Alternatively, “he saw their burdens,” – he saw that they had no respite. He went and said to Pharaoh: ‘One who has a slave, if he does not rest one day a week, he will die. These are your slaves. If you do not allow them to rest one day a week they will die.’
He said to him: ‘Go and do with them whatever you say.’ Moses went and instituted the day of Shabbat for rest. “He saw an Egyptian man.” What did he see?
Rav Huna said in the name of bar Kapara: Because of four matters, Israel was redeemed from Egypt: One, because they did not change their names.62The continuation of this list is found in Vayikra Rabba 32:5: They did not change their names or language, they did not speak slander, and none of them informed the Egyptians that they were not intending to return the vessels they borrowed before leaving Egypt.
From where is it derived that they were not suspected of licentiousness? The fact is that there was one woman63Only one woman engaged in licentiousness. and the verse publicized her, as it is stated: “[The son of an Israelite woman and he was the son of an Egyptian man]…and the name of his mother was Shelomit bat Divri….” (Leviticus 24: 10–11). Our Sages, of blessed memory, say: The taskmasters were Egyptian and the foremen were Israelite; one taskmaster was appointed over ten foremen, and one foreman was appointed over ten Israelites.
The taskmasters would go to the homes of the foremen early in the morning to get them out to work with the crowing of the rooster. Once, an Egyptian taskmaster went to an Israelite foreman and directed his glance to his wife, who was beautiful and flawless. He arrived there at the time of the crowing of the rooster and got him out of the house. The Egyptian returned and consorted with his wife, as she thought it was her husband, and she was impregnated.
Her husband returned and saw the Egyptian emerging from his home. He asked her: ‘Did he touch you?’ She said: ‘Yes, and I thought he was you.’ Once the taskmaster realized that [the Israelite] had sensed what he had done, he returned him to hard labor, and was beating him, seeking to kill him.
Moses was looking at him and watching him, and he saw by means of the Divine Spirit what he had done at his home and saw what he was going to do to him in the field. He said: ‘This one is certainly liable for execution, as it is written: “One who strikes a person shall be put to death” (Leviticus 24:21). Moreover, he consorted with Datan’s wife and for that he is liable for execution, as it is stated: “The adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death”’ (Leviticus 20:10).
That is what is written: “He turned this way and that [and saw that there was no man; he smote the Egyptian and concealed him in the sand]” (Exodus 2:12) – he saw what he had done to him in the house and what he had done to him in the field.