“But the more they would afflict it, the more it would increase and the more it would proliferate; they were disgusted by the children of Israel” (Exodus 1:12). “But the more they would afflict it, the more it would increase and the more it would proliferate.” “The more they increased and the more they proliferated is not stated, but rather, “it would increase and it would proliferate.” Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said: The Divine Spirit is heralding to them: Each of them “will increase and will proliferate.”25It is written in future tense and in the singular and not in past tense plural.
“They were disgusted [vayakutzu] by the children of Israel,” teaching that Israel was like thorns [kotzim] in their eyes. “The Egyptians enslaved the children of Israel ruthlessly [befarekh]” (Exodus 1:13). Rabbi Elazar said: With gentle persuasion [befeh rakh]. Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥman says: With crushing cruelty [bifrikha].
This is what they did to each person of Israel: They imposed a decree upon them that each and every day they should produce the equivalent of the number of bricks that they produced on the first day. “They embittered their lives with hard labor, with mortar and with bricks, and with all kinds of work in the fields; all the work with which they worked them ruthlessly” (Exodus 1:14). “They embittered their lives with hard labor, etc.” – initially, “with mortar and with bricks,” and later “with all kinds of work in the field,” and ultimately, “all the work.”
What is: “All the work with which they worked them ruthlessly”? Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥman said that Rabbi Yonatan [said]: It teaches that they would exchange the labor of men for women and the labor of women for men. Rabbi Avya said: Rabbi Elazar concedes that this is [work imposed] with crushing cruelty.26Although Rabbi Elazar interpreted the word befarekh in verse 13 to mean with gentle persuasion, he concedes that the word befarekh at the end of verse 14 means with crushing cruelty. Thus, the beginning of the servitude was conducted with gentle persuasion, but eventually it was with crushing cruelty.