(שמות א, יב) וכאשר יענו אותו כן ירבה וכן יפרוץ כן רבו וכן פרצו מיבעי ליה אמר ר"ל רוח הקדש מבשרתן כן ירבה וכן יפרוץ (שמות א, יב) ויקוצו מפני בני ישראל מלמד שהיו דומין בעיניהם כקוצים
The next verse states: “But the more they afflicted him, the more he would multiply and the more he would spread about” (Exodus 1:12). The Gemara comments: It should have stated: The more they multiplied and the more they spread about, in the past tense. Reish Lakish says: Divine inspiration proclaimed to the Egyptians: As long as this nation is afflicted, the more he will multiply and the more he will spread about. As the verse states: “And they became disgusted [vayyakutzu] due to the children of Israel.” The Gemara explains: This teaches that the Jewish people appeared in their eyes like thorns [kotzim].
(שמות א, יב) ויעבידו מצרים את בני ישראל
The next verse states: “And the Egyptians made the children of Israel work
בפרך רבי אלעזר אמר בפה רך רבי שמואל בר נחמני אמר בפריכה
with rigor [befarekh]” (Exodus 1:13). Rabbi Elazar says: The word befarekh is a conjugation of the words: With a soft mouth [bifeh rakh], as the Egyptians enticed the Jewish people into slavery, gradually subjugating them until they had lost their freedom completely. Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani says: The word befarekh should be understood as: With crushing [bifrikha], as the Egyptians subjugated Israel with backbreaking labor.
(שמות א, יד) וימררו את חייהם בעבודה קשה בחומר ובלבנים וגו' אמר רבא בתחילה בחומר ובלבנים ולבסוף ובכל עבודה בשדה
The next verse states: “And they made their lives bitter through hard service, with mortar and brick, and with every laborious service in the field” (Exodus 1:14). Rava says: The verse mentions specifically mortar and brick and then all forms of labor, as initially the Egyptians had them work with mortar and bricks, and ultimately they subjugated them “and with every laborious service in the field.”
את כל עבודתם אשר עבדו בהם בפרך אמר רבי שמואל בר נחמני אמר רבי יונתן שהיו מחליפין מלאכת אנשים לנשים ומלאכת נשים לאנשים ולמ"ד נמי התם בפה רך הכא ודאי בפריכה
The verse concludes: “In all their service, wherein they made them serve with rigor” (Exodus 1:14). Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani says that Rabbi Yonatan says: The meaning of befarekh is that the Egyptians would exchange the responsibilities of men and women, giving men’s work to women and women’s work to men, requiring everyone to do work to which they were unaccustomed. And even according to the one who says that there, in the previous verse, bifarekh indicates that the Egyptians enslaved the Jews with a soft mouth, here, in this verse, which describes the physical hardship of the labor, the word befarekh certainly means with crushing labor.
דרש רב עוירא בשכר נשים צדקניות שהיו באותו הדור נגאלו ישראל ממצרים בשעה שהולכות לשאוב מים הקב"ה מזמן להם דגים קטנים בכדיהן ושואבות מחצה מים ומחצה דגים ובאות ושופתות שתי קדירות אחת של חמין ואחת של דגים
§ Rav Avira taught: In the merit of the righteous women that were in that generation, the Jewish people were redeemed from Egypt. He tells of their righteous actions: At the time when these women would go to the river to draw water, the Holy One, Blessed be He, would materialize for them small fish that would enter into their pitchers, and they would therefore draw pitchers that were half filled with water and half filled with fish. And they would then come and place two pots on the fire, one pot of hot water for washing their husbands and one pot of fish with which to feed them.
ומוליכות אצל בעליהן לשדה ומרחיצות אותן וסכות אותן ומאכילות אותן ומשקות אותן ונזקקות להן בין שפתים שנאמר (תהלים סח, יד) אם תשכבון בין שפתים וגו' בשכר תשכבון בין שפתים זכו ישראל לביזת מצרים שנאמר (תהלים סח, יד) כנפי יונה נחפה בכסף ואברותיה בירקרק חרוץ
And they would then take what they prepared to their husbands, to the field, and would bathe their husbands and anoint them with oil and feed them the fish and give them to drink and bond with them in sexual intercourse between the sheepfolds, i.e., between the borders and fences of the fields, as it is stated: “When you lie among the sheepfolds, the wings of the dove are covered with silver, and her pinions with the shimmer of gold” (Psalms 68:14), which is interpreted to mean that as a reward for “when you lie among the sheepfolds,” the Jewish people merited to receive the plunder of Egypt, as it is stated in the continuation of the verse, as a reference to the Jewish people: “The wings of the dove are covered with silver, and her pinions with the shimmer of gold” (Psalms 68:14).
וכיון שמתעברות באות לבתיהם וכיון שמגיע זמן מולדיהן הולכות ויולדות בשדה תחת התפוח שנאמר (שיר השירים ח, ה) תחת התפוח עוררתיך וגו'
And when these women would become pregnant, they would come back to their homes, and when the time for them to give birth would arrive they would go and give birth in the field under the apple tree, as it is stated: “Under the apple tree I awakened you; there your mother was in travail with you; there was she in travail and brought you forth” (Song of Songs 8:5).
והקב"ה שולח משמי מרום מי שמנקיר ומשפיר אותן כחיה זו שמשפרת את הולד שנאמר (יחזקאל טז, ד) ומולדותיך ביום הולדת אותך לא כרת שרך ובמים לא רחצת למשעי וגו' ומלקט להן שני עגולין אחד של שמן ואחד של דבש שנאמר (דברים לב, יג) ויניקהו דבש מסלע ושמן וגו'
And the Holy One, Blessed be He, would send from the heavens above an angel who would clean and prepare the newborns, just as a midwife prepares the newborn, as it is stated: “And as for your birth, on the day you were born, your navel was not cut nor were you washed with water for cleansing; you were not salted at all, nor swaddled at all” (Ezekiel 16:4). This indicates that there were no midwives to take care of the Jews born in Egypt. And then, the angel would gather for them two round stones from the field and the babies would nurse from that which would flow out of them. One of the stones flowed with oil and one of the stones flowed with honey, as it is stated: “And He would suckle them with honey from a crag and oil from a flinty rock” (Deuteronomy 32:13).
וכיון שמכירין בהן מצרים באין להורגן ונעשה להם נס ונבלעין בקרקע ומביאין שוורים וחורשין על גבן שנאמר (תהלים קכט, ג) על גבי חרשו חורשים וגו לאחר שהולכין היו מבצבצין ויוצאין כעשב השדה שנאמר (יחזקאל טז, ז) רבבה כצמח השדה נתתיך
And once the Egyptians would notice them, realizing that they were Jewish babies, they would come to kill them. But a miracle would occur for them and they would be absorbed by the earth. And the Egyptians would then bring oxen and would plow upon them, as it is stated: “The plowers plowed upon my back; they made long their furrows” (Psalms 129:3). After the Egyptians would leave, the babies would emerge and exit the ground like grass of the field, as it is stated: “I caused you to increase even as the growth of the field” (Ezekiel 16:7).