Hidden Treasures

A groysn nuts hobn di mitsrayem gehot fun di Idn vos hobn ge’arbet bay zey on a fardinst, nor ersht ven zey zenen aroys fun mitsrayim hobn di Mitsrayem gezen vi groys zeyer shodn iz.
The Egyptians had great use for the Jews who worked without pay. Not until they were out of Egypt did the Egyptians see how great their loss was.

There’s a story of a man who had received a field as an inheritance and sold the field for a small price. The man who bought it from him plowed the field and found water and planted fruit trees on it. When the previous owner of the field saw the beautiful fruit that had grown on the trees, he sighed and said: “This rich and prime field was in my hand and I sold it for nothing.”

This can be compared to yet another story. A man received an inheritance of a palace in secluded place. The palace was not pleasing to him and he sold it for a cheap price. The buyer found treasures of silver and gold in one of the rooms of the palace. The seller found out and was very annoyed that he had sold the palace. So also when the Jews were in the hands of the Egyptians. The Egyptians were holding a great treasure and didn’t know how much it was worth. Not until the Jews were out of Egypt did they see how useful and valuable they were and how great the loss to the Egyptians was when the Jews left.

The whole time the Jews were in Egypt and were despised by them, Hashem Yisboroch (Gd) had reason to punish them. This is like a king who had an officer who was responsible for the entire country, and for every sin that any one of the people committed, he would punish the officer. When the officer left, the king became concerned that he now had no one on whom to pour out his anger and whom he could punish. So it was when the Jews were out of Egypt. There was no reason to punish the Egyptians. Nevertheless, the troubles of Egypt were not over, because they chased after the Jews and Gd drowned them in the Reed Sea. Only Pharaoh’s daughter, Batyah, merited the World to Come in the Garden of Eden, because she had saved Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses our Teacher) from drowning in the river.

In order to convince his people to pursue the Jews, Pharaoh promised them to divide up equally the possessions they took from the Jews, and not take everything for himself as every other king would do. Not only that, but he also promised his people much silver and gold from his treasury and the treasury of Yosef, who had been the vice-king of Egypt and who had collected much silver and gold in the time of the famine in Egypt.

The king took his trusty steed and hitched it to the wagon himself, though this was not the duty of the king. He went out at the head of the people, which also not customary for a king, because he must not to appear at the head of the fighters so as not to be affected, but in order to reach the Jews, the king set aside his due honor and did not spare his own life, but quickly went out at the head of the military to go after the Israelites.

The distance that the Jews had traveled in the course of three days, the Egyptians traveled in only one day. They did not get tired, nor did they get sick along the way, so that they would have no regrets and not return to Egypt or fail to survive for the punishment that awaited them at the Reed Sea. Pharaoh, who understood the science of the stars and knew a lot of what was to be in the future, saw that a great misfortune would happen to the Jews in the wilderness, and none of the escapees from Egypt would get out of the wilderness and enter into the land of Israel. Therefore, he set out to reach them with ease and with a joyous heart. But his end and the end of his people Pharaoh had not seen and he did not know that they would be drowned.