There is a Possuk in this week’s Parsha that states: וַיְהִי בְּשַׁלַּח פַּרְעֹה אֶת־הָעָם “And it was when Pharaoh sent out the Jewish people”. We find in this narrative that Pharaoh sent out the B’nei Yisroel against their will.
[As the Possuk at the end of Parshas Shmos states: “with a strong hand he will drive them out”. Rashi interprets this to mean ‘without the consent and against the will of the B’nei Yisroel’.]
How was it possible that Pharaoh had such jurisdiction over the B’nei Yisroel, to the extent that he could drive them out against their will? Although it is within reason that his jurisdiction over them sufficed to keep them in Mitzrayim due to the decree from Heaven above, the fact that Pharaoh had such a hold over them, to drive them out of Mitzrayim, against their will, and to go on to receive the Torah is not understandable; especially taking into consideration when it was that Pharaoh sent out the Yidden from Mitzrayim. This was only after all the ten plagues had taken their toll on Mitzrayim and had successfully broken the ‘Klipah of Mitzrayim’. At that time the exile had already come to an end and with it, the jurisdiction that Pharaoh did have over the B’nei Yisroel, also came to an end because they were thenceforth no longer under his rule at all.
So, how did he have the jurisdiction to drive them out from Mitzrayim?
Another question arises from the Possuk, the fact that Yidden have free choice, as the Torah relates: הֵן הָאָדָם הָיָה כְּאַׁחַׁד מִמֶנוּ “Behold man has become like one of us”, this is because the B’nei Yisroel come from HaShem’s ‘Atzmus’, and that is where the truest form of choice lies.
So how is it possible for Pharaoh to have control over the free choice of the B’nei Yisroel?
Coercion and Free Will
And concerning the issue where we do find the concept of coercing someone to do something, this is only in a case whereby the one doing the coercing is also a Yid, (and this includes an executor of the punishment being a Gentile, [a proxy] yet is carrying out orders that were given by another Jew). This is so because he (the Yid) is acting under instruction from Torah in the Mitzvah to “Love your fellow as yourself”, and in the Mitzvah to “Rebuke your fellow;” these instructions being an empowerment from above to assist a Jew to coerce his fellow.
However, when a gentile will coerce a Jew on his own volition, (even if the Halochah be on his side, and how much more so if the Halochah is not) then this coercion constitutes a blatant violation of the Jew’s free will.
Thus, since Pharaoh [a Gentile] sent out the B’nei Yisroel of his own volition (as opposed to as a result of an instruction from HaShem to the Jewish people) the question is; how did he have any jurisdiction in his power over the free will of the B’nei Yisroel?
