Moshe's Compassion and the Hidden Mercy of Exile

1“Moshe returned to Hashem and said, ‘My Lord, why have You done evil to this people? Why is it that You sent me?’”¹ Rashi explains: “And if You say, ‘What does it matter to you?’ I complain that You sent me.” Rashi is following the words of Chazal in the Midrash.² At first glance the Midrash is very puzzling. Why would the Holy One, blessed be He, ask Moshe, “What does it matter to you?” Hashem Himself had appointed Moshe Rabbeinu to lead the people, so of course it mattered to Moshe that his people were being made to suffer! There is also a more basic question: how can we say that Moshe questioned Hashem's ways?

2To explain this, let us first set out two ideas. The first is found in the holy sefarim, in the Chida's Penei David, the Tiferes Yehonasan and the Chasam Sofer's Toras Moshe. The Holy One, blessed be He, had told Avraham Avinu, “Know with certainty that your offspring will be strangers in a land not theirs, and they will enslave them and afflict them, four hundred years.”³ Yet Israel left Egypt before the four hundred years were over. Why? Because the harshness of the bondage completed the decree of their servitude, and so Hashem brought their departure forward. The second idea is the well-known teaching of the Ra'avad, in his glosses on the Rambam, written to answer the Rambam's question:⁴ why were the Egyptians punished for enslaving Bnei Yisrael? Had not Hashem decreed it, saying, “They will enslave them and afflict them”? The Ra'avad answered that Hashem had said only “they will enslave them and afflict them,” but the Egyptians went further and worked them with crushing labor.⁵

3aWith this we can explain the verse. Moshe Rabbeinu said before Hashem, “Why have You done evil to this people?” In other words, why have You placed on them so harsh a bondage, working them with crushing labor? The Holy One, blessed be He, answered him, “What does it matter to you?” He meant that this harshness was for the good, since it would shorten the exile of Egypt; so why should it matter to Moshe? To this Moshe Rabbeinu replied with the words “Why is it that You sent me?” Rashi explains them: “I complain that You sent me.” Moshe meant: “Even though it is for Israel's good, I am still not fit for such a mission. Compassion is the whole foundation of my soul's nature, and so I cannot bear to see their suffering.”

3bWe see this in what my holy great-grandfather of Biala, zt"l,⁶ wrote in his sefer Divrei Binah on the verse “She had compassion on him, and she said, ‘This is one of the children of the Hebrews.’”⁷ These are his words: “Pharaoh's daughter felt compassion, which belongs only to Israel. From that very fact she understood that ‘this is one of the children of the Hebrews,’ for it was because of him that compassion was stirred in her. But why the change of wording? She should have said, ‘This is a Hebrew child.’ The truth is that Moshe Rabbeinu was the root of the soul of Israel, and his soul included all of theirs. That is why she said ‘one of the children of the Hebrews,’ in the plural: he had the power to stir compassion even in Pharaoh's daughter.” That is the gist of his words. This makes it clear that compassion was the very essence of Moshe Rabbeinu's being.

3cThere is also the well-known account in the Midrash.⁸ When Moshe Rabbeinu was tending Yisro's flock in the wilderness, a young goat ran away from him. He ran after it until it reached a pool of water and stopped to drink. When Moshe caught up with it, he said, “I did not know that you were running because you were thirsty. You must be tired.” He lifted it onto his shoulder and walked on. The Holy One, blessed be He, said, “You show such compassion in leading the flock of a man of flesh and blood. By your life, you will shepherd My flock, Israel.” We see, then, that compassion was bound up with Moshe's very nature. So Moshe did not, Heaven forbid, question Hashem's ways; he too knew that it was all for Israel's good. He simply could not bear Israel's suffering, because of the great compassion that had always been part of his nature.

4To this Hashem answered him, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh, for with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them from his land.”⁹ In other words, it is now, because the bondage is so harsh, that Pharaoh will have to hurry and drive them from his land with a strong hand. For the whole force of Egypt's punishment comes from this very thing, that they went further in afflicting Israel, and that is only because they are now enslaving Israel with a strong hand. It is like a compassionate father who sometimes strikes his son. He has no wish at all to strike him; what he wants is for his son to walk on the straight path. Since, then, the redemption will come through this very bondage, and without it the Egyptians would not receive their punishment, the bondage is not considered evil at all.

5This is what the Midrash says on the verse “God spoke to Moshe and said to him, ‘I am Hashem’”: “‘God spoke’ refers to the Egyptians; ‘and said to him, “I am Hashem”’ refers to Israel.”¹⁰ In other words, the attribute of judgment that rules now, expressed by the Name Elokim, God, is itself mercy for Israel. It rules now so that afterward the redemption will come, along with the punishments of the Egyptians, and the attribute of judgment will rule over the Egyptians. “And said to him, ‘I am Hashem’” is for Israel: from now on the attribute of mercy, which the Name Hashem expresses, will rest upon Israel.

6Each and every one of us should learn a lesson from this. Every person goes through hard times in his life that look like the attribute of judgment, but in reality the attribute of mercy comes out of them afterward. Everyone must know that “whatever the Merciful One does, He does for the good.”¹¹ Then he will be privileged to see the verse fulfilled: “Only goodness and kindness shall pursue me all the days of my life.”¹²

7May Hashem help us attain this simple faith, and through it may we be privileged to see the complete redemption, with the coming of the righteous Redeemer, speedily in our days. Amen.