Beshalach: Egypt's Pursuit and the Psychology of Self-Respect

Rabbi Zweig analyzes the perplexing decision of the Egyptians to pursue the Jewish people after the plague of the firstborn. The Torah (תורה) states that Pharaoh and the Egyptian people changed their minds and said, "What have we done that we sent Israel away from our service?" Rashi (רש"י) explains they regretted the silver and gold they had lent to the Jews. This raises three fundamental questions: First, logically, the loss of slave labor—millions of capable workers—far exceeded any monetary loss, so why focus on the money? Second, the verse itself attributes their change of heart to losing the slaves, not the wealth—so why does Rashi emphasize the money? Third, what is the overall significance of the wealth taken from Egypt, given that the Jews acquired even more wealth at the splitting of the Red Sea, yet only the Egyptian wealth fulfilled God's promise to Avrohom that they would leave with "great wealth"? Rabbi Zweig explains that the only rational explanation for Egypt's seemingly irrational behavior is that their pursuit was motivated not by money but by damaged self-respect. When a person loses money due to external circumstances—war, natural disaster, market forces—he accepts the loss. But when he perceives that his own stupidity caused the loss, he will risk everything to undo it, not to recover the money but to restore his self-esteem. The Egyptians had not merely given the Jews what they requested; Rashi in last week's parsha notes that when Jews asked for one item, Egyptians gave two; when they asked for fifty, they received one hundred. The Egyptians now realized that their excessive generosity had enabled the Jews' departure. This wasn't just a loss—it was a self-inflicted wound born of their own foolishness, and they couldn't live with that shame. To restore their self-image, they were willing to risk their remaining children's lives, even after seeing God's devastating power in the plague of the firstborn.