Borrowing from the Egyptians

(21) And I will dispose the Egyptians favorably toward this people, so that when you go, you will not go away empty-handed. (22) Each woman shall borrow from her neighbor and the lodger in her house objects of silver and gold, and clothing, and you shall put these on your sons and daughters, thus stripping the Egyptians.”

(2) Tell the people to borrow, each man from his neighbor and each woman from hers, objects of silver and gold.” (3) ה' disposed the Egyptians favorably toward the people. Moreover, Moshe himself was much esteemed in the land of Egypt, among Paroh’s courtiers and among the people.

(35) The Israelites had done Moshe's bidding and borrowed from the Egyptians objects of silver and gold, and clothing. (36) And ה' had disposed the Egyptians favorably toward the people, and they let them have their request; thus they stripped the Egyptians.

(13) And God said to Avram, “Know well that your offspring shall be strangers in a land not theirs, and they shall be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years; (14) but I will execute judgment on the nation they shall serve, and in the end they shall go free with great wealth.

“Speak, please in the ears of the people" The school of Rabbi Yannai said: Please [na] is nothing more than an expression of supplication. Hashem said to Moshe: I beseech you, go and tell Israel: I beseech you; borrow vessels of silver and vessels of gold from the Egyptians in order to fulfill the promise I made to Avraham in the “Covenant between the Pieces,” so that that righteous person, Avraham, will not say: God fulfilled “And they will be enslaved and afflicted,” but God did not fulfill “And afterward, they will leave with great possessions.”

On another occasion, the people of Egypt came to judgment with the Jewish people before Alexander of Macedon. The Egyptian people said to Alexander: It says in the Torah: “And the Lord gave the people favor in the eyes of Egypt, and they lent them”. Give us the silver and gold that you took from us; you claimed that you were borrowing it and you never returned it.

He said to them: From where are you citing proof that you are entitled to the silver and gold? They said to him: From the Torah. He said to them: I too will cite proof to you only from the Torah, as it is stated: “And the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years”. Give us the wages for the work performed by the 600,000 men whom you enslaved in Egypt for four hundred and thirty years.

Alexander of Macedon said to the people of Egypt: Provide him with a response to his claims. They said to him: Give us time; give us three days to consider the matter. The emperor gave them the requested time and they examined the matter and did not find a response to the claims.

This “request” was not similar to a man or a woman asking his or her respective neighbor for some tool on the understanding that after he or she has finished using it it would be returned it to its owner. Here God’s instructions were to ask for the respective items as outright gifts. It was understood that God would make the Egyptians feel well-disposed toward the Israelites so that they would willingly comply with their requests for such gifts. The last thing God had in mind was that the Israelites, at the very moment when their redemption was at hand, would leave behind the impression that they had fooled their neighbors and pretended that they would give back the items in question.

According to Jewish law whenever a servant is released from service after he has toiled for the agreed period of time, he is entitled to receive a stake from his erstwhile master to enable him to start his economic independence. This is spelled out in Devarim 15, 13-14: “but when you send him away free, you shall not send him away empty-handed. Furnish him out of your flocks, your threshing floor, and vat, with which the Lord has blessed you.” If this law applies to treatment of a fellow Jewish servant whose wages the master has paid six years in advance, how much more so were the Jewish slaves in Egypt entitled to receive some silver trinkets in compensation for over 200 years of slavery for which no wages had ever been paid.

כלי כסף וכלי זהב, “silver vessels and golden vessels.” It was no more than a fair exchange, seeing that the Israelites left behind their houses and their fields which no one compensated them for. We read already in Genesis 47:27 ויאחזו בה, that the sons of Yaakov became land owners.

שאל here means to request as an outright and absolute gift. This interpretation is the true plain meaning of the verse and an appropriate rebuttal for the heretics.