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After the death of Joseph (at age 110) and the rest of his brothers (the last to die was Levi, at age 137 [Exodus 6:16]), there arose a “new pharaoh” over Egypt who did not acknowledge Joseph’s contributions to the former regime. Threatened by their growing numbers and fearful that they would join his enemies in overthrowing him, this new Pharaoh instituted a policy of oppressive forced labor for the Israelites. Supervised by cruel taskmasters, the descendants of Jacob were conscripted to build the storage cities of Pithom and Rameses.
Despite the imposed hardships by the Egyptian government, the Israelite population steadily increased, which led Pharaoh to command the Hebrew midwives to kill all male infants at birth. The midwifes disobeyed Pharaoh, however, which then led Pharaoh to decree that every newborn Israelite male was to be drowned in the Nile river.
The parashah then turns to the story of the birth of Moses, the great deliverer of the people of Israel. Amram, the grandson of Levi, married his aunt Jochebed (the daughter of Levi), and together they had a daughter (Miriam) and a son (Aaron). However, at the time of Pharaoh’s decree, Jochebed gave birth to Moses and attempted to hide him for a few months. After realizing that she could no longer keep his birth a secret, she placed her son in a basket among the reeds of the Nile before anyone could kill him. Her seven year old daughter Miriam stood by and watched to see what would happen to her brother.
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Providentially, Pharaoh's daughter came to bathe in the Nile and discovered the ark among the reeds. Moved by pity, the princess decided to adopt the baby even though he was a “despised Hebrew.” Miriam (who witnessed all this) then approached the princess and offered to find a nursemaid for the child - and cleverly arranged for Moses’ own mother (Jochebed) to do the job!
When the child grew up, Jochebed brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son,a prince of Egypt. She named him Moses ( ), "Because," she said, "I drew him out of the water" (a play on the word  , which means "to draw out, to save").
According to midrash (Shemot Rabbah 1:31), as a very young lad Moses was once seen throwing Pharaoh’s gold crown down to the ground. Upon learning of this apparent act of insolence, Pharaoh devised a test to see if the child understood the implications of his actions. He therefore commanded that a platter with a piece of gold and a glowing piece of coal be brought before Moses and ordered the little boy to choose one. If Moses chose the gold, it would imply that he understood its value, and therefore he would be killed. On the other hand, if Moses chose the burning coal, he would be spared since he was unable to differentiate between gold and a glowing piece of coal.
Moses began to reach out for the gold when an angel pushed his hand aside and he grabbed the coal instead. Moses then immediately put his hand in his mouth, but that burned his lips and tongue so badly that he had a permanent speech impediment as a consequence.
Who made you to be judge over us?
After he had matured, Moses went to be among his kinsmen and observed their suffering. One day, he noticed an Egyptian overseer beating an Israelite and (seeing no one else around) killed the man and hid the body in the sand. The following day, Moses attempted to mediate a quarrel between two Israelites, during which one of them asked him, mi samekha l’ish sar v’shofet aleinu? ("Who made you a prince and judge over us?") - and then further asked Moses if he intended to kill them as he had killed the Egyptian overseer the previous day. Moses then was afraid that his crime was known, and sure enough, Pharaoh heard the news and sought to have Moses killed.
Moses then fled from Egypt to Midian (in the Sinai's southeastern region), to the land of his distant cousins. There he came to a city well where he magnanimously defended the seven daughters of Jethro (also known as Reuel) from unfriendly shepherds. After learning of his kindness and bravery, Jethro rewarded Moses by employing him as a shepherd and giving his daughter Zipporah to him as a wife (Moses and Zipporah later had two sons, Gershom and Eliezer).
God saw the people of Israel- and God knew.
While Moses dwelt in Midian, the Pharaoh who wanted to kill him finally died, though his successor intensified the Israelites' oppression. The Israelites cried out to the LORD for help, and God heard their groaning, and remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. "God saw the people of Israel - and God knew" (Exodus 2:25).
Malakh Adonai - the Angel of the LORD
One day, as Moses was tending Jethro’s sheep in the west, near Mt. Horeb (Sinai), the Angel of the LORD (malakh Adonai) appeared to him in a flame of fire mitokh ha-seneh – “out of the midst of a bush.” As Moses gazed in wonder, the LORD spoke to him and commanded him to remove his sandals, and informed him that he was selected to be the LORD’s deliverer to take the Israelites from Egypt into Israel.
Ehyeh Asher Eheyeh
Moses was stunned and objected that he was unfit to the task, even despite God’s promise to be with him and bring him (and all Israel) back to this very mountain. He protested to the LORD that he was kevad peh - “heavy of mouth” and kevad lashon, “heavy of tongue,” and therefore unable to speak on behalf of the LORD (Ex. 4:10). God reminded him that He was the Creator of the mouth: "Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?" (Ex. 4:11).
Moses then asked what reply he should give when the Israelites would ask for God's Name, to which the LORD replied, Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh ("I will be what I will be"). He was then instructed to go to the elders of Israel to deliver the message of their soon coming salvation, explaining that the LORD would mightily judge Egypt for their oppression. Moses protested that the Israelites would not believe him, whereupon he was given the power to perform three miracles to convince them: 1) his staff would turn into a snake and vice versa; 2) his hand would contract leprosy and then be cured; and 3) he would turn water from the Nile into blood. Still hesitant, Moses insisted that was not eloquent enough to be God’s spokesman, and pled with the LORD to send someone else. The LORD was then angry with Moses for his reluctance and decreed that "because of your words" he would not be permitted to be a kohen (priest), but his brother Aaron would. Moses finally relented and accepted the will of God.
After this, Moses told his father in law that he wanted to return to Egypt (with his wife and sons) to see how his kinsmen were doing. Along the way back to Egypt, however, the LORD threatened to kill Moses on account of a delay in the circumcision of his son Eli-Ezer (Ex. 4:24). Moses reasoned that God’s commandment to go to Egypt was more important than the commandment to perform brit milah on the 8th day of his son’s life, and had he performed the circumcision, travel would have been impossible. However, when Moses failed to immediately perform the ritual at the lodging place along the way (affording the opportunity for healing for his son during the trip), the LORD came to kill him. Tzipporah (Moses’ wife) then performed the circumcision but actually needed to do it twice, as indicated by the phrase: Chatan damim lamulot - You are a bridegroom of blood to me, because of the circumcisions (mulot, the plural form of mulah).
Afterward, Moses met with his brother Aaron at Sinai and told him about their mission. When they reached Egypt, Moses and Aaron assembled the elders of Israel and told them about God’s coming deliverance. When the people heard Aaron’s speech and saw the miracles Moses performed, they believed that the LORD answered their cry for help and bowed down to worship.
Let my people go!
Some time later, Moses and Aaron appeared before Pharaoh to deliver the message from the LORD: "Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness." To this the Pharaoh replied, mi Adonai asher eshma' b'kolo l'shalach et-Yisrael? (Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go?). Not only did Pharaoh reject their request, but he imposed even harsher decrees against the Israelites -- commanding that they now deliver the same amount of bricks but without any straw supplied to them. The overseers then flogged the Hebrew foremen because they were unable to meet the impossible quotas. When the foremen appealed to Pharaoh for mercy, they were accused of being idle, since they listened to Moses and Aaron, and were told to keep the quota of bricks despite the lack of straw. The foremen then blamed Moses and Aaron for worsening their situation, and Moses then complained to the LORD that the mission was turning out quite badly. The parashah ends with God assuring Moses, "You shall soon see what I will do to Pharaoh: he shall let them go because of a greater might; indeed, because of a greater might he shall drive them from his land."
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