“And G-d spoke to Moshe and to Aharon, and He commanded them regarding the Children of Israel and regarding Pharaoh the king of Egypt, to take the Children of Israel out of the land of Egypt” (Sh’mos 6:13). Although Rashi quotes a Midrashic approach to explain this verse (that G-d told Moshe and Aharon how to deal with the nation and with Pharaoh while fulfilling G-d’s mission of taking the nation out of Egypt), he acknowledges that the plain meaning of the verse is that G-d gave them instructions to relay to the nation and to Pharaoh in order to accomplish the mission of taking the nation out of Egypt. Making demands of Pharaoh is easily understood, as he  had to let the nation go before they could leave. But what kind of demands had to be made on the Children of Israel before they would leave Egypt? Wouldn’t they be want to leave willingly, as soon as Pharaoh said it was okay to go?

When Moshe came back from Midyan the second time and relayed G-d’s message that He was going to take them out of Egypt (6:6), “the Children of Israel didn’t listen to Moshe because of their limited spirit and their hard labor” (6:9). Therefore, G-d instructed Moshe to counter this “not listening,” i.e. not being willing to be redeemed, so that He could take them out of Egypt. The question then becomes what Moshe was commanded to do to accomplish this.

The Mechilta (Bo 5) explains specifically what they were unwilling to do and how this was to be undone. Midrash HaGadol (6:9, mirroring the Mechilta, see also Sh’mos Rabbah 6:5) puts it this way: “Is there any slave who, when you tell him he can go free doesn’t go? Rather, Moshe had told [them that in order to be redeemed they must] become circumcised and separate from the Egyptian deities and purify themselves and accept the Torah. They said to him ‘is there any servant who [willingly] takes upon himself two masters? We are Pharaoh’s slaves; how can we violate his decrees? We are too afraid to.” Pharaoh had prohibited circumcision and began mandating idol worship (see Pirkay d’Rebbe Eliezer 29 and Torah Sh‘laimah 2:181), but it was necessary for the nation to stop worshipping false deities and to be circumcised before they could be redeemed; Moshe was commanded to get them to do so. This was finally accomplished right before they left Egypt, by having them slaughter an animal that the Egyptians worshipped for the Passover offering (as the Mechilta explains earlier in that chapter) and undergoing circumcision in order to be able to eat the offering (see Sh’mos 12:43-48).

Although there are numerous Midrashim which tell us that the nation worshipped idols in Egypt (including the ones cited above), and numerous Midrashim that tell us that they didn’t fulfill the mitzvah of circumcision in Egypt (e.g. Sh’mos Rabbah 1:8; seehttps://rabbidmk.wordpress.com/2015/01/08/parashas-shemos-5775/), thereby necessitating Moshe reversing this, Eliyahu Rabbah (23) tells us that when [the nation of] Israel was serving only their Father in heaven in Egypt and wouldn‘t change their language, the Egyptians would say to them, ‘why won’t you serve the Egyptian deities, and lighten your workload from Him (implying that they won’t need to keep His commandments anymore, not that they would have less work from the Egyptians)?’ They said to them, ‘did our forefathers Avraham, Yitzchok and Yaakov abandon our Father in heaven that their sons should abandon Him?’ The Egyptians said to them, ‘no,’ and Israel said to them, ‘our forefathers didn’t abandon our Father in heaven; so too we will not abandon Him.” Eliyahu Rabbah then continues by saying that “when Israel would circumcise their sons in Egypt, the Egyptians said to them, ‘why are you circumcising your sons if a short time afterwards they will be tossed into the river?’ Israel would say to them, ‘we will circumcise them and afterwards you do what you want.” (Their commitment to circumcision is expressed again in Chapter 24.) How are we to understand these seemingly contradictory Midrashim? Did the Children of Israel keep the mitzvah of circumcision in Egypt, or not? Did they worship the Egyptian deities, or not?

Torah Sh’laimah (1:86), after quoting numerous Midrashim saying that they didn’t keep circumcision in Egypt, adds that other Midrashim disagree, quoting Eliyahu Rabbah and other sources that say that they did keep circumcision in Egypt. And, if we are going to just attribute these seemingly differing statements to differing opinions, we can say the same about the differing Midrashim about whether the nation worshipped idols in Egypt. However, as Rabbi Yitzchok Sorotzkin, sh’lita, (Rinas Yitzchok II, Sh’mos 6:13) points out, the Mechilta quotes verses in Yechezkel (20:7-8) which say they worshipped idols in Egypt. How can any Midrash say that they didn’t if there are explicit verses telling us that they did? And once we need to explain how the Midrashim regarding worshipping idols aren’t contradictory, there is good reason to believe that there must be a way to reconcile the Midrashim regarding circumcision as well.

Rav Sorotzkin references the Beis Halevi (on Parashas Sh’mos), who reconciles the Midrashim regarding circumcision by suggesting that the nation did circumcise their sons, but then stretched the skin around the circumcision to hide it so that they would “fit in” with the Egyptians, hoping it would lead to being treated better (it had the opposite effect). Although doing so is forbidden, which is why they were taken to task for it, the mitzvah of circumcision was fulfilled with the initial circumcision. The Beis HaLevi admits that the wording of one Midrash (he references the Yalkut Shimoni, Hoshea 520, which is a quote of the Tanchuma Yoshon, Sh’mos 7) is not consistent with his suggestion, and says it must be a scribal error. However, this is not the only Midrash (see Sifre B’ha’alosecha 67) whose wording indicates that they didn’t do any circumcision at all rather than doing a valid circumcision and then covering it up, severely diminishing the chances of it being a scribal error. Additionally, if they had covered their circumcisions so that the Egyptians wouldn’t know they were different, how (according to Eliyahi Rabbah) did the Egyptians know they were circumcising their sons to try to convince them to stop? Besides, if they were considered to have been circumcised, how would we explain all the sources that say they were first circumcised right before they left Egypt? [Even though the Beis HaLeivi is trying to explain the Midrash that says they stopped keeping the mitzvah of circumcision after Yosef died, he is trying to reconcile it with the Eliyahu Rabbah (actually with Yalkut Shimoni 268, which is quoting the Eliyahu Rabbah), which relates the conversation when the Egyptians were throwing the babies into the river, which was well after Yosef passed away.]

Rav Sorotzkin makes a similar suggestion to explain the differing Midrashim regarding idol worship, saying that they never really believed the Egyptian deities had any validity, but only worshipped them because of their fear of the Egyptians. And the wording of some of the Midrashim supports this suggestion. Nevertheless, several Midrashim indicate that they worshipped the Egyptian deities even after they had to. Why was there a commandment to stop worshipping idols just a few days before the exodus (Mechilta Bo 5), well after the slavery had ended, if they didn‘t really want to worship idols? What about the angels questioning why G-d was saving Israel and drowning the Egyptians if both were idol worshippers (see Mechilta B’Shalach 6)? Some Midrashim (e.g. Bamidbar Rabbah 16:26) even have them bringing an idol with them through the split sea!

Numerous Midrashim (e.g. Midrash HaGadol on Sh’mos 1:8 and Sifre, B’ha’alosecha 67) tell us that even though the nation (as a whole) stopped circumcising their sons, the Tribe of Levi kept this mitzvah throughout the exile in Egypt. Shir HaShirim Rabbah (4:7) says that every Tribe but R’euvein, Shimon and Levi worshipped idols in Egypt (which explains why only their lineage is given). I would therefore suggest that the Midrashim describing the nation worshipping idols in Egypt and not keeping the mitzvah of circumcision, are referring to most of the nation, but not to the Tribe of Levi. And The Midrashim that refer to keeping the mitzvah of circumcision and describe an unwillingness to worship idols are only referring to the Tribe of Levi, not to the nation as a whole.

As I alluded to last week, it was necessary for a sizable segment of the nation to remain steadfast in their commitment to G-d and His covenant, as this allowed the nation to still be associated with the ideals of our forefathers. And everyone who was redeemed had to recommit themselves to those ideals, something that would not have been possible without role models to bring them back into the fold. Even those who weren’t up to par likely understood the need to have a segment of the still-separate and distinct nation maintain their “traditions,” and might have helped and encouraged them to do so. The Egyptians, whose fear was having a fifth column that could overtake them (see Sh’mos 1:9-10), also understood the significance of this nation remaining distinct, and tried whatever they could to undermine that. After all, if the Israelites assimilated into Egyptian culture, there would no longer be any “them” to take “us” over. Therefore, as Eliyahu Rabbah describes, the Egyptians tried to convince the Levi’im to forego their traditions. [Since Levi’s refusal was necessary to maintain any identity of a separate “Israel,” and the whole point of the Egyptian attempt was to remove the distinctness of “Israel,” the conversation is described as being between Israel and the Egyptians, not just between the Egyptians and the Tribe of Levi.]

Did the nation worship idols? Unfortunately, yes. Did a segment of the nation, conceptually representing the nation, refuse to worship idols? Once again, the answer is yes. The same is true of circumcision; most were not circumcised, and had to become circumcised before leaving Egypt. At the same time, though, one group did circumcise their sons the whole time, no matter how hard the Egyptians tried to stop them.