With and Through Our Children

And Moses answered:  With our youth and with our aged will we go, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go…                                                    Exodus 10:9

          The prepositional letter bet, translated as “with”, can also be understood to mean "through". My saintly teacher, HaRav Mordechai Rogov, indeed explained the verse as meaning "through our children shall we go". Moses' answer to Pharaoh's questioning the Israelites' ability to achieve freedom from Egypt was "through our children and our elderly will we go". It is the unity of generations, which provides the strength to overcome all obstacles in the Hebrew's path to freedom. "Through our sons and daughters will we go", as long as the sons and daughters are "ours", are of the same spirit as the older generation, and follow in our belief in God, we will have the power to stay fast in our path and succeed. Moses continued "through our flocks and cattle will we go", so long as the sheep and cattle are ours, to be used in accordance with the divine will, we will be able to leave Egypt to worship God, despite any difficulties which we may encounter.