Addict Torah: Shemot 2024/5784

Addict Torah's Mission: To interrogate Torah deeply so as to create space, connection and safety for people with addictive patterns and behaviors that have led them to a crisis of the spirit to tell and shape their stories for the purpose of healing, growth, and a return to their whole selves.

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Rabbi Mark Borovitz, Finding Recovery and Yourself in Torah, p. 85

This is an interesting beginning; we are again hearing the names of Jacob, his sons, and his grandchildren. I believe this is meant to remind us of where we came from. Lineage is important to and for us. Remembering our lineage and the lineages of others allows us to see our similarities and repair any old wounds from past generations that still impact us today.

Rabbi Mark Borovitz, Finding Recovery and Yourself in Torah, p. 86

The Hebrew name of the book, which means “names,” tells us what happens inside the people Israel and each individual Israelite. The inner life of each of us happens in stages, and each of these stages has a name. More importantly, the inner name we choose to call ourselves is significant. Our tradition teaches that there are three crowns—the crown of royalty, the crown of wealth, and the crown of priesthood—but the crown of a good name exceeds them all.

Ibn Ezra on Exodus 1:7

(1) AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL WERE FRUITFUL. They produced children as a tree produces fruit. (2) AND INCREASED ABUNDANTLY. Va-yishretzu (and increased abundantly) is similar to the word yishretzu (swarm) in Let the waters swarm (yishretzu) (Gen. 1:20). [and 'abound' in Gen 9:7]

Nahum Sarna, The JPS Torah Commentary: Exodus, p. 5

know. This is the first appearance in Exodus of the very y-d-'. It is a key term in the Exodus narratives, occurring over twenty times in the first fourteen chapters...[it] hardly does justice to the richness of its semantic range...it is experiential and embedded in the emotions, so that it may encompass such qualities as contact, intimacy, concern, relatedness, and mutuality. Conversely, not to know is synonymous with dissociation, indifference, alienation and estrangement; it culminates in callous disregard for another's humanity.

RA & USCJ, Etz Chayim: Torah and Commentary, p. 317

[Pharaoh] objects not so much to the behavior of the Israelites as to their very existence. Like many enemies of the Jewish people, he exaggerates their numbers and power.

Nehama Leibowitz, Studies in Shemot, V. 1, p. 14

Benno Jacob echoes Rambam in noting how the text nowhere records that the Egyptians actually changed the status of the Israelites from foreign residents into slaves. There was indeed no formal public act of enslavement published by Pharaoh. Such a step would have been monstrously illegal even for Pharaoh - to enslave people who had been invited to settle in the country by royal permission and agreement. Indeed in theory, they were never formally indented as slaves. Pharaoh never referred to them as slaves. But in practice they were enslaved.

Rabbi David Kasher, ParshaNut, p. 127, Kindle edition

It is not at all clear what to do when a wicked king arises. But we will not get away with doing nothing.

Michael Walzer, Exodus & Revolution, p. 149

Wherever you live, it is probably Egypt.

Dr. Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, The Particulars of. Rapture, Kindle locations 151-152

“What really happened in Egypt?” becomes a less important question than “How best to tell the story? Where to begin? What in the master story speaks to one and therefore makes one speak?”

Dr. Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, The Particulars of Rapture, Kindle locations 410-414

I think of midrash with its “many words” concealing/revealing a central mystery as offering a bridge between old hopes and the fullness of an unknown future identity. New narratives of redemption create the very freedom that the original protagonists could not “hear.” The old hopes, as Wordsworth intimates, are born from dread. The midrashic mode offers a transformation of those old hopes and a new way of imagining the self. And the quest for such transformation continues to inform the reading practice and the spiritual hopes of those who enter this world of Exodus.

Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, The Patriculars of Rapture, locations 500-512, Kindle edition

Why...does Seforno introduce a motif of Israelite responsibility for the suffering that is decreed? To this question, there is, of course, no unequivocal, historical answer. Perhaps the value of such a question lies simply in its pointing to a choice of interpretation. Seforno, we become aware, has constructed a narrative of failure, guilt, punishment, where the biblical text seemed to give us only the facts of suffering... Lawrence Weschler, in his study of the nature of modern totalitarianism, Calamities of Exile, notes that a position that insists on asserting one’s own responsibility for a given situation “has heuristic value: it makes possible a future politics that otherwise might become lost in a bottomless sense of victimization and despair.” Concentrating on responsibility for one’s own predicaments creates an emotional world in which inner growth becomes imaginable. In adopting this view of Israelite suffering, therefore, Seforno opens up difficult kinds of understanding. He invites us to reflect on the ways in which slavery, persecution, alienation—even when they are functions of a divine “edict”—are generated by human beings, in the freedom of their own narratives. And—in the same vein—on the meanings of redemption, exodus, freedom. In doing this, he stands in a tradition of commentators who read the Exodus narrative psychologically, spiritually...

Nahum Sarna, The JPS Torah Commentary: Exodus, p. 7

The names of the midwives are recorded but not those of the reigning pharaohs. In the biblical scale of values these lowly champions of morality assume far greater historic importance than do the all-powerful tyrants who ruled Egypt...Their defiance of tyranny constitutes history's first recorded act of civil disobedience in defense of a moral imperative.

Rabbi Dr. Bradley Shavit Artson, The Everyday Torah, p. 92, Kindle edition

There are two ways to understand the yira (fear) the Torah mentions. Later Jewish traditions understood a lesser fear to be the fear of God's punishments. Such a motivation was viewed with some disdain, as not really worthy of the realm of faith and holiness. What the Zohar calls "holy fear" and Rabbi Yosef Albo calls "noble fear" is not the fear of consequences. It is awe that emerges from the contemplation of God's incomparability, greatness, and magnificence. Yira involves marvel, wonder, and awe—that is, for David Ibn Daud, the "awe of greatness" as opposed to a mere "fear of harm." It was this holy fear that moved these two brave women. Such awe is different than our common fears. The Hasidic commentary Mei ha-Shiloach notes, "When one fears a person, one cannot remain calm, because fear is the opposite of being calm. However, awe of heaven brings calm to the soul. . . . As the midwives were calm because of their awe of heaven, they did not have any fear of Pharaoh's decrees."

RA & USCJ, Etz Chayim: Torah and Commentary, p. 321

Why does Pharaoh choose to believe this improbable excuse? The Hebrew word here translated 'vigorous' literally means 'like animals.' Pharaoh is ready to believe that the Israelites are virtually a different species, less human and less deserving of life than are the Egyptians, so that he can proceed with his program of persecution and slaughter.

Richard Elliott Friedman, Commentary on the Torah, p. 940, Kindle edition

1:19. they’re animals! The vowels inserted in the Masoretic Text would make this an adjective (“they’re lively”), but that form of the word does not occur anywhere else in the Bible. I think that it is more likely that the midwives are meant to be speaking in this negative way about the Israelite women in order to hide their own violation of the king’s order.

Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Covenant and Conversation, Volume 2, p. 21-22

Who were Shifra and Puah? Midrashic tradition identifies them as Yocheved and Miriam. However, in describing them the Torah uses an ambiguous phrase, hameyaldot ha’ivriyot, which could mean either “the Hebrew midwives” or “the midwives to the Hebrews.” If we follow the second interpretation, they may not have been Hebrews at all, but Egyptians. This is the view taken by Abrabanel and Samuel David Luzzatto. Luzzatto’s reasoning is simple: Could Pharaoh realistically have expected Hebrew women to murder their own people’s children? The Torah’s ambiguity on this point is deliberate. We do not know to which people Shifra and Puah belonged because their particular form of moral courage transcends nationality and race. In essence, they were being asked to commit a “crime against humanity,” and they refused to do so. Theirs is a story that deserves to be set in its full historical perspective.

Midrash Tanhuma, Pekudei, 9

(1) These are the accounts of the tabernacle … and the bronze of the offering (Exod. 38:21, 29). The bronze of the offering (tenufah) refers to the bronze vessels given to a bride, for in Greek they call a bride nymphé. You find that while the Israelites were making bricks in Egypt, Pharaoh decreed that they were not to sleep at home so that they would not have intercourse with their wives. R. Simeon the son of Halafta said: What did the Israelite women do? They would go to the Nile to draw water, and the Holy One, blessed be He, would fill their jugs with little fishes. They would (sell some), cook and prepare (the fish), and buy some wine (with the proceeds of the sale), and then bring it to their husbands in the fields, as it is said: In all manner of service in the field (Exod. 1:14). While the men were eating and drinking, the women would take out their mirrors and glance into them with their husbands. They would say: “I am more attractive than you,” and the men would reply: “I am handsomer than you.” In that way they would arose their sexual desires and become fruitful and multiply. The Holy One, blessed be He, caused them to conceive on the spot. (2) Our sages said: They bore twins. Others say: Six were formed in a single womb. Others say: twelve were born from one womb. And still other contend six hudred thousand. Those who believed that twins were born explained it by the words: Were fruitful and increased abundantly (Exod. 1:7). Those who contended that six were born based it on the words: Were fruitful and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceedingly mighty (ibid.), that is, six. Those who say that twelve were born argue that the words in this verse are in plural form, thus making twelve in all. Those who said six hundred thousand did so because it is written about fishes: Let the waters swarm abundantly (Gen. 1:20), and here it is written: Increased abundantly.

(3) It is also written concerning them: And the land was filled with them (Exod. 1:7). That is to say, that even while they were suffering hardship, they increased and multiplied, by means of the mirrors in which they preened themselves before their husbands. They aroused their sexual desires despite the arduous labors they performed. They reared all the hosts that were to depart, as it is said: All the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt (ibid. 12:41), and also: The Lord did bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts (ibid.,v. 51). (4) When the Holy One, blessed be He, told Moses to build the Tabernacle, all the Israelites brought their contributions. Some brought silver, others brought gold or copper or onyx stones or unset stones. They brought everything eagerly. The women asked themselves: What contribution can we make to the Sanctuary? They arose, took their mirrors, and brought them to Moses. When Moses saw them he became angry with them. He said to the Israelites: Take your canes and beat them on their shoulders. What purpose do these mirrors serve? The Holy One, blessed be He, called out to Moses: Moses, do you mistreat them because of these? These very mirrors produced the hosts in Egypt. Take them and make a basin of brass and its base for the priests, that they may sanctify the priests from it, as it is said: And he made the laver of brass, and base thereof of brass, of the mirrors of the serving women that did service (ibid. 38:8), for they had produced all the hosts. Therefore it is written: And the brass of the offering was seventy talents (ibid., v. 29), that is, the offering of the wives amounted to seventy talents.

Sotah 12b

The Gemara applies this to Pharaoh: Pharaoh’s astrologers saw that the savior of the Jewish people would be stricken by water. Therefore, they arose and decreed: “Every son that is born you shall cast into the river” (Exodus 1:22); they thought that their vision indicated that Moses would be killed in the water. Once Jochebed cast Moses into the water, although he was protected in an ark, the astrologers said: We no longer see in the stars anything like that sign we saw as to the downfall of the leader of the Jews by water, and therefore at that moment they canceled their decree. But they did not know that what they saw foretold that Moses would be stricken on account of the waters of Meribah. They envisioned a downfall for Moses by water but didn’t fully comprehend their vision. And this is what Rabbi Ḥama, son of Rabbi Ḥanina, says: What is the meaning of that which is written: “These [hemma] are the waters of Meribah, where the children of Israel strove with the Lord, and He was sanctified in them” (Numbers 20:13)? The verse indicates that these are the waters that the astrologers of Pharaoh saw and on account of which they erred.

Sotah 12a

The verse states: “And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took for a wife a daughter of Levi” (Exodus 2:1). The Gemara asks: To where did he go? Rav Yehuda bar Zevina says: He went according to the advice of his daughter Miriam, as the Gemara will proceed to explain. A Sage teaches: Amram, the father of Moses, was the great man of his generation. Once he saw that the wicked Pharaoh said: “Every son that is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive” (Exodus 1:22), he said: We are laboring for nothing by bringing children into the world to be killed. Therefore, he arose and divorced his wife. All others who saw this followed his example and arose and divorced their wives. His daughter, Miriam, said to him: Father, your decree is more harsh for the Jewish people than that of Pharaoh, as Pharaoh decreed only with regard to the males, but you decreed both on the males and on the females. And now no children will be born. Additionally, Pharaoh decreed to kill them only in this world, but you decreed in this world and in the World-to-Come, as those not born will not enter the World-to-Come. Miriam continued: Additionally, concerning Pharaoh the wicked, it is uncertain whether his decree will be fulfilled, and it is uncertain if his decree will not be fulfilled. You are a righteous person, and as such, your decrees will certainly be fulfilled, as it is stated with regard to the righteous: “You shall also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto you” (Job 22:28). Amram accepted his daughter’s words and arose and brought back, i.e., remarried, his wife, and all others who saw this followed his example and arose and brought back their wives.

Sotah 12a

And the Rabbis say: At the time when Moses was born, the entire house was filled with light, as it is written here: “And when she saw him that he was a goodly [tov] child,” and it is written there: “And God saw the light, that it was good [tov]” (Genesis 1:4).

Rabbi David Kasher, 'Callbacks to Creation,' Parashat Shemot 5784, at https://mechonhadar.s3.amazonaws.com/mh_torah_source_sheets/KasherParashatShemot5784.pdf

The beginning of Exodus is shot through with callbacks to Genesis to indicate that the formation of the people of Israel represents a new creation, an entirely new reality. But the stormy arc of Genesis also reminds us that for every creation there is the potential for destruction. Every new life is already haunted by the shadow of death. All of this is terribly fragile. We build our little arks, we place our greatest hopes into them, and we cast them into the water.

Nehama Leibowitz, Studies in Shemot, v. 1., p. 17

The picture drawn here of Israel is one of unrelieved gloom, characterless and faceless, devoid of personalities and bereft of leadership, a suffering, downtrodden mass with no heroic figures. The very opposite is true in the second chapter. One family: a father, mother and daughter emerges from the gloomy fastness of this faceless, characterless multitude. True, but for the time being they too are. nameless. But they have character. They are distinctive. It is at this juncture that the hero is born. At first he too is nameless: 'son,' 'child,' 'youth.' Only in the tenth verse does he qualify for a name.

Richard Elliott Friedman, Commentary on the Torah, p. 948, Kindle edition

I imagine—this is my midrash—that they do not give him a name. They call him “the child” (Hebrew hayyeled). When they talk to him they call him “my child” (yaldî). And this gives those years a mysterious, portentous quality. They know that his naming simply is not in their power. And so his fate is not in their hands either. Count how many times you call your child by his or her name in a day, and you will know how many times these parents are reminded of their unique situation: thankful that their son alone is spared from death but sad and frightened that he will be raised by others, from the very household that is their enemy, and worried that he will not know who his real people and family are.

Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Covenant and Conversation, Vol. 2., p. 27-28

How surpassingly strange that the hero of the exodus, greatest of all the prophets, should bear not the name Amram and Yocheved have undoubtedly used thus far, but the one given to him by his adoptive mother, an Egyptian princess...Indeed Moshe – Meses – is an Egyptian name, meaning “child,” as in Ramses (which means child of Ra; Ra was the greatest of the Egyptian gods).

Sotah 12b

Rabbi Yoḥanan says in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai: This teaches that she came down to the river to cleanse herself from the impurity of her father’s idols, as she was immersing herself as part of the conversion process.

RA & USCJ, Etz Chayim: Torah and Commentary, p. 322-323

Until that moment, the Hebrews had been an abstraction, and she was prepared to believe the worst about them. Once she encountered an innocent, vulnerable Israelite, however, she had to recognize her common humanity with them...A rabbinic tradition has it that Pharaoh's daughter later joined the Israelite people at the time of the Exodus and she stood at Sinai with them.

Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, p. 626, Kindle Edition.

God called the son of Amram, the name conferred upon him by Pharaoh's daughter. He said to the princess: "Moses was not thy child, yet thou didst treat him as such. For this I will call thee My daughter, though thou art not My daughter," and therefore the princess, the daughter of Pharaoh, bears the name Bithiah, "the daughter of God." She married Caleb later on, and he was a suitable husband for her. As she stood up against her father's wicked counsels, so Caleb stood up against the counsel of his fellow-messengers sent to spy out the land of Canaan. For rescuing Moses and for her other pious deeds, she was permitted to enter Paradise alive.

CCAR, The Torah: A Women's Commentary, p. 895,Kindle Edition

Epitaph

Eleanor Wilner

Exodus 2:1–10

Though only a girl,

the first born of Pharaoh,

I was the first to die.

Young then,

we were bored already,

rouged pink as oleanders

on the palace grounds,

petted by the eunuchs,

overfed from gem-encrusted bowls,

barren with wealth,

until the hours of the afternoon

seemed to outlast even

my grandmother’s mummy,

a perfect little dried apricot

in a golden skin.

We would paint to pass the time,

with delicate brushes dipped

in char on clay,

or on our own blank lids.

So it was that day we found him

wailing in the reeds,

he seemed a miracle to us,

plucked from the lotus

by the ibis’s beak,

the squalling seed

of the sacred Nile.

He was permitted as a toy;

while I pretended play

I honed him like a sword.

For him,

I was as polished and as perfect

as a pebble in a stutterer’s mouth.

While the slaves’ fans beat

incessantly as insect’s wings,

I taught him how to hate

this painted Pharaoh’s tomb

this palace built of brick and dung,

and gilded like a poet’s tongue;

these painted eyes.

Nehama Leibowitz, Studies in Shemot, vol 1, citing Ha-ketav Veha-kabalah (18th c.), p. 43, & Vayikra Rabbah 32,4, p. 44

He saw there was no real man amongst them, no one who took an interest in his brothers' misfortune...

R. Yehudah said: He saw there was no one ready to champion the cause of the Holy One Blessed be He.

Rashi on Exodus 2:11,2

(2) וירא בסבלתם AND HE SAW THEIR BURDENS — he set his eyes and mind to share in their distress. (Exodus Rabbah 1:27)

Nehama Leibowitz, Studies in Shemot v. 1., page 46, citing Midrash Petirat Moshe ('the Midrash of the Passing of Moses')

Said the Holy One: 'Did I in any wise tell thee to slay the Egyptian?' Said Moses to Him: 'But Thou didst slay all the firstborn of Egypt, and shall I die for the sake of one Egyptian?' Said the Holy One blessed by He to him: 'Canst thou liken thyself to Me who causeth to die and bringeth to life? Canst thou, in any wise, bring to life like Me?'

Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, p. 643, Kindle edition

When Moses arrived in Midian, it was at the well that he made halt, and his experience was the same as Isaac's and Jacob's. Like them he found his helpmeet there. Rebekah had been selected by Eliezer as the wife of Isaac, while she was busy drawing water for him; Jacob had seen Rachel first, while she was watering her sheep, and at this well in Midian Moses met his future wife Zipporah.

Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, p. 646, Kindle edition

Moses had been standing without all this time, and had allowed Jethro's daughters to describe him as an Egyptian, without protesting and asserting his Hebrew birth. For this God punished him by causing him to die outside of the promised land. Joseph, who had proclaimed in public that he was a Hebrew, found his last resting-place in the land of the Hebrews, and Moses, who apparently had no objection to being considered an Egyptian, had to live and die outside of that land.

Rambam on Exodus 2:23

Scripture however mentions nothing of [the entire period of] his flight excepting, And he dwelt in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well, since nothing happened to him in those other days which Scripture found necessary to relate. And it is logical. He who flees from the reach of a government does not tarry in a settled place or its environs. Instead, he flees from place to place in remote regions. Thus he stayed away for a long time, hiding himself and feigning to be a stranger, going about from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people, and at the end of that time he came to Midian and stayed there. This is the meaning of the verse, And he dwelt in the land of Midian.

Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, The Particulars of Rapture, locations 728-732, 764, Kindle edition

Four synonyms for crying are used here: anacha, za’aka, shav’a, na’aka. In response, God—never mentioned till now—hears, remembers, sees, knows. There is a sense of a violent opening of the channels linking God and the world. This is signaled, in human experience, by a sudden outbreak of wailing, screaming, groaning, howling, after the silence of the early phase of the narrative. From God’s viewpoint, the narrative describes a moment of transformation...This change—the human cry, the divine involvement in pain—is what makes redemption possible.

Nehama Leibowitz, Studies in Shemot, v. 1, p. 17

Hitherto there has been no reference, direct or implied to the name of God (except in connection to the midwives). Where had He disappeared to? Had he abandoned the world?...Where was He to be found, in the light of the bondage, persecution and suffering?...the next three verses...mark the turning point in the story, the turning point from serfdom to redemption.

Shemot Rabbah 2:5

Why did the Holy One, Blessed be He, see fit to speak to Moses from within a thorn-bush? [R. Joshua retorted]: If it had been a carob tree or a sycamore tree, would you not have asked the same question. However to send you away you without any answer is not possible, [so] why from within a thorn-bush? To teach you that there is no empty place devoid of the Shechinah, not even a [lowly] thorn-bush.

Nehama Leibowitz, Studies in Shemot, v. 1, p 59, citing R. Eliezer b. Arakh

God revealed himself to Moses through the lowliest of trees, not 'from the mountain peaks and the lofty places of the world and the cedars of Lebanon..Just as God is unassuming and lowers himself, so man who is but dust and ashes must certainly do so.

RA & USCJ, Etz Chayim: Torah and Commentary, p. 327

How long must one watch a burning bush before realizing that it is not being consumed by the flames? How many miracles might be happening around us but we, in our haste, never stop to notice them?

Nahum Sarna, The JPS Torah Commentary: Exodus, p. 15

The idea of explicitly sacred space is encountered here for the first time. No such concept exists in Genesis, which features only sacred time - the Sabbath.

Rabbi Shai Held, The Heart of Torah, volume 1, location 2641, Kindle eddition

R. Alexander Zusia Friedman (1897–1946) offers a fanciful but beautiful interpretation of what God means. God gives Moses his monumental assignment, and Moses responds by asking, “Who am I?” God then tells him: The very fact that you ask this question, the very fact that you doubt your ability to carry out this momentous mission is itself the sign that it is I who sent you, since I only choose those who are modest and self-effacing to do my work.

RA & USCJ, Etz Chayim: Torah and Commentary, p. 330

It is significant that this name of God is not a noun but a verb. The essence of Jewish theology is not the nature of God, but the actions of God.

Richard Elliott Friedman, Commentary on the Torah, p. 964, Kindle edition

YHWH. The name of God is now revealed. It is a verb. It is third person. It is singular. And it is masculine. Its root meaning is “to be.” It is generally understood to be a causative form. Its tense is the imperfect, and it cannot be limited to a past, present, or future time. Its nearest translation would be: He Causes To Be.

Rambam on Exodus 3:13, 3

And G-d answered him, “‘I WILL BE THAT WHICH I WILL BE. I will be with you in this sorrow, and I will be with you in other sorrows.’

Rambam on Exodus 3:13, 3

In a similar vein the Rabbis expounded: “Rabbi Yitzchak said that the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses: ‘I am He Who has been, Who is now, and Who will be in the future.’ This is why Eh’yeh is written here three times.” The explanation of Rabbi Yitzchak’s opinion is that since with respect to the Creator, past and future times are conceived completely in terms of the present — for there is no host succeeding host with regards to Him, and nothing of His time has passed — hence all times with reference to Him are called by one name, signifying a Being Whose existence is absolute.

Rabbi Mark Borovitz, Finding Recovery and Yourself in Torah, p. 89

This name of God screams at me that unless you and I participate in redeeming the world, one person at a time, God remains mere potentiality. We have the power and obligation to call ourselves God’s representatives and to do our part for redemption. Redemption requires that we repair our inner lives, returning to our true selves and responding to life in a manner proper and befitting of the person we wish to become.

Exodus Rabbah 1:26

The daughter of Pharaoh would kiss and hug and adore him (Moses) as if he were her own son, and she would not take him out of the king’s palace. And because [Moses] was so beautiful, everyone yearned to see him. One that would see him would not leave his presence. And it was that Pharaoh would kiss him (Moses) and hug him, and he would remove Pharaoh’s crown and place it on his own head, as he would do to him in the future when he was great. And just as the Holy One Blessed is He said to Hiram (Ezekiel 28:18), “…I have brought fire from within you, it will consume you…”, similarly the daughter of Pharaoh raised the one who would punish her father in the future. And even the anointed king, that is destined to punish Edom, sits among them in their [own] province, as it says (Isaiah 27:10) “…there shall the calf (the Messiah) graze and there lie down and destroy its branches.” And some of the observers sitting among them were the magicians of Egypt that said, “We are wary of this, that he is taking your crown and placing it on his head, that he not be the one we say (i.e. prophesy) that will take the kingship from you.” Some said to kill him, and some said to burn him. And Jethro was sitting among them and said to them, “This child has no intent [to take the throne]. Rather, test him by bringing in a bowl [a piece of] gold and a coal. If he outstretches his hand towards the gold, [surely] he has intent [to take the throne], and you should kill him. And if he outstretches his hand towards the coal, he [surely] does not have intent [to take the throne], and he does not deserve the death penalty.” They immediately brought the bowl before him (Moses), and he outstretched his hand to take the gold, and Gabriel came and pushed his (Moses’) hand, and he grabbed the coal. He then brought his hand along with the coal into his mouth and burned his tongue, and from this was made (Exodus 4:10) “slow of speech and slow of tongue.”

Nahum Sarna, The JPS Torah Commentary: Exodus, p. 23

The motif of the stiffening, or hardening, of Pharaoh's heart runs through the entire Exodus story; it appears exactly twenty times. Half of the references are to an essential attribute of the man's character, half are attributed to divine causality. In the biblical conception, the psychological faculties are considered to be concentrated in the heart. Regarded as the seat of the intellectual, moral, and spiritual life of the individual, this organ is the determinant of behavior. The 'hardening of the heart' thus expresses a state of arrogant moral degeneracy, unresponsive to reason and incapable of compassion.

Rabbi Mark Borovitz, Finding Recovery and Yourself in Torah, p. 91

There is a direct correlation between Moses’s defiance and God saying that God will strengthen Pharaoh’s heart. Both Moses and Pharaoh want to continue to argue against God. Neither wants to accept the yoke of obligation that comes with heeding the call of God. Moses finally is strong enough to realize that God wants him to accept the call from a place of inner strength. Pharaoh never accepts that his strength comes from God, not from himself. Pharaoh is invested in his outer strength, but Moses learns that without inner strength, there is no truly lasting outer strength.

Nehama Leibowitz, Studies in Shemot, v. 1., p. 87, citing Shemot Rabbah 5, 14

Where had the elders got to? For they are no longer listed though the Almighty had commanded Moses: 'You must go, you and the elders of Israel.' Our rabbis said: The elders went along at the beginning but steathily slipped away, one by one, two by two and disappeared. But the time they reached Pharaoh's palace not one of them remained. This is witnessed by the text: 'After that Moses and Aaron arrived.' But where were the elders? They had slipped away.

Richard Elliott Friedman, Commentary on the Torah, p. 987 Kindle Edition

The Egyptian king’s first words to Moses are, “Who is YHWH . . . ? I don’t know YHWH” (5:2). By the end of the story he knows.

RA & USCJ, Etz Chayim: Torah and Commentary, pm. 340

Moses' bitter disappointment at his initial failure points both to his unrealistic expectations of early success and to his original reluctance to accept the divine commission.