Shemos: 5783 - Rabbi Shimon Zonnenfeld: On Dathan and Aviram, Moshe Rabbeinu said, "Indeed the matter is known" - the exile was due to the informers. On the sin of the Golden Calf, he says "Erase me from Your book that You have written"…

00:00 Speaker 1 Please.

00:03 Speaker 2 In the weekly parsha, we’re told that Moshe Rabbeinu goes outside and sees two Hebrews fighting. He says to the wicked one, “Why do you strike your fellow?” They say to him, “Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Moshe Rabbeinu says, “So the matter is known.” What does “So the matter is known” mean? Rashi gives two explanations. The first is the plain meaning: Moshe thought no one had seen him—“he saw that there was no one.” Now he sees that it is becoming known. “The matter is known.” Rashi gives a second explanation: Moshe Rabbeinu said, “I always wondered why the Jewish people have to be enslaved more than all the other nations. What makes them worse than all the other nations?” Now he says, “The matter is known.” They deserve it. Since there are informers among them, they deserve it. This raises a question: Moshe Rabbeinu loved the Jewish people. Moshe Rabbeinu was ready to give his life for Jews who worshipped idols. He said, “And if not, erase me, please, from Your book that You have written.” For which Jews? Jews who worshipped idols. Yet here Moshe Rabbeinu says, “Now I understand why they deserve it.” How could Moshe Rabbeinu say that the Jewish people deserved this enslavement? This question always troubled me. Moshe Rabbeinu says, “So the matter is known. Now I understand why the Jewish people are enslaved—because they deserve it.” That doesn’t seem like Moshe Rabbeinu. But the answer, perhaps, is that this was before he had taken on the leadership, before he became Moshe Rabbeinu as their leader. Yes, after he received the leadership from Hakadosh Boruch Hu, he was truly prepared to give his life for every Jew, no matter who. But before then, he could think that perhaps they deserved it.

02:14 Speaker 1 That’s a bit…

02:15 Speaker 2 So it was only while he had not yet taken on the leadership that he could say such a thing: “So the matter is known.” Afterward, it would be unthinkable for Moshe Rabbeinu to say such a thing.

02:29 Speaker 1 Please.