David Schwartz Hy"d
David Schwartz Hy"dCourtesy

In Memory of our beloved David Schwartz, who fell in battle sanctifying God’s name, on 27 Tevet, 5784 (8 January 2024).

“Le’David Barchi Nafshi” is a compilation of essays written on the weekly Torah reading by David Schwartz, of blessed memory. First published on the occasion of his marriage to Meital, David’s unique Torah thoughts that delve into the depths of the Torah are shared now to elevate his memory and sanctify his soul.

The book of Shemot opens by focusing on the new issue at hand, namely the servitude in Egypt. The Egyptians view the multiplying nation of Israel as a growing threat, and they decide to enslave the Hebrews. As the stories of our patriarchs have already concluded in Bereishit, now the Torah presents us with the emerging figure of Moshe, as he responds to the Egyptian slave master and assists the daughters of Reuel. He is an independent person, bold and sensitive, the savior of Israel.

In the Rambam’s “Thirteen Principles of Faith,” the eleventh principle establishes that we believe in reward and punishment: “I trust in complete faith that God, the Creator, blessed be He, rewards those with good who keep his commandments and punishes those who violate his commandments.”

This widely recognized tenet of faith is at the core of Jewish belief. When a human being has fulfilled his time on earth and meets his Maker, the book of accounts will be opened before him, and man is granted reward in the World to Come in accord with his actions on earth. As we review this critical belief, we are confronted with the attendant question from the Exodus story of the responsibility of the Egyptians, which is sometimes hidden away in history.

The question that arises is: What sin did the people of Egypt commit that they were assigned the responsibility of enslaving Israel? We realize that by the end of the story the servitude of Israel in Egypt brought great suffering onto Egypt. Why was it that Pharaoh and the Egyptians deserved to receive these difficult and painful blows?

This question is not meant to awaken our feelings of kindness and love for the Egyptians, God forbid, but rather to sharpen our understanding of the harsh punishments.

It is true that one could simply say that they enslaved Israel with hard labor and decreed a terrible death upon them. However, the question still remains because God had decreed that exile in Egypt in the days of Abraham our forefather. With that being the preexisting decree, the Egyptians were nothing less than God’s messengers. They were His tool performing His will in the painful exile. Clearly, we need to understand the reason why God struck them with such stern punishments.

The great luminaries of our tradition, the Rambam, the Ramban, and many others deal with this critical question. Both the Rambam and Ramban write that there was an element of personal motivation behind the Egyptians’ actions, but they describe how the Egyptians had free choice in different ways.

The Rambam (Repentance 6:5) holds that while it is true that God had decreed that the Jews must suffer a harsh exile, the details of the decree had not been finalized. There remained questions about who would enslave the people, for how many years, and how exactly it would happen. Each and every Egyptian who chose to harm the Israelites therefore made his own conscious decision to do that and could have refrained from it. Clearly then, the Egyptians themselves deserve to bear exclusive responsibility for the crime that they committed.

The Ramban (15:14) agrees that the servitude was a predetermined decree, but the Egyptians had free choice about how they would do it. The Egyptians loaded on difficult tasks and they collaborated in deliberations adding their own emotions into it, which were not required. Their deliberations bear witness against them that they acted with free will. Therefore, it was just and fair that they bear the penalty due to them.

In the twentieth century, the seventh Rebbe of Ger, the Pnei Menahem, in his exposition on this question, offered a completely different understanding. He writes:

“Earlier commentaries asked what was the guilt of the Egyptians, as there was already a decree that they should be in exile in Egypt … It is possible to answer that the decree was only that they labor there, but the Egyptians sought to defile them in sin, pervert them, and destroy them. The verse states: “Come let us deal shrewdly with them.” (1:10) They said this regarding Israel, and hinted that they wanted to prevent them from reaching salvation against the divine plan. They wanted to remove their faith in God … The first rebbe of Ger (Yitzchok Meir Alter) said in the name of Rav Bunim of Peshischa that the Egyptians sought them for sexual intercourse (Sota 11b); the Egyptians wanted to ravage them and defile the thoughts of Israel …”

The opinion of the Rambam and Ramban is understandable, since the Egyptians took an integral part, or played a personal role, in that exile, and that is why they were struck with the plagues. It is left for us to understand the unique idea that the Pnei Menahem has presented to us.

We may wonder what difference it makes about what harm the Egyptians intended to cause, as it should be sufficient to realize that their intention was to harm Israel. That is sufficient guilt and obligates their punishment. We can gain insight into his analysis about the Egyptians through a careful comparison with the sin of Amalek.

Amalek, as we know, “merited” a special status in the Torah and its commentaries. In Ki Teize the Torah states: “Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt - how, undeterred by fear of God, he surprised you on the march, when you were famished and weary, and cut down all the stragglers in your rear. Therefore, when your God, the Lord, grants you safety from all your enemies around you, in the land that your God, the Lord, is giving you as a hereditary portion, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget (Deut. 25:17-19).

Rashi notes regarding Amalek: “The Holy One, Blessed is He, swore that His Name is not whole nor is His throne whole until the name of Amalek will be completely eradicated, and when [Amalek’s] name will be eradicated the Name will be whole.”

Many peoples over the generations enslaved Israel, harmed us, and wished to destroy us. We do not find a similar command for total destruction in any other place. Regarding Amalek’s sin, it is possible to view the severity of their actions in two ways. On one end, we can say that their wickedness was unique in that they gave no prior indication or cause before they launched an attack on every segment of the people. They did this at the time when the nation was “tired and worn out.” This evidence of their horrible lack of ethics mandates their total destruction. Rav Amnon Bazak in his writings on 1 Samuel explains this in such a manner.

There is a different way to view this in the writings of the Sefat Emet on Zakhor: “When the people of Israel left Egypt, they were prepared to turn all the nations to God had it not been for the wicked Amalek, may their name be destroyed, on their path.” The central harm that they caused in their war was the standing of God in the world. This is the literal meaning of the words “And they did not fear God.” Similarly, it is the definition of the verse in Shemot. “Amalek’s war with God from generation to generation” (Ex. 17:16) likewise points to this, showing that they attacked the authority of God in the world.

It seems to me that now with the addition of the commentary of the Sefat Emet, the explanation of the Pnei Menahem has been made more clear. The Egyptians made a choice, acted with deliberate plans and emotion, and worked with the goal of enslaving Israel. But this itself was not sufficient for them to bear the guilt for the enslavement of Israel, as there had been a decree that had been issued for that.

Nevertheless, his idea is that the Egyptians aimed to undermine God’s authority, with their intention ‘to defile the thoughts of Israel.” This constitutes a greater harm than anything else, and that action justifies the harshness of the plagues against them. Similar to the destruction of Amalek, which occurs after they damage the kingdom of God in the world, so too the Egyptians were punished. Their intention was “to remove faith in God” as the Pnei Menahem explains.

The rebellion against the kingdom of God brought that unique obligation with regard to Amalek. Likewise, it brought the painful plagues against Egypt. It is clear from his words how great the severity of the desecration of God’s name should be treated even in our day. This attack is not comparable to any other iniquity.