Even though the Torah enumerated Jacob’s sons by name when they came into Egypt, it does so again here, when they die, in order to indicate how dear they were to God: These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt; each man and his household came with Jacob:

Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,

Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin,

Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.

Similarly, although the Torah has already told us that Jacob’s immediate descendants numbered 70, it repeats this fact here in order to contrast their small number at the beginning of their stay in Egypt with their prolific growth while they were there: All of Jacob’s descendants then numbered 70, including Joseph, who, although he was living in Egypt, was not corrupted by it and therefore was still a true son of Jacob.

Joseph and all his brothers died, as did all of that generation, the first generation living in Egypt. The last son of Jacob to die was Levi, in the year 2332, at the age of 137. Once all of Jacob’s sons had died, the Jews (except for the tribe of Levi) began to neglect their traditions, abandoning circumcision and eventually serving idols.

The Israelites were unnaturally fertile and prolific; they increased and became exceedingly strong. The women never miscarried, and gave birth regularly to sextuplets, none of whom died in infancy. Before long, the land was filled with them.

At this time, a new king, who did not know Joseph, arose over Egypt. According to one opinion, this was in fact a new Pharaoh; others say that this was the same Pharaoh, but that he acted as if he had never heard of Joseph.

He said to his people, “Look: the people, the Israelites, are becoming more numerous and stronger than us.

Let us deal cleverly with them and their God – who is clearly involved in their unnatural fertility – lest they increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies, fight us, and go up out of the land, or even worse, take over the country and force us to go up out of the land.”

They appointed draft officers over them in order to afflict them with the chores they imposed on them. The Egyptians appointed Egyptian taskmasters and Israelite foremen to oversee the work. The taskmasters would wake up the Jews to work before sunrise. Thus, the Jews built up the existing cities of Pitom and Ra’amseis, making them fit to serve as storage cities for Pharaoh.

But the more the Egyptians afflicted them, the more God blessed the Israelites, so they increased and spread, and the Egyptians were both disgusted and vexed over the increase of the Israelites. This first phase of conscripted labor lasted about 30 years, from some time after the year 2332 until 2362.

Seeing that this degree of slavery did not curb the Israelites’ proliferation, the Egyptians enslaved the Israelites with backbreaking, i.e., demoralizing and unusual labor.

They embittered their lives with hard labor – making them work with mortar and bricks – as well as with all kinds of work in the field. All the work they subjected them to was imposed with crushing harshness.

The king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom, Amram’s wife Yocheved, was called Shifrah, and the other, their five- or six-year-old daughter Miriam, was called Pu’ah.

He said to them, “When you deliver the Hebrew women, look at the birthstool. If it is a boy, kill him; if it is a girl, let her live.”

But the midwives feared God, and they did not do as the king of Egypt had told them; on the contrary, they provided the newborns with food and water and thus helped the boys live.

The king of Egypt summoned the midwives and demanded of them, “Why have you done this and kept the boys alive?”

The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women. They are skilled in giving birth. They are like animals, who do not need midwives. Even if we would try to assist them, it wouldn’t work: before the midwife would even get to them they would have already given birth.”

In reward for their acts, God dealt kindly with the midwives, as is stated in the next verse: He made them progenitors of the royal and priestly dynasties. Because the midwives foiled Pharaoh’s plan, the people continued to increase and grew very strong.

Because the midwives feared God, He granted them dynasties.

Pharaoh then gave orders to all his people: “You must cast every boy who is born into the Nile, but you must make every girl – including the Israelite girls – live as Egyptians.”

The Torah now provides the details of Moses’ birth. As stated above, a certain Levite man, i.e., Amram, the grandson of Levi, went and re-married Yocheved, who was Levi’s daughter. Even though she was 130 years old at this time, she miraculously regained her youthfulness when Amram remarried her.

The woman Yocheved conceived as soon as she and Amram remarried, and on 7 Adar 2368, she gave birth to a son prematurely, in the beginning of her seventh month. The Jews knew that God had promised to redeem them, and it was reasonable to assume that their redeemer would be born into a family of stature such as Amram’s. Therefore, seeing that the room miraculously became filled with light when he was born, Yocheved understood how good he was, i.e., she suspected that he was destined for this greatness. She therefore made extra efforts to save him from the Egyptians. First, she kept him hidden for three months. She was able to do this because the Egyptians came to inspect her home only when nine months had passed since her remarriage.

Then, when she could no longer hide him, she got him a wicker basket and caulked it with clay inside and pitch outside. She used clay to caulk the inside since pitch has a foul smell, and she did not want anything to corrupt or damage her child’s sensibilities. She placed the child in the basket, and placed it among the rushes near the bank of the Nile River. Yocheved placed the basket in the river so the Egyptian astrologers would sense this and think that their prophecy that the Jews’ redeemer would meet his end through water had been fulfilled. This indeed occurred, and Pharaoh, thinking that he had accomplished his purpose, cancelled his decree to throw all baby boys into the river.

The baby’s sister, Miriam, stationed herself at a distance to see what would become of him.

Just then, Pharaoh’s daughter Bityah – who had decided to renounce idolatry – went down to bathe, i.e., ritually immerse herself in (lit., “on” or “concerning”) the Nile, in order to spiritually cleanse herself of idolatry (including Nile-worship). Bityah saw the basket and told her attendant maidens that she was going to see what it was. But her ladies-in-waiting opposed her. They said, “This is probably a Jewish baby, placed here by his mother in order to save him. How can you show any interest in its welfare? Should not at least the princess obey the king’s decrees?” God therefore killed them; they walked to their deaths because of their conduct along the Nile’s edge. But God spared one lady-in-waiting, because it is not befitting for a princess to go about unescorted. Bityah saw the basket among the rushes, and sent her one remaining maidservant, and she took it. Alternatively, Bityah stretched out her arm, which then miraculously became long enough to reach the basket, and thus took the baby herself.

Opening the basket, she saw the baby. Although the baby looked like a baby, he was crying with the voice of a mature boy. Because he was crying, she had pity on him. She sensed God’s presence surrounding the baby, so she said, “This is indeed one of the Hebrew children.” Bityah tried to use Egyptian wet-nurses to suckle the baby, but he refused. Because his mouth was destined to converse directly with God, God did not allow him to nurse from a pagan.

Seeing that her brother would not nurse from an Egyptian, his sister, Miriam, who had been following Bityah, came forth and said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Should I go and call for you a Hebrew wet-nurse to nurse the child for you?” Although Bityah would have eventually discerned why the baby was not suckling, Miriam wanted to minimize his suffering.

Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So Miriam, although she was only seven, miraculously ran as fast as a mature girl – or even a mature boy – and called the child’s mother.

Pharaoh’s daughter said to Yocheved, “Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay your fee.” When she said “take this child,” she used a word that can also mean “here is that which is yours,” unknowingly acknowledging that the child was Yocheved’s. So the woman took the child and nursed him.

Yocheved did not return the child to Bityah when she weaned him, but managed to keep him with her for quite a few years afterwards. She procrastinated by telling her that the child had grown attached to her and would be traumatized by having to leave her while young, and so forth. Thus, he grew up aware of his nationality and loyal to the traditions of his people. But when the child grew up to the age of 12 or so, and had attained an appreciable height, so that it became impossible to procrastinate any longer, Yocheved brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became like a son to her. She was very fond of him. When she took the baby out of the water, she named him Moses [Moshe – “to draw out”], “for – she said – I drew him out of the water.”

In those days, the precocious Moses was elevated by Pharaoh to the position of overseer of his personal household. Bityah was very fond of Moses and influenced her father to appoint him to this position. Once, he went out to his brethren and observed their suffering. Some time before this, an Egyptian taskmaster, after having awakened a certain Jew before daylight to go to work, had slipped into the Jew’s house and consorted with his wife (whose nickname was Shelomit bat Dibri), who thought that the taskmaster was her husband. The Jew discovered what had happened; when the taskmaster realized that the Jew knew what he had done, he began to beat him all day. Moses saw this Egyptian taskmaster striking this fellow Hebrew of his.

Moses investigated what was happening: he turned this way and discovered that this Egyptian was beating the Jew all day; and he turned that way and discovered that he was consorting with his wife. He perceived prophetically that there was no one among the taskmaster’s descendants destined to convert to Judaism, so he decided to kill him. He turned this way and that and saw that there was no one observing him, so he struck down the Egyptian by pronouncing God’s Name, and hid him in the sand.

But two Jews had indeed seen Moses kill the Egyptian. When Moses went out the next day to see his brethren, he saw these very same two Hebrew men, Dathan and Aviram, quarreling. One of them had raised his hand to hit the other. Moses said to this wicked person, “Why are you going to strike your fellow, even if he is as wicked as you are?”

The Hebrew man retorted, “Who appointed you as a leader and judge over us? You are just a boy! Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?!” Frightened, Moses concluded, “So the fact that I killed the Egyptian is known! Pharaoh will hear about it and seek to execute me!” Besides this, however, Moses was also afraid that his brethren would not be found worthy of being redeemed, inasmuch as they were quarrelsome and willing to slander each other. He said, “so the reason for what I had wondered – why the Jews, of all people, have been made to suffer such severe bondage – is now known.”

Pharaoh heard about the incident, for Dathan and Aviram informed on Moses. Pharaoh therefore sought to kill Moses. Moses fled from Pharaoh’s presence and eventually settled in Midian. Thinking it was time to get married, he sat down near a well, following the example of his ancestor Jacob, who found his wife at a well.

Now Jether, Pharaoh’s former advisor, had become the ruler of Midian after he fled from Pharaoh. When he realized the folly of idolatry, he renounced the idolatrous religion of Midian. Because of this, the Midianites deposed him and ostracized him and his family. He had seven daughters and no sons. Since the Midianites had ostracized him, he could not hire anyone to tend his flocks, so he had to send his daughters to do so. They came to this well, drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flocks,

but shepherds came and drove them away because their family had been ostracized. Moses arose and rescued them, and then watered their flocks. As soon as he began drawing water from the well, the water level miraculously rose on its own.

When they came home to their father Jether – who was also known as Re’u’el (“friend of God”) because he had renounced idolatry – he asked, “How is it that you came home so early today?”

They replied, “An Egyptian man rescued us from the hands of the shepherds. He also drew water for us, but only once; after that, the water ascended out of the well by itself until it had watered all the flocks.” Jether, having studied the traditions of the Jewish people in his search for religious truth, knew that water had ascended out of the well for Jacob and Rachel. He thus recognized Moses as one of their people, a monotheistic Israelite, whom he could take for a son-in-law.

He therefore asked his daughters, “So where is he? Why did you leave the man there? Call him, and let him have something to eat,” meaning, “perhaps he will marry one of you” (just as the Torah euphemistically refers to Potiphar’s wife as “the bread he eats”).

Moses consented to stay with the man, but when Moses told Jether about his adventures in Ethiopia, he suspected him of lying, and imprisoned him. After 10 years, when Moses was 77, Jether released him from prison and gave Moses his daughter Zipporah as a wife. He made Moses tend his sheep and swear that he would not leave Midian without his permission.

When Zipporah gave birth to a son, Moses named him Gershom [ geir sham – “a stranger there”], “because” – he said – “I have been a stranger in an alien land.”

It was during those many years in which Moses lived in Midian that the king of Egypt figuratively died – i.e., he contracted leprosy, which is allegorically compared to death. In an attempt to alleviate his suffering, he bathed in the blood of Israelite children whom he had slaughtered for this purpose. The Israelites moaned on account of the suffering they endured from this program of curative treatment and cried out to God, praying for deliverance. The pleas that sprang from the people suffering from this program rose up before God.

God heard their anguished groan, and God recalled His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

God looked upon the Israelites, and God took note. Having decided that it was time for them to be redeemed, God had to select a redeemer. The natural choice was the eldest son of Amram, Aaron. God appeared to Aaron and told him to prophesy to the Israelites, preparing them for redemption by saying, “Let everyone discard all the idols in his sight, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am God, your God.” But Aaron was not successful in this mission; he could not convince the people to sever their ties to Egyptian culture.

So God examined the behavior of Moses, who was tending the flocks of his father-in-law Jether, who would later be known as Jethro, the deposed ruler of Midian, and concluded that he would be suitable as a redeemer. Moses typically guided the flock far into the desert so that they would not graze in other people’s property, and, on one occasion, came to Mount Sinai, the mountain where God would later give the Israelites the Torah; this mountain was also known as Mount Horeb.

An angel of GOD appeared to him in the heart of a blazing fire from the midst of a thorn bush. By revealing Himself in a prickly thorn bush, God intimated to Moses that He felt the Israelites’ pain and suffering. Moses saw that although the bush was on fire, the bush was not being consumed.

Moses said, “Let me turn away from what I am doing here in order to go there and see this remarkable sight. Why doesn’t the bush burn?”

GOD saw that he had turned aside to look. God called to him from the midst of the bush, saying, “Moses, Moses!” He replied, “Here I am.”

God said, “Come no nearer. Remove your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”

After Moses did this, God said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Moses hid his face, since he was afraid to look at God.

GOD said, “I have indeed seen the affliction of My people in Egypt. I have heard their outcry caused by their taskmasters, for I am aware of their pains.

I have come down to rescue them from the hands of the Egyptians, and to take them up from that land to a good and ample land, to a land flowing with goats’ milk and date- and fig-honey, the region of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Even though I also promised the territory of the Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites to Abraham, you will not inherit these at this time.” God did not mention the Girgashites in this context because their territory was not distinguished as “flowing with milk and honey.”

“And now, the outcry of the Israelites has indeed reached Me, and I have also seen the oppression to which the Egyptians are subjecting them.

Therefore, now go. I will send you to Pharaoh to convince him to release the people, and your words will be effective. You will take My people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”

Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh? I am just a shepherd now, and I do not possess the social status required in order to address a king. And moreover, by what merit of theirs can I take the Israelites out of Egypt? This would require a miracle, and in my perception they are not worthy of such a miracle. I have seen that they are quarrelsome and willing to slander each other.”

God replied, “Do not worry about your status, for I will be with you, and you will be speaking on My authority, not your own. You have seen here that the bush performs My mission and is not consumed; this is your sign that you, too, will not be harmed in the mission that I have sent you on. As for your second question, the people are indeed worthy of a miracle, for when you take the people out of Egypt, you will be doing so in order that you all serve God by receiving My Torah on this mountain. It is therefore worth it for Me to perform miracles on their behalf, even if they do not deserve it themselves.”

Moses said to God, “I am going to come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your forefathers has sent me to you.’ When they hear this, they will ask me, ‘What is His Name?’ meaning, ‘What kind of God is it that allows the children of these forefathers – whom He loved so dearly – to suffer in such a terrible exile for so long? Why does He remember us only now that we have suffered so much and thousands upon thousands of our children have been slaughtered?!’ When they ask me this, what should I tell them?”

God said to Moses, “Tell them that I was and will continue to be with them in this exile, just as I will be with them in their later exiles. I do not ignore them during their exiles, but in fact, I feel their suffering and suffer along with them.” Moses said, “It is enough that they have to suffer their present exile; why should I mention future exiles?” God then said, “This is exactly what I meant. Although I am telling you that I will suffer with them in their future exiles, you must say to the Israelites only that ‘The God who says “I will be with them in this exile” sent me to you.’”

God further said to Moses, “And if they ask, ‘If God feels our suffering, why does He allow it to continue?’ so must you say to the Israelites: ‘GOD, the God of mercy, the God of your forefathers – the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob – has sent me to you.’ The exile and all its suffering was in fact an act of My mercy. The fact that this was not apparent was simply because My attribute of mercy, although operative, is hidden in exile, and indeed, in this world in general. Therefore, although “God” – indicating My attribute of mercy – is My proper Name at all times, its pronunciation is to be concealed from the general populace until the final Redemption. Nonetheless, even now, it is possible to call forth My mercy from its concealment, but not directly (by pronouncing the mercy-Name as it is written). Instead, this is how I am to be recalled for all generations until the final Redemption: they should substitute the Name A-d-n-y [“my Lord”] for My proper Name. They can elicit My mercy by pronouncing the mercy-Name as if it were the Name of lordship, acknowledging that I govern the world and have My own, sometimes inscrutable reasons for doing so in the way I choose.”

God continued, “Go and gather the elders, i.e., the leaders, of Israel and say to them, ‘GOD, the God of your forefathers – the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – appeared to me and said, “I have indeed remembered you and what is being done to you in Egypt.

I have declared that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt, to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with goats’ milk and date- and fig-honey.” ’” As above, God did not mention the Girgashites here because their territory was not distinguished as “flowing with milk and honey.”

“They will heed your voice, because it has been passed down to them from their forebears that their redemption will be announced to them with the words ‘I have indeed remembered you.’ Jacob said, ‘God will indeed remember you,’ and Joseph said, ‘God will indeed remember you.’ You and the elders of Israel must then go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘GOD, the God of the Hebrews, appeared to us. So allow us now to make a three-day journey into the wilderness so that we may sacrifice to GOD, our God.’

But I know that the king of Egypt will not allow you to go until I exercise My strong hand and perform miracles.

So I will stretch forth My hand and strike Egypt with all My wondrous deeds that I will perform in its midst, and then he will send you out. It is not because of his own might that he will refuse to let you go, because as soon as I perform the miracles I intend to, he will perforce let you go.

I will make this people favorable in the eyes of the Egyptians, so that when you leave, you will not go empty-handed.

Every woman will request objects of silver and gold, and – most importantly for the journey, both for protection from the elements and because it wears out quickly on a journey – clothing, from her neighbor and from the woman in whose house she lodges. You will place these on your sons and on your daughters, and you will thus empty out Egypt. In this way I will fulfill My promise to Abraham: ‘and afterwards they will go out with great wealth.’”

Moses replied, saying, “But they will not believe me nor heed my voice, for they will say, ‘GOD did not appear to you.’”

Moses was holding a staff made out of sapphire in his hand. GOD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” Moses answered, “It is a staff.” GOD said, “You deserve to be struck with that stick in your hand because you spoke disparagingly of the people.”

God said, “Now, watch what I do with it. Throw it on the ground.” Moses threw it on the ground and it turned into a snake, and Moses fled from it. God turned it into a snake in order to show Moses that he had slandered the Jewish people, just as the primordial snake had spoken ill of God, calling Him jealous.

GOD said to Moses, “Reach out and grasp its tail.” When he reached out and took hold of the snake, it turned into a staff in his hand.

God said, “This is so that they will believe that GOD – the God of their forefathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob – appeared to you.”

GOD gave Moses a further sign, and said to him, “Please put your hand in your bosom,” so he put his hand in his bosom. When he withdrew it, his hand became afflicted with tzara’at (a disease that affects people guilty of slander) white as snow (as is characteristic of this disease).

God said, “Put your hand back in your bosom,” so he put his hand back in his bosom. When he withdrew it from his bosom, it had already resumed the appearance of his skin – unlike the first time, when it became diseased only after he withdrew it from his bosom. God here showed Moses that His goodness is swifter than His punishment, and that the redemption from Egypt would proceed more quickly than the enslavement had.

God said, “If they do not believe you, and will not heed the first miraculous sign – i.e., how your staff became a snake – they will believe the second sign – i.e., how you were punished for slandering them, for they have seen (in incidences involving Pharaoh and Avimelech) how those who seek to harm them are punished with diseases.

And if they do not believe even these two signs, and still do not heed your voice, you must take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water that you take from the Nile will turn into blood when it is poured on the dry ground. This sign will indicate that the first plague that I will bring upon the Egyptians will be directed against their object of worship.”

God tried to convince Moses for a full week to agree to take the people out of Egypt, but Moses was reluctant to assume any position greater than that of his elder brother Aaron. Moses said to GOD, “I beg You, God, I am not a man of words – not from yesterday, nor from the day before, nor from the first time You spoke to Your servant a week ago, for I stammer and am not swift of tongue.”

GOD said to him, “Who gives a man a mouth, as I gave you when I enabled you to defend yourself when you were being tried for killing the Egyptian? Who makes him dumb, as I made Pharaoh so he could not sentence you? or deaf, as I made his ministers so they could not hear his orders against you? or sighted, or blind, as I made the executioners when you fled? Is it not I, GOD?

Now go, and I will be with your mouth and instruct you what to say.”

Hearing this, Moses had to articulate his hesitation explicitly. He said, “I beg You, God! Please send Aaron, whom You usually send! He is older than I, and You have already employed him as a prophet. Besides, since I am not destined to bring them into the Land of Israel, and I will therefore not be their ultimate redeemer, what is the purpose in sending me?”

GOD displayed indignation toward Moses, and said, “Is not your brother Aaron the one whom I had intended to make the Levite, while making you the priest? Because of your obstinacy in assuming leadership, I will make him the priest and you the Levite. In any case, I know that he can certainly speak! As you mentioned, he prophesied to the people when you were in Midian. As for your concern about assuming a position making you greater than him, indeed, he will be setting out to meet you when you set out on your journey to Egypt, and when he sees you, he will not be upset that I chose you to be the redeemer and not him; on the contrary, his heart will be glad.

You must speak to him and put the words in his mouth. I will then be with your mouth and his mouth, and I will instruct you what to do.

He will speak to the people for you. He will thus serve as your mouth, which you insist is not capable of speaking clearly, and you will be his mentor. You will not have to speak directly to the people at all.

And in your hand you must take this staff, with which you will perform the miraculous signs.”

Having accepted God’s mission, Moses left and returned to Midian, to his father-in-law Jether – i.e., Jethro. Moses was proud of his father-in-law and assumed that God chose him for his mission in his father-in-law’s merit. He respectfully asked Jethro’s permission to go, and said to him, “I would like to leave and return to my brethren in Egypt, to see if they are still alive.” Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”

Moses was still afraid that Dathan and Aviram would try to thwart his mission, so GOD said to Moses in Midian, “You can go back to Egypt without worry, for all the men who seek your life, i.e., Dathan and Aviram, have lost their fortunes and therefore all their social status and clout as well, so it is as if they have died.”

Moses took his wife and sons and mounted them on the same donkey that Abraham had saddled when he took Isaac to be bound and on which the Messiah will ride when he is revealed. He prepared to return to Egypt; and Moses took the staff of God in his hand. Having been used for God’s miracles, Moses’ staff now became “the staff of God.”

GOD said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt and stand before Pharaoh, be aware of all the marvels that I will have placed in your hand, and do not hesitate to perform them before Pharaoh. However, I know that because he will refuse to listen to Me, I will make him stubborn and he will not send the people forth.

You must then say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus has GOD said: “Of all My children, the nations of the earth, Israel is My preeminent son, whom I have chosen to fulfill My mission. Furthermore, in the lineage of the patriarchs of My chosen nation, their progenitor, Israel, although born after Esau, purchased the birthright from him and is therefore the firstborn son in this respect, as well.”

I am therefore telling you in God’s Name, “Send forth My son so that he may serve Me. Yet I know that you will refuse to send him forth, so know now that in order to secure Israel’s release from your country, I will kill your firstborn son, and you have no defense against My threat.” ’”

So Moses prepared to go. But Zipporah had just given birth to their second son, Eliezer. Moses knew that if he circumcised his son before they left, they would have to wait to set out until the baby healed. However, since God had not waited for this but had told him to go, he understood that he should not delay in following God’s command, and postponed the circumcision so he could set out immediately. When they were at their lodgings on the way, closer to their destination, and the danger to the infant was not so great, Moses could have safely circumcised him. But instead of circumcising him immediately, he arranged their lodgings first. Although this was only a mere oversight, it indicated that Moses had not absorbed the full gravity of obeying God’s will and was therefore unfit to serve as the people’s leader and example. GOD therefore confronted Moses and sought to put him to death, because he had proven himself unfaithful to his mission in life and thus forfeited his right to live.

He sent an angel in the form of a snake, and this angel swallowed Moses from his head down to his procreative organ, spit him out, and then swallowed him again from his feet up to his procreative organ. Witnessing this, Zipporah understood why God’s angel was about to kill her husband. So Zipporah quickly took a sharp stone and cut off her son’s foreskin herself and threw it down at Moses’ feet. She said to the baby, “You almost caused my bridegroom’s bloodshed!”

The angel released Moses, and Zipporah said, “My bridegroom’s bloodshed was almost occasioned by circumcision.”

GOD said to Aaron in Egypt, “Go into the desert to meet Moses.” He went and met him at Mount Sinai, the mountain where God would later give the Israelites the Torah, and kissed him.

Moses related to Aaron all the words of GOD, who had dispatched him, as well as all the miraculous signs about which He had instructed him. When Aaron saw Moses’ wife and children, he said, “We are already so aggrieved over the fate of our people in Egypt, and you want to add to their ranks?” Moses concurred, and sent his wife and children back to Midian.

So Moses and Aaron went together to Egypt, and they gathered all the elders of the Israelites. Inasmuch as the tribe of Levi was not enslaved, Moses and Aaron could come and go as they pleased.

Aaron related all the words that GOD had told Moses, and performed the miraculous signs in front of the people.

Throughout the long years of exile, the people had held fast to their belief that God would one day redeem them. But as the slavery had become more severe and time wore on, certain elements of the people had become skeptical and had even begun to chide and mock those who still believed. The combination of suffering and scoffing had made the majority almost despair of ever being redeemed. But when Moses and Aaron announced the imminent redemption, the people believed, and when they heard that GOD had taken note of the Israelites and that He had observed their misery, they bowed down and prostrated themselves in thanks.

Although the elders were meant to go with Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh, they were afraid to do so, and therefore slipped away one by one, so that in the end, only Moses and Aaron later went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what GOD, the God of Israel, has said: ‘Send forth My people, so that they may celebrate a festival for Me in the wilderness.’”

Pharaoh replied, “Who is GOD that I should heed His voice and send forth Israel? I do not recognize GOD, nor will I send Israel forth.”

They said, “The God of the Hebrews has appeared to us. Let us therefore make a three-day journey in the wilderness so we can sacrifice to GOD, our God, lest He strike us [i.e., you – they spoke euphemistically out of respect for Pharaoh’s office – ] with a plague or by the sword.”

The king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why are you distracting the people from their daily work? I don’t believe that God revealed Himself to you and told you to take them on vacation. And anyway, they don’t need a vacation: I am not overburdening them with an excessive workload, for they accepted this work upon themselves willingly and have even gotten used to it! No, I think you’ve come here with these stories because you’re lazy and are trying to avoid your own personal obligations. And the same probably applies to your whole tribe: you all want to avoid running your home affairs, so you came up with this idea of taking the people into the desert to offer up sacrifices. Well, I advise you to quit being lazy and get back to your own chores!”

Pharaoh thought, “If the Levites are so lazy that they consider their daily chores an oppressive burden, the same is probably true of the people as a whole.” Pharaoh continued, “The people of the land are now numerous, and you would have them cease from their work, which they consider not just normal work but hard labor! You want them to take a vacation for three whole days? This will cause us a great loss in productivity!”

Pharaoh thought further, “If the people are so lazy and consider their daily workload so burdensome, they are probably not working up to par. We have to do something to make them work harder.” So, on that day, Pharaoh gave orders to the people’s Egyptian taskmasters and Israelite foremen, as follows:

“You must no longer provide the people with straw for making bricks as you did previously; let them go and gather their own straw.

However, you must impose upon them the same quota of bricks as they met previously. Do not reduce it. For they are evidently lazy; that is why they are crying out and saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God!’

Make the work more strenuous for the men and let them keep at it; let them not speak of vain matters.”

The people’s Egyptian taskmasters and Israelite foremen went out and told the people as follows: “This is what Pharaoh has said: ‘I will no longer give you straw.

Therefore, you must quickly go and get your own straw wherever you can find it, because nothing has been reduced from your usual daily workload – your quota remains unchanged.’” They did not, however, tell them why Pharaoh was no longer providing them with straw.

So the people spread out all over Egypt to gather stubble for straw.

The Egyptian taskmasters pressured them and said, “You must meet your daily quota of work just as before, when straw was provided.”

But the Israelite foremen had pity on the people and did not urge them to meet their quota, so, after a few days, the foremen from among the Israelites, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had appointed over them, were flogged by the taskmasters. The foremen were told by the taskmasters, “Why did you not complete your previous brick-making quota, neither yesterday nor today?”

The Israelites’ foremen came and cried out to Pharaoh, saying, “Why are you doing this to us, your servants?

Your servants are not being given any straw, yet the taskmasters are telling us, ‘Make the same number of bricks as before!’ Your servants are being flogged unjustly, so you see, this policy is a sin for your people!” Out of respect for Pharaoh, the foremen incriminated the taskmasters rather than Pharaoh himself.

He retorted, “Lazy, that’s what you are, lazy! That’s why you are saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to GOD.’

Now go and get to work! You will not be given any straw, but you must deliver your quota of bricks!” The Egyptians now began to enforce the Jews’ quota of bricks so rigidly that if it was not met, they immured their children in the walls in place of bricks.

The Israelites’ foremen saw their fellow Israelites in the painful predicament that resulted from the order they had relayed: “You must not reduce your daily quota of bricks.”

Dathan and Aviram encountered Moses and Aaron standing before them as they were leaving Pharaoh’s presence.

Dathan and Aviram said to them, “May GOD reveal Himself to you and judge you, for you have made us loathsome in the eyes of Pharaoh and his servants, providing them with a sword with which to kill us! Leave us alone and let us serve the Egyptians!”

Moses returned to GOD and said, “God, why have You mistreated this people? Things have gotten so bad that the Egyptians are immuring the Israelites’ children in the walls of the buildings when they do not meet their daily quota of bricks! And why have You sent me?

For ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has made things worse for this people, and still You have not delivered Your people!”

GOD said to Moses, “Are you questioning My justice? The children who are being immured are only those who would have become consummately wicked had they lived, and in this way I am purifying the people of their immoral elements and saving these children from future punishment. If you wish, you may test Me in this: I will allow you to save one of them, and you will see what will happen.” Moses went and saved a child named Micah, who in fact later played a key role in the sin of the Golden Calf. God continued, “Now, because you questioned My justice, you will only see what I will do to Pharaoh: that because of My strong hand he will send them forth, and indeed, he will be so eager to send them forth that he will forcibly drive them out of his land even before they have properly prepared for their journey and are ready to go. But I will not allow you to see Israel’s victory over the kings of Canaan. You should have learned from Abraham: even though I promised him that he would father a nation through Isaac, when I told him to slaughter Isaac he did not question Me, even though My command seemed to contravene My promise.”