The Debt of Indebtedness: Borrowing from Egypt and Human Relationships

This shiur explores the puzzling dynamics of how the Jewish people borrowed gold and silver vessels from the Egyptians before leaving Egypt. The Torah (תורה) describes the Jews "borrowing" from the Egyptians, yet the Gemara (גמרא) in Sanhedrin establishes that this wealth was rightfully theirs as wages for 430 years of slavery. Rabbi Zweig asks: if the money was legitimately owed as wages, why did the Jews need to "borrow" it in such an apparently underhanded way? Why not simply take what was rightfully theirs? Rashi (רש"י) brings two explanations for the plague of darkness (Makas Choshech). First, four-fifths of the Jewish people died during this plague, and the darkness prevented the Egyptians from witnessing their burial. Second, during the darkness, the Jews went through Egyptian homes and saw where their valuables were hidden. When the Jews later asked to borrow items, and the Egyptians claimed not to have them, the Jews could say, "I saw it in your house in such-and-such location." Rabbi Zweig asks: How can both reasons be true simultaneously? If darkness was needed to hide Jewish deaths, how do we know the Jews also searched Egyptian homes? And if Hashem (ה׳) gave the Jews favor in Egyptian eyes (vayiten Hashem es chen ha'am), why was it necessary to identify where items were hidden?