פרשת בשלח תש"ח - דור יוצאי מצרים

Stand and see the deliverance of the Lord: Since you will not make war on Egypt. Rather you will see the deliverance of the Lord that He will do for you today. One may wonder how [such] a large camp of six hundred thousand men would be afraid of those pursing after them. And why did they not fight for their lives and for their children? The answer is that the Egyptians were the Israelites' masters. And [so] this generation that went out of Egypt learned from its youth to tolerate the yoke of Egypt and had a lowly image. And [so] how could they now battle with their masters? And Israel was [also] indolent and not trained in warfare. Do you not see that Amalek came with [only] a small group and were it not for the prayer of Moshe, they would have overpowered Israel. And the only God, 'who does great things' and 'for whom all plots are contemplated,' caused that all the males of the people that went out of Egypt would die. As there was no strength in them to fight against the Canaanites, until a new generation, after the generation of the desert, arose. And they did not see exile and they had a [confident] spirit, as I mentioned in the words about Moshe in the Parsha of Eleh Shemot (Ibn Ezra on Exodus 2:3).

And they said unto Moses: ‘Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to bring us forth out of Egypt?

And Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel: They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in.

לפני בעל צפון BEFORE BAAL-ZEPHON — It (the idol of this name) alone had been left by God of all the gods of Egypt and, this, too, in order to mislead them — that they should say that their god was a difficult one to overcome. It was with reference to this that Job expressly said, (Job 12:23) “He causes the nations to err (מַשְׂגִיא, is taken in the sense of מַשְׁגִיא from root שגה to err) and then destroyeth them” (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 14:2:2; cf. Rashi on this passage).

And he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over all of them.

וכל רכב מצרים signifies AND with these were ALL THE other CHARIOTS OF EGYPT. And whence came all these animals required for the chariots? If you say that they were from the cattle of the Egyptians — but you know it is stated, (Exodus 9:6) “And all the cattle of the Egyptians died”. And if you say that they were from the Israelites’ cattle — but is it not stated, (Exodus 10:26) “Our cattle, also, shall go with us”! Then whose were they? They were of those “who feared the word of the Lord” and saved their cattle by bringing them into their stables (Exodus 9:20). Deriving it from here (on account of this fact) R. Simeon said: The best amongst the Egyptians — kill him (otherwise he will afterwards devise evil against you); the best amongst the serpents — crush its brains (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 14:7:1).