And He saw our affliction" (Deut. 26:7) – this refers to the separation from the way of the world, as it is stated, "And God saw the Children of Israel and God knew." (Ex. 2:25) "And our toil" (Deut. 26:7) – this refers to the killing of the sons, as it is stated, "Every boy that is born, throw him into the Nile and every girl you shall keep alive." (Ex. 1:24) "And our duress" (Deut. 26:7) – this refers to the pressure, as it is stated, "And I also saw the duress that the Egyptians are applying on them." (Ex. 3:9) At first, it would appear that the sentence should have been interpreted so that these three expressions, “our affliction,” “our toil,” and, “our duress” are all synonyms, different words expressing the same idea. “He saw our affliction,” should have been interpreted the same as, “And they afflicted us; and “Our duress” should have been interpreted as referring to hard labor. However, the Maggid realized that if “And He saw our affliction, and our toil and our duress,” was similar to the interpretation of, “And the Egyptians dealt ill with us, and afflicted us and imposed hard labor upon us,” then one of these verses would be unnecessary and it would have been fitting to say, “The Egyptians dealt ill with us, and afflicted us, and placed hard labor upon us and we cried out to God… and God heard… and God saw what they did to us in Egypt and God took us out.” Why was it necessary to repeat the language itself with, “God saw our affliction, our toil and our duress?” The Maggid comes to interpret each expression differently. The first verse (“The Egyptians dealt ill with us…”) refers to what the Egyptians did to the Israelites publically: they afflicted them with bricks and mortar, building cities for the king, and crushing work which the Egyptians imposed on them. The passage then continues, “God saw our affliction, our toil and our duress.” Besides the well-known things which the Egyptians openly did to the Israelites, God saw the secret plans and hidden strategies that the Egyptians carried out and which were not known publically. Thus, the expression, “He saw our affliction” refers to the forced separation of the sexes. Many Israelite men separated from their wives so that they would not give birth in vain nor give birth to a child idly.⁶⁶ The sages said that forcing couples to refrain from having intimate relations was an “affliction.” The sages explain, “If you ill-treat (afflict) my daughters,” (Gen. 31:50) to mean refraining from sexual relations. The Maggid quotes the verse, “And God saw the Israelites and God knew.” (Ex. 2:25) God saw that the men were separating from their wives so He caused them to feel sexual desire so they would have relations and thereby would have more children. The sages interpreted the verse, “Under the apple tree I aroused you…” (Song 8:5) to mean that the women would come to the field to serve their husbands, tend to them and then they would have relations with them. The verb ‘know’ refers to intimate relations, as in, “Adam knew Eve, his wife.” (Gen.4:8) Similarly we find, “The maiden was very beautiful, a virgin whom no man had known.” (Gen 24:16) The word yeda, then, hints at this meaning in Exodus 2:25. The Maggid also came up with this interpretation by verbal analogy (gezera shava).⁶⁷ is a hermeneutic rule used by the sages primarily in the interpretation of Jewish law. When a similar word appears in two verses, the sages assumed there was a connection between the two verses. In this case, Abarbanel uses this rule of interpretation for non-halachic purposes. The word vayar, “And He saw” appears in both verses: here, “And God saw our affliction” (Deut. 26:7) and there, “And God saw the Children of Israel and God knew.” (Ex. 2:25) Just as there it means that he gave them the desire to know their wives, so too here, it has this meaning. When it says, “And God knew” regarding intimate relations it says so because no being can know what happens between a man and his wife except God.

footnotes: ⁶⁶ If they gave birth to children, the Egyptians would then kill them. To avoid the death of their children they simply stopped having sexual relations with their wives. ⁶⁷ Gezera Shava

They interpreted the expression, “And our toil” to be a reference to hidden suffering, in this case the matter of the baby boys that Pharaoh mentioned, “Every boy who is born you shall cast into the river.” There can be little doubt that Pharaoh made this decree against the babys secretly so that his followers would do this in stealth. It would have been a scandal to make such a decree publically. The One who searches the heart and tests the inwards saw this evil thing that Pharaoh did to them even though it was not publicized. God saw what he did to our children for whom we toiled in birth and in raising them. They would cast them into the Nile. It is also possible to interpret, “Our toil – this refers to the children,” to mean that they raised them in great toil and in secret places which no person knew. Since they raised them secretly, the passage says, “God saw.” The Maggid brings the verse, “every boy that is born…” was meant to explain the great trouble the Israelites went to guard and hide their children from the Egyptians. This happened because of the king’s decree, “every boy that is born…” I, however, think the first interpretation is the better one.

The expression “And our duress” (lachatzeinu) is sometimes interpreted as, “Using physical force,” as in the verse, “The ass crushed (tilachatz) Balaam’s foot against the wall,” (Num. 22:25). Sometimes it refers to coercion and compulsion as when the task masters forced the slaves to do whatever they wanted. This second interpretation is how the word lachatz is understood. The Maggid says that it is not correct to interpret the expression in Scripture, “And our duress,” as referring to giving physical blows since this meaning was also included in the expression, “And they placed upon us hard labor.” Rather Lachatzainu means “With pressure.” It wasn’t enough that they had to serve them; they did not give them any rest from this hard work for they were constantly being pressured to work harder, as in the statement, “The task masters hurried them…” (Ex. 5:13) This was not publically known, and so it was included in the list of statements. It is also possible that reason for the pressure they inflicted on the Israelites was to force them to serve the gods of Egypt. That is the reason the verse is brought, “And I have seen the pressure which the Egyptians imposed on them and I remembered my Covenant.” God saw that the divine covenant was still in their hearts and had not left them despite pressure from the Egyptians. Some interpret the word, “Pressure” to be a reference to the quota of bricks that they had to bring each day. It seems correct to me that the three things that are mentioned in this verse, “And he saw our affliction, our toil, and our duress,” are all spiritual afflictions. After explaining the first verse, “And they inflicted upon us hard labor,” as referring to physical affliction and labor, Scripture says that God heard their sigh and their outcry from this physical labor as well as their sorrow due to the separation of families, and having to hide their children and the pressure placed on the people. It was all due to the rage of the oppressors. Actually rage and spiritual suffering is even worse than physical pain. That is why God heard their outcry from physical suffering and further he knew the pain in their hearts and souls. That is why the verse seems to double the language in this statement. Everything appears here for a reason. The questions expressed in the sixty-first through the sixty-fifth gates have now been solved.