“And he was the son of an Egyptian man” – the Rabbis and Rabbi Levi: The Rabbis say: Even though there were no mamzerim at that time, he was a mamzer.18A mamzer is the child of a married Jewish woman and a Jewish man who is not her husband. In this instance the father was an Egyptian man, and therefore her son was not technically a mamzer. However, he was a mamzer in the eyes of the people. Rabbi Levi said: He was a full-fledged mamzer.19Rabbi Levi holds that the offspring is a mamzer even if the paramour was a gentile.
How [did it come to pass]? The taskmasters were Egyptian, and the foremen were Israelites. A taskmaster was appointed over ten foremen, and a foreman was appointed over ten men. The result is that a taskmaster was appointed over one hundred men.
One time, a taskmaster went early to a foreman; he said to him: ‘Go and gather your group.’ When he entered, his wife flirted with him.20When the Egyptian taskmaster entered the Israelite foreman’s home, the Israelite’s wife flirted with him. He said: She is mine.21The taskmaster said to himself that he would be able to seduce her. He went and concealed himself behind the ladder.
When her husband left, he sinned with her. [The husband] looked behind him and saw [the taskmaster] emerging from his house. Once [the taskmaster] knew that he saw him, he went to him and was beating him that entire day. He said to him: ‘Work well, work well’;22He demoted him from being a foreman to the rank of a plain laborer. he intended to kill him. At that moment the Divine Spirit inspired Moses.
That is what is written: “He turned this way and that” (Exodus 2:12). What is “this way and that”? He saw what [the taskmaster] had done to him in the house and in the field. He said of him: Is it not enough that he sinned with his wife, but he seeks to kill him?
Immediately, “he saw that there was no man” (Exodus 2:12) – Rabbi Yehuda, Rabbi Neḥemya, and the Rabbis: Rabbi Yehuda says: He saw that there was no one to stand and be zealous in the name of the Holy One blessed be He and kill him. Rabbi Neḥemya says: He saw that there was no one to stand and invoke the name of God against him and kill him. The Rabbis say: He saw that there was no hope destined to emerge from him, from his sons, and from the descendants of his sons until the end of all the generations.
Immediately, “he smote the Egyptian” (Exodus 2:12). Rabbi Yitzḥak said: He killed him with a fist, just as it says: “To smite wickedness with a fist” (Isaiah 58:4). Rabbi Levi said: He killed him with the secret of Israel,23By reciting the name of God. Alternatively, he killed him and relied on the ability of the Israelites to keep a secret, as there were Israelites who witnessed the event (Etz Yosef). just as it says: “The number of the children of Israel will be like the sand of the sea” (Hosea 2:1).24When the verse states that Moses killed the Egyptian, it concludes: “And he hid him in the sand.”
The midrash here asserts that this is an allusion to the Israelites, and means that Moses relied on the fact that they would keep the matter hidden. The Egyptian killed by Moses was the father of the Israelite who later blasphemed and was put to death.