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Why Didn't Pharaoh Kill Moshe Rabbeinu? • A Lesson in Kiddusha Rabba Parshat Shemot

Why Didn't Pharaoh Kill Moshe Rabbeinu? • A Lesson in Kiddusha Rabba Parshat Shemot

Before you is the full lesson delivered on the holy Shabbat of Parshat Shemot 5786 by the esteemed Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a, during the Kiddusha Rabba after the conclusion of the Mussaf prayer:

The lesson is written as understood by the listener, and if there is an error, it should be attributed to the writer and not, God forbid, to our teacher the Rav shlit"a

Rashi says "going" means to die. Why to die? It is written "and the officers of the children of Israel were beaten," so they merited afterwards to become the elders. Those who were beaten merited to become the elders of Israel. But Dathan and Abiram also received beatings, but they thought that because they were beaten, they were tzaddikim, more righteous than Moshe Rabbeinu, so they were swallowed by the earth. Because if a person receives beatings, he should think he is receiving them because he is wicked. So the elders thought they were wicked and therefore received beatings, so they later became the elders. But Dathan and Abiram thought that because they were beaten, they were tzaddikim, so they were swallowed by the earth. And it is written that there was a smell, a terrible smell, as it is written. They said "you have made our smell stink" because the skin peeled from the flesh from the beatings they received, and there was a bad smell.

Rashi says: "going" that the maidens of Bithiah, daughter of Pharaoh, Rashi says they were "going" – meaning to die, and then Bithiah took him. But he did not want to nurse from the Egyptian women, so she knew he was Jewish. Like the daughter of the Shach who fell, she disappeared, and she did not want to listen to the songs of the gentiles, she was not willing. Everyone listened to the songs, and she did not want to listen, so they knew she was Jewish. So they asked the Shach, and the Shach was already forty years old, and she was twenty. So the Shach said to check if she had a mark on her shoulder, and she had a mark on her shoulder, so they knew she was his daughter.

Now they asked me why Pharaoh did not kill Moshe, for he sees he is circumcised. He also sees he took the crown, so he saw that the dream he dreamed was coming true, that a star came and swallowed all the seven stars {later he said 70 stars}. So he sees it is exactly the dream, so why did he not kill him?

So they said to test Moshe Rabbeinu, so they placed two bowls, one of gold coins, one of coals. But Moshe wanted to take the coins because he was a merchant, he knew what was worth taking. So an angel came and pushed his hand into the coals, and then he took one coal and put it in his mouth, and then he became heavy of speech until the giving of the Torah, when they were healed from all the ailments.

But why did Pharaoh not kill Moshe, for he sees he is circumcised? Rather, when Moshe was born, it was eighty years before the redemption, which means three hundred and twenty years after the birth of Isaac, and Ishmael was already circumcised a year before, so it means they had been circumcising for three hundred and twenty years. Three hundred and twenty years people were circumcising themselves, so half the world was already circumcised, so they said this is not a Jew, this is a Muslim child, and therefore Pharaoh did not kill him.