Shemot (parashah)

In Deuteronomy 24:8–9, Moses warned the Israelites in the case of skin disease (צָּרַעַת‎, tzara'at) diligently to observe all that the priests would teach them, remembering what God did to Miriam.

In 2 Kings 7:3–20 (part of the haftarah for parashah Metzora), the story is told of four "leprous men" (מְצֹרָעִים‎, m'tzora'im) at the gate during the Arameans' siege of Samaria.

[93] Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai interpreted 1 Samuel 2:27 to show that the Shekhinah accompanied the Israelites during their exile in Egypt, highlighting their beloved status before God.

[97] Alternatively, the Babylonian Talmud reports that Hama bar Hanina son of Rabbi Ḥanina taught that Joseph died before his brothers, as evidenced by the order in Exodus 1:6 because he conducted himself with an air of superiority.

[100] Rabbi Jeremiah bar Abba saw Exodus 1:7 foreshadowed in the dream of Pharaoh's butler in Genesis 40:10, "And in the vine were three branches; and as it was budding, its blossoms shot forth, and its clusters brought forth ripe grapes."

And Rabbi Jeremiah read the words of Genesis 40:10, "and as it was budding, its blossoms shot forth," to foretell the time that Exodus 1:7 reports when the Jewish people would be fruitful and multiply.

Balaam devised the plan and was slain; Job acquiesced and was afflicted with sufferings; and Jethro fled Pharaoh's council and thus merited that his descendants should sit in the Hall of Hewn Stones as members of the Sanhedrin.

[105] The Gemara interpreted the words "And they were grieved (wa-yakuzu) because of the children of Israel" in Exodus 1:12 to teach that the Israelites were like thorns (kozim) in the Egyptians' eyes.

[105] Rabbi Eleazar interpreted the words "with rigor (parech)" in Exodus 1:13 to mean that Pharaoh lulled the Israelites into servitude "with a tender mouth (peh rak)."

"[109] Rava interpreted Exodus 1:14 to teach that at first, the Egyptians made the Israelites' lives bitter with mortar and brick, but finally it was with all manner of service in the field.

Rabbi Hanan taught that Pharaoh gave the midwives a sign that when a woman bent to deliver a child, her thighs would grow cold like stones (abanim).

And the other said that God made them the ancestors of the royal house of Israel, teaching that Caleb married Miriam, whom 1 Chronicles 2:19 calls Ephrath, and 1 Samuel 17:12 reports that David was the son of an Ephrathite.

Rav Judah bar Zebina taught that Amram remarried Jochebed as though it were their first marriage; he seated her in a sedan chair as was the custom for first brides, Aaron and Miriam danced before her, and the ministering angels called her (in the words of Psalm 113:9) "a joyful mother of children.

[119] Rabbi Eleazar explained that Jochebed's choice of bulrushes—a cheap material—for the ark (as reported in Exodus 2:3) demonstrated that righteous people's money is dearer to them than their bodies, so that they should not be driven to steal.

[105] Rabbi Isaac noted that Exodus 2:4 used several words associated elsewhere in Scripture with the Shechinah, and deduced that the Divine Presence thus stood with Miriam as she watched over the baby Moses.

[128] Interpreting the words in Exodus 3:1, "he led the flock to the farthest end of the wilderness," a midrash taught that Moses did so to keep them from despoiling the fields of others.

)[131] The Mekhilta of Rabbi Simeon taught that God spoke to Moses from the thorn bush because it is more formidable than other plants in that a bird that enters it cannot emerge from it without being cut.

Rabbi Jacob ben Dostai said that it is about three miles from Lod to Ono, and once he rose up early in the morning and waded all that way up to his ankles in fig honey.

A person affected by skin disease (מְּצֹרָע‎, metzora) is accounted as dead, for Numbers 12:10–12 says, "And Aaron looked upon Miriam, and behold, she was leprous (מְצֹרָעַת‎, metzora'at).

Rabban Simeon ben Gamaliel taught that the Accuser did not seek to slay Moses but Eliezer, for Exodus 4:25 reports, "Then Zipporah took a flint, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet; and she said: ‘Surely a bridegroom of blood are you to me.'"

[166] A midrash interpreted the words of Proverbs 29:23, "A man's pride shall bring him low; but he that is of a lowly spirit shall attain to honor," to apply to Pharaoh and Moses, respectively.

The midrash taught that the words, "A man's pride shall bring him low," apply to Pharaoh, who in Exodus 5:2 haughtily asked, "Who is the Lord that I should hearken to His voice?"

And the midrash taught that the words, "but he that is of a lowly spirit shall attain to honor," apply to Moses, who in Exodus 8:5, humbly asked Pharaoh, "Have this glory over me; at what time shall I entreat for you .

[173] The parashah is discussed in these modern sources: Noting that Exodus 1:11 does not identify the Pharaoh involved, Nahum Sarna wrote that the term “Pharaoh” in ancient Egyptian meant simply “The Great House.” The term originally applied to the royal palace and court, but late in the 18th Dynasty, Egyptians came to employ it by metonymy for the reigning monarch, just as English speakers would use “The White House” or “City Hall” today.

Plaut reported that scholars generally agree that the term “Hebrew” (עִברִי‎, Ivri) came from the name of a group called Habiru or Apiru, people who had lost their status in the community from which they came, and who were not necessarily related except by common fate.

[178] Sigmund Freud saw in the story of Moses in the bulrushes in Exodus 2:1–10 echoes of a myth of a hero who stands up manfully against his father and in the end overcomes him.

The expression evoked a general sense of the bounty of the land and suggested an ecological richness exhibited in several ways, not just with milk and honey.

[186] Everett Fox noted that “glory” (כְּבוֹד‎, kevod) and “stubbornness” (כָּבֵד לֵב‎, kaved lev) are leading words throughout the book of Exodus that give it a sense of unity.

[190] Friedman attributes one small change—making plural the word "sons" in Exodus 4:20—to the editor (sometimes called the Redactor of JE, or RJE) who combined the Jahwist and Elohist sources in the years following 722 BCE.

"[195] Next, the Haggadah cites Exodus 1:10–13 to elucidate the report in Deuteronomy 26:6 that "the Egyptians dealt ill with us [the Israelites], and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage.