Shemos: 5786 - "And Moshe feared, and said, Indeed the matter is known." Rashi: "What did Israel sin to be oppressed with hard labor, but I see that they deserve it."…

00:01 Speaker 1 In the weekly parsha, the Torah tells us: “Moshe grew up and went out to his brothers.” “Moshe grew up”—Rashi explains that he grew in stature and rose to prominence. But he did not forget his brothers. “He went out to his brothers. He saw an Egyptian man striking a Hebrew man, one of his brothers.” Moshe Rabbeinu sees an Egyptian, an Egyptian officer, beating a Jew. He cannot bear it. “He looked this way and that and saw that there was no one,” and he struck the Egyptian. Later, he sees two Hebrew men fighting with each other. “He said to the wicked one, ‘Why are you striking your fellow?’” They say to him, “Are you going to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” They threaten him: We’re going to inform on you. We know what you did. You thought no one saw, but we saw exactly what you did. We’re going to report you. Moshe Rabbeinu says, “So the matter has become known.” What does “So the matter has become known” mean? Rashi offers two explanations. The first is that he thought no one knew. “He looked this way and that and saw that there was no one.” No one saw. Now he says: I thought no one knew, but now I see that it has become known. But Rashi gives a second explanation. What is it? Until now, Moshe Rabbeinu says, I wondered why the Jewish people suffer more than all the other nations. Why are they in such a harsh exile? Why are they forced to work so hard? I didn’t understand it until now. Now I understand. They are deserving of it. In other words, because there are informers among them, they deserve it. They are deserving of this. And here a question arises that, at first glance, is hard to understand. Moshe Rabbeinu loved his fellow Jews. He was ready to give his life for Jews who had worshipped idols. He says to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, “And if not, please erase me from Your book that You have written.” He was ready to give

02:27 Speaker 1 his life for the Jewish people. Yet here Moshe Rabbeinu says, “So the matter has become known.” Now I understand something I had always wondered about: I see that they are deserving of it. How can we say that Moshe Rabbeinu says, “Now I understand that they deserve this”? Moshe Rabbeinu, who loves his fellow Jews, says that the Jewish people deserve it. It’s hard to understand. How can Moshe Rabbeinu say such a thing? The truth is, I looked through various Torah commentaries and didn’t see anyone address this. How can Moshe Rabbeinu say, “They are deserving of it”? The Jewish people deserve such a punishment? So I thought perhaps we could explain it this way: This whole incident happened before Hakadosh Boruch Hu appeared to him and said, “Go and bring out the Jewish people.” Moshe Rabbeinu was, so to speak, a private individual. He did not yet have that responsibility and dedication to the Jewish people. “Moshe grew up and went out to his brothers”—these are my brothers; he goes to see how they are doing. “He saw their suffering.” But he has not yet been given a mission by Hakadosh Boruch Hu to bring the Jewish people out of Egypt. When he sees informers among them, he cannot bear it. He says, “They are deserving of it.” What we have learned about Moshe Rabbeinu—that he is ready to give himself for every Jew, no matter who that Jew is—is after Hakadosh Boruch Hu appointed him to bring the Jewish people out of Egypt and lead them, to bring them to the Land of Israel. Moshe Rabbeinu accepted that responsibility, so he was not the same Moshe Rabbeinu he had been before. Before that, he was capable of saying such a

04:26 Speaker 1 thing. We see this with Yehuda and the way he approached Yosef. He comes before Yosef and says, “Listen, we have to bring Binyamin home.” And it says that he spoke harshly to him. Yehuda says to Yosef, “If you provoke me, I will kill you and Pharaoh.” He was capable of that. Where did Yehuda get the—how should I put it—the audacity? He comes to Egypt, which ruled the world, and tells Yosef, “I will kill you and Pharaoh.” The answer is: I took responsibility upon myself. Once a person takes responsibility, strengths he never knew he had come to light. That is how he could stand before Yosef and say such things. After Hakadosh Boruch Hu charged Moshe Rabbeinu, “Go and bring the Jewish people out of Egypt,” that gave him strength. And then Moshe Rabbeinu saw things entirely differently. So perhaps we can explain this whole incident—“So the matter has become known”—and how he could say, “They are deserving of it”: it was before Hakadosh Boruch Hu appointed him to be the leader of the Jewish people. Have a good Shabbos, a Shabbos of good news.

05:38 Speaker 2 Amen.