Israel’s Oppressing in Egypt “We cried out to Adonai.”¹ The Haggadahbrings the verse, “And it happened when a long time had passed that the king of Egypt died,” (Ex 2:23) to teach us that the great cry came at the time of the King’s death. The Israelites were afraid that the next king would act in the same fashion as the first king and therefore they began to cry out. When the first king was alive, they had despaired of any hope so they didn’t moan. People stop moaning when there is no hope at all. The sages offer a different interpretation: “The king died” does not mean that he literally died but rather than he was stricken with leprosy. We find the expression “dead” is used in connection with leprosy, as in the verse, “Let Miriam not be as one who is dead,” (Nu. 12:12) and similarly, “In the year the King Uzziyahu died…” (Is. 6:6) Because Pharaoh was stricken with leprosy, the magicians of Egypt told Pharaoh that the only cure was for him to slaughter 150 children every morning and 150 children every night and to then bathe in their blood twice a day. When the Israelites heard about this decree, they began to groan. Why did the magicians instruct Pharaoh to slaughter the Israelite children and to bathe in their blood? They advised him thus in order to increase their cruelty toward the Israelites as much as possible. Even though they had already begun throwing their young in the Nile, Pharaoh didn’t have any direct dealings with this. But by bathing in the blood of the Israelite children, he was directly involved in the cruelty – and there was no greater cruelty than this. The magicians gave Pharaoh this advice with evil intent. Bathing was even worse than drinking the blood; when one drinks the blood, he only sees the blood once but when he bathes in it, he watches it. They told him that when he did this he would be cured of the leprosy – that is why they gave him this advice to slaughter three hundred children and bath in their blood. When this happened, the Israelites began moaning and crying out and their cry reached up to God. For nothing could be worse than this. “The Israelites groaned from bondage and cried out.” (Ex 2:23) The word vayizaaku, they cried out, is the language of a lament,¹to cry out. as in the verse, “Cry and howl, son of man.” (Ezek. 21:17) “Their plea from bondage went up to God. God heard their cry.” (Ex 2:23-24) As it states in Scripture, “The souls of the dead (*halalim)*cry out.”¹based on the verse from Job implies not just crying out because of the hard labor but also in grief for the death of their children. It was the “straw that broke the camel’s back” and moved God to respond to the suffering. Hard labor alone was not enough reason for God to enter history. (Job 24:12) The cry for the murdered children rose up to God and as a result of that God also heard their cry for the oppressive labor. God answered them for two reasons: grief over the death of the children and the moaning for the hard labor. For these reasons “God remembered the covenant God made with them.” If it hadn’t been for the grief over the death of the infants, the cry for the harsh labor might not have come before God. Three things¹includes here.

1. The Israelites groaned…and cried out a. Groaning for death of children and crying for the hard labor b. They prayed to God with their whole heart
2. Their cry for help rose up to God a. The death of the children moved God to act. b. Nothing stood in way of their prayers.
3. God heard their moaning a. It was the moaning and not just crying that convinced God. b. It was a fitting time for God to receive their prayers. There are a lot of things that we might challenge about these two interpretations of prayer. What is a fitting time for prayer? Why was God only ready to receive their prayers when they involved in the death of the Israelite children? These are questions that are deserving of more discussion. are needed for one’s prayer to be answered. First, a person must direct his heart to God. Second, if there are heavenly opponents opposing their prayers, the prayers will not be accepted. And third, it must also be a proper time for the prayer to be accepted. So the verse says, “They cried out,” meaning they cried out to God with their whole heart. “Their prayer rose up to God from the hard work” means there were no accusers blocking their prayers. “God heard their cry,” means that it was a fitting time for their prayer to be accepted. It was for these three reasons that God now accepted their prayers.

footnotes: ¹ An interesting psychological insight. We only complain when we think that there is a possibility of change. The people stopped complaining under the old king since there was no hope of change. But once he died they began to complain once again because they were afraid that the new king would be just as bad – the moaning might have been because of some possibility of change for the better… ¹ The word lament is associated with the book of Lamentations. It is a specific genre of literature which mourns the misfortunes affecting the individual or the nation. The language of lament in Ezekiel and here in Exodus both use the verb za’ak ¹ The word naaka, ¹ The three things that are necessary for prayers to be received are reflected in Exodus 2:23-24. These are not the primary text but the proof texts that the Haggadah