“Was Moshe Really the Prince of Egypt”

One of the highlights of my week is when I go into the preschool rooms and teach them the parshah. This past Thursday, I sat down with the the 4 year old class and said, “do you know that a long time ago, our great great grandparents were slaves in Egypt. A little boy named Moshe was born and his mommy tried to hide him. When she could no longer hide him, she put him in a basket in the river.” At this point, one of the 4 year olds raised her hand and said, “But Rabbi: I already saw this movie.”

For those of you who are older than 10, let me tell you that she was not referring to “The Ten Commandments” with Charlton Heston! She was talking about “The Prince of Egypt” which has actually become a favorite movie of my children and I have to confess, I also end up watching it with them!

The movie develops the theme that Moshe was the Prince of Egypt and there are Rabbinic Texts which talk about this as well. Moshe was adopted by the Daughter of Pharoah, he grew up with the education of Egyptian Nobility and he was a possible heir to the throne.

All of this begs the following question. Why did Hashem choose Moshe to take the Jews out of Egypt? Moshe, a prince, never went hungry in his life, he never experienced manual labor and he never felt the crack of the Egyptian Taskmaster’s whip on his back. How could he understand the Jewish Slaves? He was not one of them. Why was he chosen to take them out?

I would like to answer this question by focusing on just two words from this morning’s parshah. After Moshe grows up (some midrashim say he was 20, others say he was 40), we are told that he went out to his brothers (the Jewish Slaves) וירא בסבלתם - and he saw their affliction and pain.
The Midrash asks, מהו וירא? What does this mean that he saw? Is this the first time he saw the Jewish slaves? How is this possible? This would be like a man growing up in the American South during the 1840’s and not ever see slaves until he was 20! Impossible. Every farm, every construction site would have been full of slaves. Moshe probably had many personal slaves just taking care of his own needs.

Elie Weisel has a beautiful insight in his book “Messengers of God” on this verse. וירא בסבלתם can have two meanings. It can either mean “He saw their affliction” or from the hebrew word “Savlanut” it can mean, “He saw their patience.” He saw that they were resigned to their fate. As a prince, Moshe was used to getting whatever he wanted by just snapping his fingers and here, his biological brothers were doing nothing. The Ibn Ezra similarly explains that Moshe needed to be a prince because the slaves could not take themselves out. They had a slave mentality and they needed someone from the outside to help.

The problem however with someone from the outside is that they do not really understand. Without personally experiencing the slavery, how could they lead the slaves to freedom. For this, we need to turn to a second definition of וירא בסבלתם - He saw their affliction. He didn’t see. He probably saw slavery thousands of times in his life. But this was the first time, her really saw. He saw and had empathy. The midrash says

מהו וירא שהיה רואה בסבלותם ובוכה ואומר חבל לי עליכם מי יתן מותי עליכם, שאין לך מלאכה קשה ממלאכת הטיט, והיה נותן כתיפיו ומסייע לכל אחד ואחד מהן

 Moshe saw their affliction and cried (he had empathy). He said, “I am in pain because of what is happening to you. If only I could die for you.” Moshe would then bend his shoulder and ease the burden of each one of them.

The cynic might ask: How is Moshe really helping? If he bends his shoulder, the Egyptians will give them more work. Did one jew go to freedom because Moshe bent his shoulder under the burden? The answer is that Moshe needed to do this in order to experience the slavery. As another midrash says, נשתתף בצרתם - He became a partner in their pain. In order help, he first had to feel the pain. וירא בסבלתם - He saw and he had empathy.

One might ask, how could one witness slavery and the beating of a Jewish slave and not have empathy. What was so great about Moshe’s behavior?
Well, Moshe could have acted in a different way. I am sure that the Egyptian education system drilled justifications for slavery into their students. “Slavery is necessary for our economy.” “It is better for the slaves.” “When an enemy comes, if the Jews have freedom, they will fight against us - Slavery is necessary for ‘national security.’”

Furthermore if Moshe sees a fellow Egyptian hitting a jew, any good Egyptian would have assumed that the Jew was at fault. Moshe could have seen and made judgements against the Jews. Instead he saw and had empathy.

Let me conclude with a story about Rabbi Aryeh Levin (which appeared in an Essay by Rabbi Yechezkel Yakobson, Rosh Hayeshiva of Shalavim). Rabbi Aryeh Levin was known as the “Tzadik of Yerushalayim.” He was also called the Rabbi of the Prisoners. Every shabbat morning, he would go to the prisons and help the leading the davening for those who nobody else thought were worthwhile.
Rabbi Levin also had a regular job as the principal of Etz Chayim Yeshiva for boys in Yerushalayim. Every morning as the boys came in from playing outside, Rabbi Levin would just stare at the boys for 5 minutes. One day, one of the other teachers asked Rabbi Levin, “what are you looking at for 5 minutes when the boys come in?” Rabbi Levin invited the other teacher to join him the next morning.

The next morning, they were standing side by side staring at the boys. After 5 minutes, Rabbi Levin asked the other teacher, “Nu, so what did you see.” The teacher said, “I saw Moshe straggling behind trying to do everything he could to come late to class. I saw Yitzchak’s Yarmulka fall off and he didnt bother to pick it up. I saw Shlomo’s tzitzis were not on correctly and I saw Dovid was fighting with the other boys.”
The teacher turns to Rabbi Levin and asks, “and what did you see?”
Rabbi Levin says, “Moshe, I noticed that he was looking a little thin. He must not be eating three meals a day so I made a mental note to send some money to his parents. I noticed Yitzchak’s shirt was ripped and it had not been replaced. And Dovid who was fighting, I wondered to myself “what kind of tension might there be in home if he is acting like that, I better pay the family a visit and see if I can be of help.”

Two people saw the same exact situation and reacted in two different ways. One saw and judged and the other saw and had empathy.
וירא בסלתם - Moshe saw the slavery and had 100 reasons to see and judge the jews. Instead he saw and had empathy.
Here is the difficult question for all of us. When we pull up to the red light and someone is begging for money (regardless of what we do), do we see and judge or do we see and have empathy.
When we see people who look different than the way we look, dress differently, behave in ways that we might not approve of, how do we react? Do we see and judge or do we see and have empathy. Let us all strive to be like Moshe. Let us see and have empathy.