Who Took the Israelites Out of Egypt?

1. The Torah Text: Dr. Rabbi Tzemah Yoreh:

There is a tension in the Torah text between Moses’ role and God’s role. This is first apparent here:
ג:ז וַיֹּ֣אמֶר יְ-הֹוָ֔ה רָאֹ֥ה רָאִ֛יתִי אֶת עֳנִ֥י עַמִּ֖י אֲשֶׁ֣ר בְּמִצְרָ֑יִם וְאֶת צַעֲקָתָ֤ם שָׁמַ֙עְתִּי֙ מִפְּנֵ֣י נֹֽגְשָׂ֔יו כִּ֥י יָדַ֖עְתִּי אֶת מַכְאֹבָֽיו: ג:ח וָאֵרֵ֞ד לְהַצִּיל֣וֹ׀ מִיַּ֣ד מִצְרַ֗יִם וּֽלְהַעֲלֹתוֹ֘ מִן הָאָ֣רֶץ הַהִוא֒ אֶל אֶ֤רֶץ טוֹבָה֙ וּרְחָבָ֔ה אֶל אֶ֛רֶץ זָבַ֥ת חָלָ֖ב וּדְבָ֑שׁ אֶל מְק֤וֹם הַֽכְּנַעֲנִי֙ וְהַ֣חִתִּ֔י וְהָֽאֱמֹרִי֙ וְהַפְּרִזִּ֔י וְהַחִוִּ֖י וְהַיְבוּסִֽי: ג:ט וְעַתָּ֕ה הִנֵּ֛ה צַעֲקַ֥ת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל בָּ֣אָה אֵלָ֑י וְגַם רָאִ֙יתִי֙ אֶת הַלַּ֔חַץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר מִצְרַ֖יִם לֹחֲצִ֥ים אֹתָֽם: ג:י וְעַתָּ֣ה לְכָ֔ה וְאֶֽשְׁלָחֲךָ֖ אֶל פַּרְעֹ֑ה וְהוֹצֵ֛א אֶת עַמִּ֥י בְנֵֽי יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל מִמִּצְרָֽיִם:
Ex. 3:7 YHVH said, “I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, and I know their sorrows. 3:8 I will come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up and out of that land to a good and broad land, to a land flowing with milk and honey; to the dwelling place of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. 3:9 Now, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me. Moreover, I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. 3:10 Come now, and I will send you to the king of Egypt, so that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”
As the color-coding indicates, the text contains a doublet, often a sign of multiple sources or redaction. First, YHVH states that he has seen the affliction of his people and that he will go down to save them. Then he says that he has seen how the Egyptians oppress them and that Moses should go save them. Either YHVH will personally deliver the Israelites from Egypt, or [YHVH appoints] Moses [who] delivers the Israelites from Egypt. In one reading, God is the active redeemer of Israel, and in the other Moses does all the work. In one version a human ‘magician,’ Moses, is at the center of the Exodus. The author of the other version was not enamored by the idea of a human being so powerful, or of a God who takes a backseat, and reworked the story to situate Moses’ wonders in a context in which God is fully in charge. [https://www.thetorah.com/article/the-three-redactional-and-theological-layers-of-the-plagues, adapted]

1. The Haggadah Text:

1. "And the Lord took us out of Egypt with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm and with great awe and with signs and with wonders" (Deuteronomy 26:8).

וַיּוֹצִאֵנוּ ה' מִמִּצְרַיִם. לֹא עַל־יְדֵי מַלְאָךְ, וְלֹא עַל־יְדֵי שָׂרָף, וְלֹא עַל־יְדֵי שָׁלִיחַ, אֶלָּא הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא בִּכְבוֹדוֹ וּבְעַצְמוֹ. שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: וְעָבַרְתִּי בְאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם בַּלַּיְלָה הַזֶּה, וְהִכֵּיתִי כָּל־בְּכוֹר בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם מֵאָדָם וְעַד בְּהֵמָה, וּבְכָל אֱלֹהֵי מִצְרַיִם אֶעֱשֶׂה שְׁפָטִים. אֲנִי ה'.
"And the Lord took us out of Egypt" - not through an angel and not through a seraph and not through a messenger, but [directly by] the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself, as it is stated (Exodus 12:12); "And I will pass through the Land of Egypt on that night and I will smite every firstborn in the Land of Egypt, from human to animals; and on all the gods of Egypt I will make judgments, I am the Lord."
וְעָבַרְתִּי בְאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם בַּלַּיְלָה הַזֶּה – אֲנִי וְלֹא מַלְאָךְ; וְהִכֵּיתִי כָל בְּכוֹר בְּאֶרֶץ־מִצְרַים. אֲנִי וְלֹא שָׂרָף; וּבְכָל־אֱלֹהֵי מִצְרַיִם אֶעֱשֶׂה שְׁפָטִים. אֲנִי וְלֹא הַשָּׁלִיחַ; אֲנִי ה'. אֲנִי הוּא וְלֹא אַחֵר.

1. "And I will pass through the Land of Egypt" - I and not an angel (malakh). “And I will smite every firstborn" - I and not a seraph. "And with all the gods of Egypt, I will make judgments" - I and not a messenger. "I am the Lord" - I am He and there is no other.

3. Dr. Marc Brettler (in My People’s Passover Haggadah, editor: L. Hoffman)
The biblical story of the plagues and the Exodus is composed from several originally separate stories or sources. This was not recognized by the rabbis of the Talmud…this [passage of the Haggadah] is a polemic against what is clearly stated in Exodus 12:23: “And the Lord will protect the door and not let the Destroyer הַמַּשְׁחִ֔ית/hamashkhit enter and smite your house.” [In the Torah text,] The Destroyer is [a kind of] malakh, a messenger…a semi-divine being separate from the Lord. [The Haggadah text] refutes this, emphasizing "And I [the Lord] will pass through the Land of Egypt" and then amplifies: “not an angel; seraph; or messenger.”

1. Dr. David Arnow (in My People’s Passover Haggadah, editor: L. Hoffman)

The Haggadah’s shift from historical narrative to theological polemic likely comes as a response to beliefs within and beyond Judaism that recognized the existence of more than one supernatural actor carrying out pivotal events in Jewish history, such as the Exodus.

1. The Feast of Freedom (1979, Conservative, ed. Rachel Anne Rabinowicz)

“I and no other…” Why does the Haggadah pass over the architect of the Exodus, the father of the prophets…Moshe Rabbenu? By this daring omission, the Rabbis dramatized God’s direct intervention in history, demonstrating that He alone had extricated the Israelites from Mitzrayim. At the same time, the Rabbis forestalled the emergence of a personality cult…[Moses] inspires reverence, not deification.

1. The New Haggadah (1941, Reconstructionist)

New narrative titled: “How Moses Freed Israel” – “…and Moses came to redeem them…Pharaoh hastily cried to Moses to hurry the Israelites out of the land of Egypt.”

1. Rabbi Aharon Samuel Tamares (Lithuania, 1869-1931)[cited in 1974 Reform Haggadah at this point in Seder]

The Blessed Holy One could have given the Israelites the power to avenge themselves upon the Egyptians, but God did not want to sanction the use of their fists for self-defense, even at that moment. For while at that moment they might merely have defensed themselves against the wicked, by such means the way of the fist spreads through the world, and in the end defenders become aggressors.

1. Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik “Festival of Freedom”

History, Judaism says, cannot move or progress without the individual. God waits for humans if there is something to be done. God does nothing until a person initiates action. God waits for a single person to accept responsibility and initiate the process of redemption. It is strange. On the one hand, God is the Go’el Yisrael, the Redeemer of Israel. However, God wills us to become God’s shaliach, God’s messenger or representative, the [one with whom] God will walk…God could have taken them out of Egypt in a split second. But God had to wait for someone.