Edited by Nina Litvak & Salvador Litvak, the Accidental Talmudist
The Egyptians ruthlessly imposed upon the Israelites the various labors that they made them perform. Ruthlessly they made life bitter for them with harsh labor at mortar and bricks and with all sorts of tasks in the field.
Ex. 1:13-14
Morah Yehudis Fishman, Community educator
The Midrash tells us: “at first, with mortar and bricks, then, all the work in the field, and finally all their labor.” The Lubavitcher Rebbe explains that a person builds his house, or city, stone by stone to achieve a specific outcome. In a general way, a Jew is meant to use his abilities and resources to build a sacred dwelling through fulfilling commandments and good deeds. In contrast the goal from an Egyptian perspective was to coerce the Jews to use these means which should have been dedicated to holy causes to create structures for ungodliness. Therefore slavery co-opted energy meant to engage the soul and elevate the world, instead using it to create ways to disconnect the world from G-d with structures that further mask the divine presence. However, G-d prefers “happy endings.” The extreme bitterness actually accelerated the timeframe for the Israelites to reach a state of awareness where they could distinguish between denial of G-d and a yearning to follow a divine path, both literally and spiritually. For this reason on Pesach we eat maror, bitter herbs, after the matza. Only after we have tasted the bread of freedom, can we understand the nature of slavery. So too in our current and final exile, the challenges are part of the process that will lead to the ultimate redemption. Hence the verse, “It is a time of trouble for Jacob, and FROM IT, we will be saved.”
Judy Gruen, Author, “Bylines and Blessings.”
It is heartrending to reread of our brutal treatment in Egypt. True, God had intended for us to endure difficult trials meant to toughen us for the road ahead, but the Egyptians went way beyond what was necessary. They gloried in their cruelty and therefore deserved their eventual downfall. These passages reveal a transition from our status in Egypt as “aliens” subjugated to harsh labor into something much worse: degraded slaves forced into backbreaking, mind-numbing work. What prompted this change? In the sentence that precedes these lines, we learn that the Egyptians originally afflicted us because they feared we would overpower them. Their plan to suppress us backfired. The harsher their treatment of us, the faster and more incredibly our population grew. The Egyptians became “disgusted because of the Children of Israel,” and their fear turned to hatred. Previously, Jews were at least building storehouses, something with a purpose. Now, the harshness and bitterness of our labor stemmed not only from impossible production requirements, but because the slavedrivers assigned “various labors” and “all sorts of tasks in the field.” Meaning, much of the work had no purpose at all, a degrading and enervating experience. And yet, nothing our enemies did broke us as a people. We suffered immensely and for hundreds of years. But God was with us and helped us endure and eventually triumph over our enemies. What was true in ancient Egypt remains true today. Our enemies collapse and we thrive. Am Yisrael Chai.
Rabbi Scott N. Bolton, Congregation Or Zarua, New York, NY
It was not just Pharoah who imposed back-breaking labor on the Israelites. Egyptians were guilty. From a political history standpoint, they are a stand-in for political entities who treat Israel harshly. Both the political class and everyday citizens were implicated. The end of Genesis stated a hope that Jews would be able to live peacefully in diaspora communities. The beginning of Exodus teaches that even when we are granted legal rights to live among nations of the world the Jewish soul knows that we must keep a vigilant watch. And throughout history that has been the case. Granted charters Jews were expelled from lands and kingdoms time and again. There was a Holocaust; imposing back-breaking, free labor was central to Nazi evil. Even as the comity of nations recognized the Jewish State entire nations try to embitter our lives. Hearing our Torah’s tale inspires us to rise and defend ourselves. History teaches us to be resilient. Today, Jews labor and build community in the diaspora and in the Holy Land as our ancestors did in the time of Nehemiah. We assemble with Jerusalem Stone bricks and lift our weapons of defense – military and legal. As it is written: “Those who built on the wall, and those who carried the burdens, loaded themselves in such a way that with one of his hands each labored in his work, and with the other hand he held a weapon.” (Nehemiah 4:11) We do not wallow in victimhood; we will not be embittered – Am Yisrael Chai.
Rabbi Johnny Solomon, #theVirtualRabbi at WebYeshiva.org (https://webyeshiva.org/about-virtual-rabbi)
This verse, which describes the ruthless Egyptian taskmasters who made the lives of our ancestors miserable, does not only speak of our past. Yes, the ancient Egyptians are no longer. And yes, the Israelites eventually escaped from Egypt. But despite the Egyptian enslavement occurring over 3,500 years ago, the Jewish people has continued to suffer ruthless enemies, and as of right now, Hamas terrorists continue to hold our Jewish sisters and brothers as hostages in their terror tunnels of Gaza. It is significant that we speak of the Egyptians “ruthlessly” enslaving the Israelites. As Rabbi Sacks once explained with reference to the Book of Ruth: “One Hebrew word epitomizes the book: chessed, usually translated as ‘loving kindness.’ It is what links the book’s main characters. In fact, it added a word to the English language. In Middle English, ‘ruth’ meant kindness. Today only its negation remains: the word “ruthless.”’ Ruthless is the inverse of Ruth. It is the inverse of kindness. And from the time of the Egyptian enslavement until now, the Jewish nation have repeatedly experienced not just bitterness but also ruthlessness. Yet despite everything we continue to choose the way of Ruth, as Victor Frankl wrote: “we who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread…[ultimately], everything can be taken from a man but one thing, the last of the human freedoms: to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.”
David Porush, Ph.D. in literature – student, teacher, writer
Almost every verse in the Torah reveals hidden poetry and allusions. The whole text is so coherent, so holistic, it’s almost impossible to imagine the five Books were written by different authors or committees over centuries. Rather each verse suggests the infinite artistry of a single supreme Poet with an omniscient view intertwining every word, every letter. Much of this gets lost in translation. Take our verse for instance. In Hebrew, the same word – b’porech – “in ruthlessness” – ends both verses, a perfect rhyme emphasizing the Egyptians’ cruelty. Midrash says this word implies their psychological torture of Hebrews: Egyptian taskmasters inverted men’s and women’s work and interrupted one difficult task to start another: make mortar, make bricks, till the field. Modern psyops knows that randomizing prisoners’ punishments amplifies torture. Our two verses also repeat the same root “oved” (labor) five times in twenty words. Oved is the root of slave. Finally, the English does not translate the first word properly. V’yimororu really means “they embittered them.” Midrash tells us this is the bitterness reflected on the seder plate alongside the mortar also mentioned here. In short, the two Hebrew verses encapsulate a microcosm of the entire Pesach saga. Bitterness sets the tone. Labor is ineluctable, malevolent. Each echo of “oved” recapitulates the Egyptians’ ruthlessness as they methodically subjugate the Hebrews, body and soul, by degrees. On Pesach we’re commanded to feel as if we personally were enslaved. Reading these two verses alone do it. This level of complex artistry is unmatched by any human author I know.
Image: pyramid
With thanks to Rabbi Johnny Solomon, Judy Gruen, Rabbi Scott N. Bolton, Morah Yehudis Fishman, and David Porush.
❤️ Support our work: http://donate.accidentaltalmudist.org
🤗 Our best content in your inbox weekly: accidentaltalmudist.org/newsletter
📱NEW! ‘Accidental Talmudist’ App now available for Apple and Android!
🤣 Learn more about Salvador, AT, & Let My People Laugh: linktr.ee/salvadorlitvak