What is the significance of the word "Lachein"?
Rashi #1: Based on the Shevu'ah mentioned in the previous Pasuk, Hashem would now set in motion the process of redemption. 1
Rashi #2 (to Yechezkel 16:8); Gur Aryeh (here): The word "Lachein" is itself an expression of Shevu'ah. 2
Seforno: For the three reasons mentioned earlier, 3 Moshe should inform Yisrael that He, the Creator of the whole of existence, would take them out of Egypt, changing some of the laws of nature in the process.
As He promised Avraham in Bereishis 15:14.
Rashi (loc. cit.): The source is, "Lachein Nishba'ti l'Veis Eili" (Shmuel I 3:14). Gur Aryeh - Also see Rashi to Bamidbar 20:12.
What is the significance of the statement "Ani Hashem"?
Rashi and Rashbam (based on 6:3): To inform Yisrael that Hashem was now about to fulfill His promise.
What is the significance of the four expressions mentioned in this Pasuk and the next (6:7)? Why specifically the number four?
Ramban: They pertain to the four 1 stages of the Ge'ulah: a. That Hashem would take them out of Egypt; b. That even while they still there, the Egyptians would have no more jurisdiction over them to make them work; c. That He would serve the Egyptians a series of punishments until they offered Yisrael to Him as a redemption of their souls; 2 d. That Hashem will take Yisrael as His treasured nation 3 - when they came to Har Sinai to receive the Torah.
Seforno: They pertain to the four stages of the Ge'ulah: a. The moment the plagues began, the slavery came to an end; b. When, on the fifteenth of Nisan, they gathered in Ra'amses to leave Egypt, they were considered rescued; c. The drowning of Egyptians in the Yam-Suf was the completion of the redemption; 4 d. When Yisrael received the Torah at Har Sinai.
Ba'al ha'Turim: They also signify the four redemptions (from the four nations who would later render them subservient (Bavel, Madai, Greece and Rome).
Yerushalmi Pesachim, 10:5; Rashi (to Pesachim 99b) 5 : The four expressions of Redemption are the source for the four cups of wine, on which the Seder is based. 6
Maharal #1 (Gevuros Hashem Ch. 30, p. 118): The decree of subjugation in Egypt (at the Bris Bein ha'Besarim - Bereishis 15:13) consisted of three aspects; a. Geirus - being strangers; b. Avdus - subjugation as slaves; c. Inuy - suffering (which is even worse). The first three expressions of Geulah, remove this decree (in reverse order); (c) 'I shall take you out from under their burdens' - i.e. from your suffering.(b) 'I shall save you from serving them' - as slaves. (a) 'I shall redeem you,' from your status as strangers. Hashem then adds, d. 'I shall take you unto Me' - to bring you under My domain. 7
Maharal #2 (ibid.): a. Yisrael did not yet have a land as did other nations; thus they were themselves liable to servitude and burden. Hashem now said, 'I shall take you out from your burdens.' b. The Egyptians, for their part, subjugated them by force; Hashem said, 'I shall save you from serving them.' 8 c. Even so, they would still be under the Egyptians' domain, and not yet free; so Hashem said, 'I shall redeem you.' d. 'I shall take you' - to be 'the nation of Hashem.'
Maharal #3 (Gevuros Hashem Ch. 60, p. 267): An individual person has three aspects - Guf, Nefesh, and the Tzurah 9 that results from their connection. A nation has a fourth aspect - the combined whole, which is the sum of its individual members. Therefore, Hashem tells Bnei Yisrael, a. 'I will take you out' from bodily subjugation - i.e. the physical burdens, and the mortar and bricks in particular. b. 'I will save you' from subjugation of the spirit - the work output demanded of you, and the need to work with great haste. 10 c. 'I shall redeem' your Tzurah of self, which ought not be subjugated to others. d. 'I will take you,' the nation as a whole, and attach Myself to you, as My nation. 11
Maharal #4 (ibid. p. 269): On a conceptual level, the Redemption emanated from the upper worlds, coming to this world of multiplicity. The number 4 represents increase (e.g., the four directions). 12
Maharal #5 (Derush l'Shabbos Ha'Gadol, p. 222): Four categories of people should offer a Korban Todah (based on Tehilim 107) - a. those who travelled at sea, b. or through the desert, c. the sick who were healed, d. those freed from prison. 13 All of these events happened to us when we left Egypt. We left our physical bondage; we were spared from the illnesses brought on by the plagues that struck Egypt; and we crossed the sea and the desert. That is why there are four expressions of redemption (corresponding to which, we drink four cups of wine at the Seder). 14
Hadar Zekenim: The term "v'Heveisi" (6:8) is not counted, since it is not an expression of Ge'ulah (but Hashem's promise to bring Yisrael to the Promised Land - Rashi to 12:25). Divrei Eliyahu - Even so, it is a source for a fifth cup of wine at the Seder, called 'Kos of Eliyahu,' because it is a Safek whether or not it is needed, and Eliyahu will resolve this and all other Sefekos when he comes. (Maharal proposes a different phrase as the source for a fifth cup - "v'Hayisi - and I shall be for you as Elokim" (6:7). Refer to 6:7:0.1:1 and its note.)
Ramban: Since the term Ge'ulah is a form of acquisition.
Ramban: As the Torah says in Shemos 19:5.
Seforno: As the Torah writes in Parshas Beshalach, 14:30. This is because they were no longer considered 'fleeing slaves.'
See also Ba'al ha'Turim.
Also see Maharal (ibid. Ch. 60, p. 267) at length; and refer to Bereishis 15:13:3.2:1.
Also see Maharal (ibid. Ch. 60, p. 268) at length. Yisrael were themselves fit to be enslaved; they were not yet a nation, and the Mitzrim were at a direct clash with them (EK). Also refer to Bereishis 15:13:3.3:1 and its note; and Shemos 1:1:2.7.
In Maharal's terminology, Chomer is raw material or potential; and Tzurah is the function-specific form that it can take to actualize that potential. To illustrate, in a knife, the metal it is made of is the Chomer, and the sharpness that allows it to cut is the Tzurah. In a person or nation, Tzurah means a sense of purpose and an end-goal.
Actions relate to the Guf; whereas acting with haste is associated with the Nefesh.
Maharal (Gevuros Hashem Ch. 43, p. 165): We were redeemed from Mitzrayim due to four merits (see Shemos Rabah 1:28); a. we did not change our names; b. or our language; c. we did not reveal Lashon ha'Ra to the Egyptians; d. We made fences to safeguard against Arayos. These four also correspond to the four aspects of Ge'ulah listed here. a. The Bnei Yisrael guarded their Guf from Arayos, and from personal contact with the Mitzrim; b. they guarded their tongues (an expression of the Nefesh), so as not to join forces with them; c. Their names [an indication of their personal identity and Tzurah] were kept separate; d. the language of the nation as a whole remained distinct.
Maharal (loc. cit.): The next number, 5, represents that which unifies the disparate aspects of the preceding four. Hence, this idea may be extended to explain the optional fifth cup of wine at the Seder (discussed by many Rishonim, see Tur and Bet Yosef OC 481; also refer to 6:7:0.1:1 13
).
Maharal (loc. cit.): There are distinctions between these four categories. Those crossing the desert are in mortal danger due to their lack (of water, or of provisions); whereas those at sea are in danger due to opposition (of the waves crashing against them). Sickness is neither of these; it is a change within the person himself. Imprisonment means being under the domain of others, who can do as they please with him. These differing aspects are reflected by the four expressions of redemption (and are why we drink four separate cups).
Also see Maharsha to Berachos 54b.
Why did Chazal institute the Mitzvah to drink four cups of wine at the Seder (corresponding to these four expressions of Redemption)?
Maharal #1 (Gevuros Hashem Ch. 60, p. 266): Drinking is part and parcel of the eating that it accompanies. Because at the Seder we eat Mitzvos, Chazal instituted a Mitzvah to drink as well. 1
Maharal #2 (ibid. p. 268): Eating is more of a physical activity than is drinking. Thus, eating the Matzah represents the (physical) Redemption - i.e. leaving Egypt itself. Drinking four cups of wine shows us that the Exodus had deeper, loftier aspects. The Exodus represented more than birth (leaving the confines of the womb); 2 rather, it also included the great things 3 that Yisrael would attain, and that they would keep always (just like a fully-formed newborn has the faculties to grow and develop further). They were now no longer subservient to Egypt; rather, they were a redeemed nation unto Hashem.
Maharal (ibid. p. 272): The four cups at the Seder correspond to the four Imahos of the Jewish Nation. (What items at the Seder correspond to the three Avos? Refer to 12:8:2.2:3, and 12:8:2.2:4.)
Chazal compared our exile in Egypt to a developing fetus in the innards of an animal; refer to 1:1:2.7:2. Hashem redeemed us, and "took for Himself one nation from inside another nation" (Devarim 4:34).
There is yet another source for the four cups of Pesach. In the chief butler's dream and subsequent interpretation (Bereishis 40:11-13), the word "Kos" is mentioned four times. The dreams of the butler (and baker) foreshadowed the upcoming Egyptian exile, the Redemption, and the unique status Bnei Yisrael would attain as a result. Refer to Bereishis 40:10:1.2, Bereishis 40:10:2, Bereishis 40:11:1:2, Bereishis 40:12:1:1, and Bereishis 40:19:1.
At the Seder, one may not drink additional wine between the third and fourth cups (Pesachim 117b). Can we find an allusion to this Halacha in these verses?
Maharal (Gevuros Hashem Ch. 60, p. 270): Why did Hashem redeem us? For the expressed purpose of being our G-d; so that we would be His nation. Therefore, we ought not interrupt between the cup representing "I shall redeem you," and the cup of, "I shall take you unto Me as a nation, and I shall be your G-d" (6:7). 1
Maharal (ibid.): Why are two cups before the meal, and two afterward? See Maharal for more about the four cups.
What are the connotations of the words, "u'vi'Zero'a Netuyah"?
Ramban: It teaches us that Hashem's Hand remained outstretched (to strike them again and again, each time they refused) until He took us out of Egypt.
Targum Onkelos and Targum Yonasan: It means that Hashem dealt the Egyptians many punishments.
What is the significance of the words "mi'Tachas Sivlos Mitzrayim"?
In the literal sense, Hashem would redeem us from the burdens of slavery. Refer to 6:6:3:1 and 6:6:3:2.
Rosh Hashanah 11b: We learn from here, via a Gezerah Shavah "Sivlos"/ "Hasirosi mi'Sevel Shichmo" (Tehilim 81:4), that just as Yosef was released from prison on Rosh Hashanah, so too, did Yisrael in Egypt stop working on Rosh Hashanah. 1
See Torah Temimah, note 6.
QUESTIONS ON RASHI
Rashi writes: "'[Mi'Tachas] Sivlos Mitzrayim' - [I.e., from] the efforts of [bearing] the Egyptians' burdens." What is Rashi clarifying?
Gur Aryeh: One does not say 'from under the suffering.' To make the word "mi'Tachas" fit, we must translate "Sivlos" as "burdens." Hence, "I shall take you out from under the Egyptians' burdens."
