This Dvar Torah is taken from my father’s writings.
And
Pharaoh’s servants said to him: “For how long shall this man be a snare unto
us? Let the men go and serve God their God. Do you not yet know that Egypt is
lost?” Exodus 10:7
Thus
the Egyptians pleaded with their monarch to release the Israelites from
slavery.
The
plea was on pragmatic, not moral grounds. The Egyptians had not come to realize
the moral reprehensibility of enslaving another people. Rather, they told
Pharaoh, it is no longer feasible to enslave the Israelites, because of the
suffering it causes Egypt. In essence it was an economic decision. Cost-benefit
analysis dictated releasing the Israelites from their servitude.
The
Exodus from Egypt was goal oriented. The purpose was to bring the Children of
Israel to Sinai to receive the Torah and thence to enter the Land of Israel.
To
be able to accept Torah, we had to reject the approach of Egypt. We had to
learn that moral considerations must inform all of our decisions and affect all
of our actions.
The
contrast between the approach of Torah and that of Egypt is evident also in
God’s instructions to the Israelites to take a lamb on the tenth of Nissan, slaughter it on the
fourteenth and put the blood on the doorposts of their homes. [12:3-7] The Israelites
had to remove themselves, spiritually and physically, from the approach which
deified an animal while trampling on human beings. Therefore, God commanded us
to take the lamb, to demonstrate that the lamb is not divine, that an animal
may not be sanctified above man. It was not enough to take the Israelites out
of Egypt, it was necessary as well to take Egypt out of the Israelites.
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