Hidden Treasures

Inmitn di nach, di nach fun makes-bkhoyres, hot zikh der kenig oyfgevekt funem kol fun di geshrayen vos hobn aroysgebrekhn fun yedn mitsrayishn hoyz. In the middle of the night, the night of the plague of the first-born, the king was awakened by the screaming voices that broke out from every Egyptian household. His servants told him about the death that prevailed in the houses of Egypt. Pharaoh gathered his servants and said to them: “Every time when Gd has afflicted us, I’ve called Moshe and Aharon and asked them to pray for us and the plague has ceased. But last time Moshe was in my palace, I got very angry with him and drove him out and forbade his entrance into my palace. Therefore, if I want the plague to stop, I must go looking for him myself and beg his mercy so that he might pray to his Gd and the death-curse might be lifted from us.”

Pharaoh and his servants left immediately with all the Egyptian ministers and together they set out to look for Moshe and Aharon. The king and his ministers, who had never been to the houses of the Jews, did not know where Moshe and Aharon lived. Jewish children, who saw the king and his frightened servants, made fun of the king and wouldn’t say where Moshe lived. They purposely fooled them so that might run from house to house looking for Moshe.  The king poured out his wrath on his ministers and servants and ordered many of them to be killed, claiming that had not allowed him to free the Jews from the land of Egypt, therefore he was in danger of being killed.

Meanwhile, Moshe and Aharon were celebrating the holiday of Pesach (Passover). They had eaten the lamb they had shekhted (ritually slaughtered), they had drunk wine, they had sat with purpose and praised Gd.

In the middle of the celebratory feast, Moshe heard Pharaoh calling to him with supplications. Moshe asked through the window: “Is this how a king behaves? Leaving his palace in the middle of the night looking for people?” The king answered: “I come to you so that you will plead with your Gd to be merciful to me and my people, for we will all be dead soon.” Moshe said to the king: “I can’t leave my house on this guarded night.” Pharaoh asked to speak with Moshe and he approached the window and from there, Pharaoh’s daughter said that she had come with her father to look for Moshe: “Don’t you remember the great kindness I did for you when you were a baby in a basket on the river? I saved your life and raised in my own home and now you bring such trouble on my father?” Moshe replied: “Ten plagues has Gd brought upon the Egyptians and not one of them has affected you, because Gd remembers the kindess that you have shown me.” Pharaoh’s daughter said: “I have, indeed, not been effected until now. But it does me woe, seeing as my people and my brothers suffer.” Moshe said to her: “I have clearly warned your father before every plague that he would receive a severe punishment if he did not listen and obey what the Gd of the Jews said. Your father did not listen to me, he did not obey me. Therefore, the whole nation has been punished.”

Pharaoh, who heard his daughter speaking with Moshe and knew that Moshe was right, said to him: “All that you have said has come to pass. This time you’ve said that the first-born of Egypt shall die, and now I see that almost all the Egyptian people are dying.” Moshe answered him: “Only one possibility remains for you, if you would save your people from death. Go out into the streets of the city and shout with a loud voice to all the Jews and them to leave this land immediately — they and their wives and their sons and their daughters together with all of their possessions.”