Translator's Summary: The Maggid discusses the nature of Egyptian oppression. It is not uncommon for slaves to be ‘oppressed’ and even beaten in order to get them to complete tasks. But the nature of Egyptian oppression was different. It was never about getting the Israelites to complete their job. It was sadistic - the Egyptians used their tasks as an excuse to oppress them. What is more, in the Covenant of the Pieces, God decrees that the Egyptians will enslave them and oppress them. But when the Subjugation took place, the Egyptians oppressed the Israelites by and then enslaved them - oppression came first. **“They oppressed us:” It is written; “They set taskmasters over them…*This seems to be a simple matter, so what does it come to teach us? It is possible that this is related to what is stated in the Sota:¹⁴² “Therefore they set (the taskmasters) over him(Pharaoh).” (Ex. 1:11)The verse should have stated: Over them. The school of Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, taught: This teaches that at first they brought a brick mold and hung it on Pharaoh’s neck. If a Jew said:’ I am a delicate person and I cannot participate in the labor,’ they said to him: ‘Are you at all more of a delicate than Pharaoh?’ Therefore, they “afflicted him,” was stated here. They afflicted Pharaoh in order to place harsh labor on Israel. We can now explain the verse, “The Egyptians dealt harshly with us and they afflicted him.*”This verse places the blame on Egypt. And yet in the previous verse, it states, “And he said to his people, ‘Let us deal shrewdly with them.”’ It would appear that the guilty party is Pharaoh who said, “Let us deal shrewdly.,” He was the one who made the decrees. The next verse should have said, “Pharaoh dealt harshly with us,” and blame everything on Pharaoh and not on Egypt. Therefore the Maggid comes to reveal that the Egyptians were also corrupt and they were partners with Pharaoh in bringing evil upon Israel. As Scripture states, “They (the Egyptians) placed it upon him (Pharaoh) in order to afflict Pharaoh for the harsh labor of the Israelites.” Scripture properly states, “The Egyptians dealt harshly with us and afflicted us,” as the Maggid explains in connection with the word, “And afflicted us: As it states, They placed upon him (Pharaoh)...in order to afflict…”

footnotes: ¹⁴² BT Sota 11a

**Another way of interpreting this verse:**The Maggid could have explained the verse: “The Egyptians dealt harshly with us:” with oppression and hard labor.” Then we would have explained, “And they afflicted us.” to mean that the Egyptians sole desire was to oppress Israel and and it wasn’t to build cities. Rather the Egyptians wanted to make Israel serve them for their sole purpose of oppressing them. That is what vayanunu, “And to oppress us,” means. The Maggid explains: “And they afflicted us:” as it is stated “They placed upon them taskmasters in order to afflict them.” Thus the main purpose of enslavement was to afflict Israel and appropriately, Scripture states, “They afflicted us,” to teach us this was their main goal. Otherwise Scripture could have said, “The Egyptians dealt harshly with us and placed hard labor upon us.” From the very beginning we knew that Israel was oppressed but Scripture adds something additional - this was their prime goal of enslavement - to oppress them, as it states, “They oppressed us.” Some time later I came across the book, Tzafnat Paneach by Rabbi Joseph Di Trani.¹⁴³ (Venice, 1653), a collection of sermons on the weekly lessons and the festivals. (Wikipedia) I read at the beginning of Parashat Shemot that was in agreement with what I written. God’s decree was, “They shall serve them and oppress them.” Part of enslavement was oppression. Instead the Egyptians oppressed Israel for no other purpose than to oppress them. That is why they placed hard labor upon them. They found the hardest types of work and forced them to do it. That is what is meant by “They placed upon them taskmasters in order to oppress them.” They could have given them a quota for making bricks and that would have been enough. Rather they placed cruel guards over them to find ways to oppress them and to make them build garrison cities of Pithom and Ramses which served no purpose other than to cause them suffering through purposeless oppression. This is the essence of his explanation….

footnotes: ¹⁴³ Joseph (ben Moses ben Joseph) di Trani (the Younger): Talmudist; born at Safed 1573; died at Constantinople 1644. Of his works the only one known is “Ẓofenat Pa'neaḥ

It is also possible to explain this verse according to what is stated in Katonet Yosef, a book recently published by Rabbi Avraham Brode¹⁴⁴ and his son-in-law. This is what they write: “It is ruled that one who gives something to a worker to fix and it becomes lost, the owner is exempt from paying the worker. The author of the Levush, Ir Hashushan,¹⁴⁵, a ten-volume codification of Jewish law that particularly stressed the customs of the Jews of Eastern Europe. He is known as “the Levush” or “the Ba'al Halevushim", for this work. Each section is named after terms associated with the book of Esther - particularly the names of the royal garments. One section is called Ir Shushan, or the city of Shushan. ruled that while a homeowner does not have to pay the worker, a Jew could take payment for the work of building Pithom and Ramses (even though the cities collapsed every time they built them). Pithom comes from the words pi tehom, the opening of the abyss.¹⁴⁶ According to this interpretation, there should have been no payment for labor for the work the Israelites did since it was never completed. The decisors of Jewish law ask: since it is written, “One takes an oath to a representative of the Temple about sanctified property. But a Braita asks: If the people of the city gave Shekels (for the temple)¹⁴⁷ to a messenger and they were lost, if they were set apart as shekalim, then they must swear to the Temple treasurers. But if they were not sanctified yet then they swear to the people of the city (that they were lost). The Talmud explains that they had to swear in order to collect their payment for fulfilling their part of their task.¹⁴⁸ They answer that this case is different since the messenger is hired to perform the delivery but he is not obligated to see to the sanctification of the Shekels. Since this is the case, he still receives payment for performing the task. Even if it was not completed (As in the case of Ramses and Pithom which were swallowed up every time they were built according to the Midrash) The Israelites still accomplished what was in the minds of the Egyptians - to oppress them. In Sota,¹⁴⁹ the term arei miskanot, garrison city, is interpreted to mean, “cities that impoverished their owners.” Rashi explains this name based on the passage, “They stripped the Egyptians.” (Ex. 12:36) The purpose of, “placing taskmasters upon them,” was to “oppress them.” Thus, the Israelites were paid for their labors in Pitom, even though it was “The mouth of the abyss,” that swallowed up Ramses and crushed it. It still did not cancel their payment since the intention of the Egyptians was primarily to oppress the Israelites. Based on the law they were obligated to pay for the labors and troubles in their activities.

footnotes: ¹⁴⁴ He lived from 1650 - 1717, one of the leading scholars of his generation. His third daughter was married to Yosef Moshe Braslavia, the coauthor of this book. ¹⁴⁵ Mordecai ben Avraham Jaffe (c. 1530 – 7 March 1612) was a Rabbi, Rosh yeshiva and posek. He is best known as author of Levush Malkhus ¹⁴⁶ BT Sota 11a The issue here seems to be the following: How could Israel receive payment for their years of slavery in Egypt when they built Pithom And Ramses. According to the Midrash, no matter how much they built the cities always crumbled - so in effect they never completed their job. (That is why the cities were called Pithom - the mouth of the abyss) Shouldn’t the Egyptians. ¹⁴⁷ Each year every man of drafting age had to donate a half shekel to the temple. A messenger was sent to deliver them. What happens if they were lost? ¹⁴⁸ See Mishnah Shekalim 2:1 ¹⁴⁹ BT Sota 11a