Afflicting Them
Pharaoh appointed taskmasters over the Hebrews "in order to afflict them with their burdens." (Ex.odus 1:11) The overseers were there to ensure that the slaves did their allotted work. Did Pharaoh need the work? To some extent, yes. Without huge gangs of labourers, his building projects would have been impossible. But the phrase "to afflict them" indicates something more than imposing a daily tally of work. It implies a policy of trying to break the spirit of the Hebrews, to afflict them and bring an end to their will to live.


This would be measured by their no longer wanting to bring children into the world: Why have children when there was to be no future? Ibn Ezra accepts this view, which is borne out by the next verse, "The more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied." Pharaoh's policy of reducing the Israelite population did not work. The harsher the treatment, the more they determined to rise above it.


But why should Pharaoh shoot himself in the foot, so to speak, by keeping down the numbers of the Hebrews and thus denying himself a labour force?


The answer is suggested by verse 10, which shows that the king was apprehensive that

Tyrants always live in fear that they will be toppled; and they usually are.

the slaves would conspire with outside enemies of the regime and together make a mighty effort to cause a coup d'etat and oust Pharaoh and his government. Tyrants always live in fear that they will be toppled; and they usually are. In many cases, they themselves come to power as the result of a coup and they never feel safe. In regard to Pharaoh, the verb vayakom, "and there arose a new king over Egypt" (Exodus 1:8) seems to prove this.


The Grandson of Moses
Moses was the father of Gershom (Exodus 2:22). We have very little information about Gershom or his brother Eliezer. Like many other children of famous fathers, they possibly shunned the limelight. Maybe they even turned away from Moses' teachings.


Perhaps this explains a strange phenomenon in the Book of Judges (18:30), which refers to an idolater-priest called "Jonathan the son of Gershom the son of Menasheh." The Hebrew text of Judges does not actually spell the name Menasheh in the normal fashion. Between the mem and the shin there is a nun suspended above the line. Some say that the original word was mem-shin-heh, i.e. Moshe, and Jonathan was the son of Moshe's son Gershom.


What a come-down for Moses' family! The sages say the nun was inserted in order to disguise the name Moshe so as not to embarrass the memory of the great leader (see Rashi). It was a nun that was inserted to link Jonathan with Menasheh, the later king who was known for his wickedness. Without blaming Moses for what became of his grandson or, for that matter, blaming Gershom for his son Jonathan, we have to say that the price a leader often pays is that he has too little time for his children and grandchildren.


However, the whole Moshe-Menasheh theory is rendered problematic by the fact that the text in Judges actually speaks of Gershom and Jonathan being of the tribe of Dan, when Moses was from Levi.


Speaking in Yiddish
Moses must have been taught Hebrew when he was an infant in the house of Yocheved. According to the rabbis, the whole of the Hebrew slave people were careful to maintain their own language. The sons of Jacob brought Hebrew to Egypt with them, and the tribes departed after so many generations still able to speak Hebrew.


Centuries later, Jews from Eastern Europe brought Yiddish with them to their new abodes in the United States, Australia and elsewhere, and Jewish meetings abounded with

Moses, of course, did not know any Yiddish, and it may be that his Hebrew had become rusty.

passionate speeches in Yiddish even when the younger generations hardly, if at all, understood the language. But the use of Yiddish was maintained, as its proponents used to say, "Because this is the Jewish language, and we are Jews". Not that this means that every Eastern European Jew was comfortable with Yiddish.


The story is told of Rabbi Shmuel Moholiver who convened a conference of Russian Jews in 1897 to draw up practical proposals for the creation of a Jewish homeland. Rabbi Moholiver insisted that all the speeches be in Yiddish, even though some of the delegates were much happier with Russian. To their protests, the rabbi replied:


"If you speak in Russian, you will wax eloquent and we will all enjoy it, but there will be little practical effect. On the other hand, if you have to work hard to give a speech in Yiddish, you will make sure your points are clear and terse, and we will get some results."


Moses, of course, did not know any Yiddish, and it may be that his Hebrew had become rusty during his years in the Egyptian court, but when he did give a Hebrew speech, every word was weighed, every word was a jewel. He was able to achieve what better Hebrew speakers might have been unable to put clearly and succinctly.