Standing Against Injustice

Standing Against Injustice

When Moshe saw the Egyptian beating a Jew, the Torah says that "he turned this way and that way, and saw that there was no man” before striking the Egyptian. Yet clearly there were people there, because afterward it became known and he was informed upon to Pharaoh.²

The deeper meaning is that Moshe looked around and saw that although people were present, there was “no man,” meaning no one willing to stand up against the injustice of the Egyptian beating the Jew and confront the Egyptian. The people saw what was happening, but as slaves they had become accustomed to silence and to going along with the tide.

Moshe therefore acted upon the teaching later expressed in Pirkei Avos³ במקום שאין אנשים השתדל להיות איש,in a place where there are no men, strive to be a man. When no one else was prepared to stand for truth, Moshe chose to become that person.