עם הארץ is numerous. A strange, and very quick, turnaround!
In the Midrash, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi notes that the tribe of Levi were not subjected to slavery, so Pharaoh was essentially noting, “It is because you guys don’t have slave-labor that you are asking to bring offerings to your god. Now, go to your own burdens [in other words, it's time for you to be enslaved too].”
Malbim notes that there is a distinction between עם and עם הארץ. עם הארץ are the poor and lower tier of Hebrews, and there is a clear difference between their deeds (מעשיו) and other burdens (סבלות). מעשיו refers to different kinds of work which are engaging in mainstream commerce, while working in one’s house and field. סבלות is the very difficult work (slave labor) that is done for the king.
There is also a difference between one who is מפריע and one who is משבית. The משבית is trying to cancel something which is permanent – such as backbreaking slave labor, which is a constant and an ongoing task. The מפריע is someone who is just interrupting other kinds of (non slave labor) tasks, such as the workings of a household.
It was not the case that all of Am Yisrael were engaged in the backbreaking slave labor. The “tax” that Pharaoh ordered in Chapter 1 was that a certain number of people would be engaged in the labor force, a force populated by the עם הארץ. Everyone else was otherwise concerned with their own projects, their own house and field and other business, and they are referred to as עם.
The tribe of Levi, which includes Moshe and Aharon, were not subject to slave-labor. When Moshe came to talk to the people about the coming redemption בודאי לא בא אל עם הארץ שהם העובדים בעבודת פרך – he certainly did not come to the Am HaAretz, those engaged in the most difficult slave labor.
Malbim is suggesting that Moshe and Aharon initially would not have had the opportunity to engage those most heavily enslaved in conversation. Thus when Pharaoh said “Why, Moshe and Aharon…” it is odd that he addressed them by name, when he could have just said “Why [leave out names] are you trying to מפריע the עם from מעשיו?”
Really, he’s suggesting, Pharaoh was asking two questions:
1. Why, Moshe and Aharon…? Meaning, what is it your business? Aren’t you free from labor? Why are you engaging in a fight that is not yours?
2. Why are you even bothering with the needs of the עם - the not enslaved? Why should they be taken away from their daily concerns (מעשיו), for them to waste their time with your shenanigans?
This is why he said “לכו לסבלותיכם” – go engage with your burdens – suggesting that their impertinence will now lead to Moshe, Aharon, and their tribe to now be subject to סבלות, the backbreaking labor from which they had been, until this time, exempt.
However, Pharaoh quickly backtracked this decree when he had the following thought process, when he realized that these two זקנים (elders), Moshe and Aharon, had divine protection. He asked “What will I gain if I put these two elders along with the rest of the עם הארץ (a.k.a. his slaves)? They will cause unrest and they will prevent those people from doing their work which is the labor I need! Yes, they are stopping (מפריעים) the עם from engaging in their מעשים, but the עם הארץ (actual slaves) are far more numerous, and any interruption there will cause havoc among my most important projects that are reliant on slave labor.”
This explains why in the verse which immediately follows the declaration that you should לכו לסבלותיכם, go to your burdens, we see this: וַיֹּ֣אמֶר פַּרְעֹ֔ה הֵן־רַבִּ֥ים עַתָּ֖ה עַ֣ם הָאָ֑רֶץ וְהִשְׁבַּתֶּ֥ם אֹתָ֖ם מִסִּבְלֹתָֽם: “And Pharaoh said, the עם הארץ are too many. You should rest from your סבלות obligations.”
Malbim’s analysis hinges on a couple of words and phrases which seem similar or the same in the text, but whose subtle differences helps us understand far more about Egyptian society at that time, and about Pharaoh’s own personality. He may have sometimes seemed to be impulsive (as some kings tend to be), but he was also very much aware of his economy, how it was working, and how it’s not always a good idea to enslave everyone. There are other areas of society that need people to work, beyond construction.
There need to be farmers, and dairy farmers, and those who tend to households (handymen), and every kind of trade under the sun, in order for a society to flourish. We are well aware (or should at least acknowledge) that the Israelites had their own homes, their own cattle and sheep, their own land, etc. in all their time in Egypt. Aside from paying attention to their growth in Egypt, we need merely think about how when the plagues come, Pharaoh is often checking to see if the Israelites suffered the same fate as his own people – whether their homes were affected by frogs and lice and animals, whether their cattle died, whether their fields were impacted by the hail and locusts, etc.
We see that everyone who is making a contribution to society has a role and a place. While in Egypt that distinction was of who would be a full-on-slave or who would have some other difficult life to navigate in other tasks that were also necessary for the Israelite community to flourish and thrive.
It seems that some people surely had an “easier” life than others, but this is not to suggest that life at this point in Egypt was good for anyone. Those who were not enslaved may have had to see that there was ample food for everyone. They may have had to dig the latrines and outhouses and make sure that ancillary needs were taken care of, because those engaged in slave labor had no time for anything other than their slave labor.
It doesn’t take much to be a contributing member in a society. It simply takes doing tasks that others are not doing, that need to get done. Hopefully we can all always feel that we are doing something that is of benefit not only to ourselves, but to others as well. This is true at the very least in our homes, and certainly in our community and shul, and in any effort we make on behalf of other Jews, whether in our local area, or across the world in Israel.
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