Pesach Learning Before the Seder

Joseph died, and all his brothers, and all that generation.

But the Israelites were fertile and prolific; they multiplied and increased very greatly, so that the land was filled with them.

A new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph.

NOW THERE AROSE A NEW KING. This is to be taken literally without any embellishments. Scripture reads, and there arose (va-yakam) because the new king was not of the royal seed. It is like that my son hath stirred up (hekim) my servant to lie in wait against me (I Sam. 22:8).

And Joseph died, and all his brethren (Exod. 1:6). Nevertheless, the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly (ibid., v. 7). R. Yannai declared: Each woman bore six children at one time, while (because each word in the biblical verse is in the plural form, thus implying a minimum of two) others say that each one bore twelve, for the word paru (“were fruitful”) indicates two; vayishresu (“and increased abundantly”), two; vayirbu (“and multiplied”), two; vaya’asmu (“and waxed”), two; bime’od me’od (“exceeding mighty”), two; and the land was filled with them (ibid.), two, totaling twelve in all. R. Jonathan said: The land was filled with them implies that they filled the land like reed branches. When the Egyptians observed this, they issued new decrees against them, as it is said: Now there arose a new king (Exod. 1:8). Was he in fact a new king? Rather, he fashioned new decrees against them. Another explanation of Now there arose a new king. Was it not Pharaoh? Rather, the Egyptians cried out: “Come, let us attack this nation.” “You fools,” he said to them, “we have survived only because of them, how dare we attack them now? Were it not for Joseph, we would not be alive.” When he refused to carry out their request, they removed him from his throne for three months until he promised them: “I am with you in all you do.” Then they restored him to his throne. That is why it is written: And now there arose a new king.

And he said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are much too numerous for us.

Let us deal shrewdly with them, so that they may not increase; otherwise in the event of war they may join our enemies in fighting against us and rise from the ground.”

COME (HAVAH). The word havah (give) in Give me my wife (Gen. 29:21) is in the masculine and as such is properly used there. It is similar to the word lekhah (come) in come, I pray thee with us. In the feminine we say havi, as in Bring (havi) the mantle that is upon thee (Ruth 3:15), and lekhi (go), as in Go and get thee in (I Kings 1:23). Now because these words are used often the masculine form is employed both as a plural and as a feminine singular. Scripture thus reads, Come (havah), let us go down (Gen. 11:7); Come (havah) I Pray thee, let me come in unto thee (Gen. 38:16). It is like Come (lekhah), let us make our father drink wine (Gen. 19:32).

WITH THEM. The word lo (with them) is to be rendered, because of them. It is similar to the word li (of me) in say of me (Gen. 20:13).Note that all perfect and imperfect verbs imply a verbal noun. In other words, even though a noun derived from a verb is missing in the text it is implied in the verb. For example, ve-hinneh berakhta varekh (and, behold, thou hast blessed them altogether) (Num. 23:11) and And when He hath blessed, I cannot call it back (Num. 23:20), the meaning of which is: And when he hath blessed a blessing, I cannot call it back. The same is true of But in the multitude of counsellors they are established (Prov. 15:22). The complete version of the latter is: But in the multitude of counsellors, counsel is established. Similarly, when there befalleth us any war (v. 10) is to be interpreted as, when there befalleth us any accidents of war.Rabbi Merinus says that and get them out of the land means, and we will get us out of the land. He believes that Pharaoh said and get them out of the land so that Satan would not ensnare him in the utterances of his mouth. However, I see no need for this interpretation.

So they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor; and they built garrison cities for Pharaoh: Pithom and Raamses.

But the more they were oppressed, the more they increased and spread out, so that the [Egyptians] came to dread the Israelites.

Then יהוה said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh. For I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his courtiers, in order that I may display these My signs among them,

and that you may recount in the hearing of your child and of your child’s child how I made a mockery of the Egyptians and how I displayed My signs among them—in order that you may know that I am יהוה.”

For if you refuse to let My people go, tomorrow I will bring locusts on your territory.

They shall cover the surface of the land, so that no one will be able to see the land. They shall devour the surviving remnant that was left to you after the hail; and they shall eat away all your trees that grow in the field.

את עין הארץ means THE COLOUR OF THE GROUND.

THAT ONE SHALL NOT BE ABLE TO SEE. The word ish (a man) has been omitted. Yefet says that many days passed between the plague of hail and the plague of locusts, for Scripture states: which groweth for you out of the field.

But he said to them, “יהוה be with you—the same as I mean to let your dependents go with you! Clearly, you are bent on mischief.

So Moses held out his rod over the land of Egypt, and יהוה drove an east wind over the land all that day and all night; and when morning came, the east wind had brought the locusts.

Locusts invaded all the land of Egypt and settled within all the territory of Egypt in a thick mass; never before had there been so many, nor will there ever be so many again.

Pharaoh hurriedly summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “I stand guilty before your God יהוה and before you.

Forgive my offense just this once, and plead with your God יהוה that this death but be removed from me.”

[ONLY THIS ONCE.] Because I will not sin again by rebelling against the Lord. Pharaoh did not promise to free the people because Moses was angry. Moses went out of the city as was his wont and prayed.

יהוה caused a shift to a very strong west wind, which lifted the locusts and hurled them into the Sea of Reeds; not a single locust remained in all the territory of Egypt.

And יהוה said to Moses, “I will bring but one more plague upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt; after that he shall let you go from here; indeed, when he lets you go, he will drive you out of here one and all.

Tell the people to borrow, each man from his neighbor and each woman from hers, objects of silver and gold.”

יהוה disposed the Egyptians favorably toward the people. Moreover, Moses himself was much esteemed in the land of Egypt, among Pharaoh’s courtiers and among the people.

Moses said, “Thus says יהוה: Toward midnight I will go forth among the Egyptians,

and every [male] first-born in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first-born of Pharaoh who sits on his throne to the first-born of the slave girl who is behind the millstones; and all the first-born of the cattle.

This month shall mark for you the beginning of the months; it shall be the first of the months of the year for you.

החדש הזה — He showed him the moon in the first stage of its renewal, and He said to him, “The time when the moon renews itself thus, shall be unto you the beginning of the month”. (The translation therefore is: “This stage of renewal (חדש) shall be the moment of beginning the months”; cf. Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 12:2:2). But no Scriptural verse can lose its literal meaning, and He really spoke this in reference to the month Nisan: this month shall be the beginning in the order of counting the months, so that Iyar shall be called the second, Sivan the third.

The Gemara asks: What is the reason for Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel’s ruling? He explains that Moses was standing on the first day of Nisan and warning about the performance of the first Pesaḥ, as it is stated: “This month shall be for you the beginning of the months, the first of the months of the year” (Exodus 12:2). And it is written in the next verse: “Speak to the entire congregation of Israel, saying: On the tenth day of this month they shall take for them every man a lamb, according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for each household” (Exodus 12:3). The Torah proceeds to detail the halakhot of the Paschal lamb sacrificed on the fourteenth day of that month.

And the blood on the houses where you are staying shall be a sign for you: when I see the blood I will pass over you, so that no plague will destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

This day shall be to you one of remembrance: you shall celebrate it as a festival to יהוה throughout the ages; you shall celebrate it as an institution for all time.

Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; on the very first day you shall remove leaven from your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day to the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.

You shall celebrate a sacred occasion on the first day, and a sacred occasion on the seventh day; no work at all shall be done on them; only what every person is to eat, that alone may be prepared for you.

You shall observe the [Feast of] Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your ranks out of the land of Egypt; you shall observe this day throughout the ages as an institution for all time.

In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening.

No leaven shall be found in your houses for seven days. For whoever eats what is leavened, that person—whether a stranger or a citizen of the country—shall be cut off from the community of Israel.

And when your children ask you, ‘What do you mean by this rite?’

you shall say, ‘It is the passover sacrifice to יהוה, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when smiting the Egyptians, but saved our houses.’ Those assembled then bowed low in homage.

גם בני ישראל AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL — the little ones (i. e. בני must be understood literally).