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Why does the Torah (תורה) describe the Jews in the present tense as "haboim Mitzrayim" — "coming to Egypt" — when they had been there for a hundred years? The shiur argues that after a century in Egypt, the Jewish people still looked, spoke, and dressed as if they had just arrived, maintaining their distinct identity. This explains how the Egyptians could later isolate and enslave them as "foreigners" without alarming other ethnic groups.
This shiur analyzes a puzzling Midrash on the opening verses of Sefer Shemos. The Torah (תורה) describes the Jewish people using the present-tense phrase "haboim Mitzrayim" (those coming to Egypt), even though by that point in the narrative they had been in Egypt for approximately 70-100 years since Yosef brought them down. The Midrash explains that as long as Yosef was alive, the Jewish people had no burden of slavery; when Yosef died, the enslavement began, as if they had just arrived that day. Rabbi Zweig raises a fundamental question: Why does the Torah express the beginning of enslavement through this indirect language of "coming" rather than simply stating that the Egyptians began to oppress them? Furthermore, if the Midrash is teaching us that the enslavement began after Yosef's death, this fact is already explicit elsewhere in the Torah, making the derasha seemingly unnecessary.
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Why does the Midrash connect Pharaoh's expulsion of the Jews to the mitzvah of shiluach hakan? The shiur develops a chiddush that Pharaoh's sin wasn't only drowning the children, but the insensitivity of expelling the parents afterward. The deeper analysis reveals that Pharaoh may have valued the Jews greatly and wanted to control them—making his expulsion an act of tremendous cruelty, not liberation.
Why does Moshe respond to the splitting of the sea with shirah rather than praise or thanksgiving? Rashi's use of "al libo" reveals that shirah is an emotional expression—a response of love to love. When Hashem shows personal care, the only adequate response is "I love You too," not mere gratitude or praise, and this principle applies to all relationships.
Shemos 1:1
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