1. [1:10] “…and make war with us and leave the land.” It seems that Pharoah did not want the Israelites in Egypt, but also didn’t want them to leave. What did he want? How do you understand this pasuk?

2. [2:10] “…because I pulled him out of the water.” What quality did Pharoah’s daughter show by pulling him out of the water, and how might this choice of name have affected the development of Moshe’s personality?

3. [2:23] When the Israelites screamed, God heard them and the redemption started. The Torah does not say that they screamed to God, but only that they screamed. The Torah speaks both on the physical and the spiritual level. On an individual spiritual level, when a person screams out of his or her pain, why is that the beginning of their redemption?

4. [4:10] Moshe says that he is not fit for the mission of taking the Israelites out of Egypt because he has some kind of speech impediment. Later his speech seems to be fine and we are never told how he improved. What might have caused the improvement in Moshe’s speech?

5. (Haftara: Isaiah 27:12) When Isaiah speaks of the final redemption, he says that we will be “gathered one by one”. Why not in groups? What does this phrase tell us about the final redemption?

Commentary

[2:10] “…and she called his name Moshe, and she said, “Because I pulled him out of the water”.

From here you can understand how great is the reward for those who do acts of kindness. Although Moshe had many names, the name by which he is known throughout the Torah is the one which Batyah, the daughter of Pharaoh, called him, and even God called him by the same name.

–Midrash Rabbah

This study page is dedicated to the memory of Sarah Bella bat Yitzchak Kummer, Chaim Yosef Yechiel ben Eliyahu Kummer and Eliyahu and Margaret Kummer