And the Egyptians dealt with us in an evil manner, as it is written, “let us deal wisely with them: It seems strange that the author of the Haggadah would choose Exodus 1:10 as the proof text for, “The Egyptians dealt ill with us.”¹⁵⁰ There are other verses that are more explicit in illustrating this point such as: “The Egyptians…ruthlessly imposed hard labor upon the Israelites, embittering their lives with hard labor, with mortar and bricks and with all sorts of tasks in the field.”¹⁵¹ By using “Let us deal wisely,” we learn that worse than physical oppression is causeless hatred. When a person thinks ill of his fellow or when the person has never had such evil thoughts, then he begins to hate him and seeks to kill him – this is causeless hatred. This is the meaning of this passage. The verse does not say, “The Egyptians dealt ill with us (lanu);” rather it says, “The Egyptians thought of us in an evil manner (otanu).” That is, the Egyptians treated them as if they were evil and that they had evil intentions in their hearts even though the Israelites had no such intentions. That is why the text divides the two parts of the verse from one another: “They thought ill about us,” and “they oppressed us.” These two phrases could easily have been together as one. Once Pharaoh began to worry about the Israelites’ intentions, he began to think about how to convince the rest of Egypt to go along with him. He knew that the Egyptians had fond memories of Joseph and were not likely to turn against the Israelites. Therefore, he began by implanting paranoia in the hearts of his people. He told them that the Israelites were planning a rebellion and that they would take all the wealth out of Egypt that Joseph had amassed. Only then did the Egyptians agree to oppress the Israelites when they began thinking about the Israelites great wealth and how they could steal it. He also declared war on the Edomites (the children of Esau), forcing the Israelites to go along to help in the battle. At the last minute, the Egyptians withdrew leaving the Israelites to fight with the Edomites. This upset the Israelites greatly, and some Egyptians were killed in retaliation, thus turning the Egyptians against the Israelites.¹⁵² It was only then that the advisors of Egypt gathered together and Pharaoh said, “Let us deal wisely with them.” And they oppressed us, as it is written, “They set task masters over them to oppress them:” In the previous verse, “Let us deal wisely with them,” the verse is written in the singular (hava) instead of the plural (havu); why is this? Pharaoh had three advisors: Jethro, Job, and Bila’am. He addressed all of them together as a single unit (hava, let us deal wisely). Their responses were different from one another. Jethro fled and eventually converted to Judaism. Job remained a silent bystander and was thus punished for not protesting, and Bila’am encouraged Pharaoh to oppress the Israelites. But in this verse, “They set task masters over them,” we see Pharaoh’s wicked and scheming heart. Pharaoh said to the Israelites, “I cannot let you live in my land as citizens unless you pay taxes like everyone else. I will give you a choice: you can pay taxes or you can help build my cities. The Levites warned the people not to enter into the service of the king but the people did not listen. As a result, the Israelites were enslaved but the tribe of Levi was not enslaved. Pharaoh entrapped the rest of the nation and thus was able to oppress them.

footnotes: ¹⁵⁰ Deuteronomy 26:5 ¹⁵¹ Exodus 1:13-14 ¹⁵² Sefer HaYashar