Pharaoh Strips Levi of Its Scrolls of Redemption

Rabbi Yehudah the Levite said: The tribe of Levi was free from forced labor in Egypt. Pharaoh said to them, "Because you are idle, you come and say, 'Let us go and sacrifice.'" Hence: "Why, Moses and Aaron, do you distract the people from their work? Go to your burdens" (Exodus 5:4). "Let the labor be heavier upon the men, and let them work at it and not heed lying words" (Exodus 5:9): for they had scrolls with which they would delight themselves from Sabbath to Sabbath, declaring that the Holy One, blessed be He, is our redeemer. Pharaoh said, "Let them not heed lying words": let them not lean on them, nor delight in them, nor have rest, as it is said, "And Pharaoh commanded that same day the taskmasters" (Exodus 5:6). The Holy One, blessed be He, said: Tomorrow I will bring plagues upon them. When Israel went out to bring stubble to make into straw, the Egyptian would beat any Israelite he saw within his field; therefore "the people scattered throughout all the land of Egypt" (Exodus 5:12). "And now go and work, and straw shall not be given to you" (Exodus 5:18): Israel were gathering the stubble in the wilderness and treading the clay, and the stubble pierced their heels, and the blood mingled in the clay. Rachel, the granddaughter of Methuselah, was pregnant and about to give birth, and she trod the clay together with her husband, and the child came out of her womb and was mixed into the brick mold. The angel Michael descended and brought it up before the Throne of Glory, and on that very night He struck all the firstborn of Egypt, as it is said, "And it came to pass at midnight" (Exodus 12:29).