And the Egyptians did evil to us come let us deal wisely with them Yosi Bloom

Literally the word וירעו means “they did evil”, coming from the word רע meaning evil. The Frierdike Rebbe explains that the word can also be explained as coming from the word ריע, meaning a friend. Based on this, the Posuk means that the Egyptians befriended us.

The Posuk then says “come let us deal wisely with them”. The Frierdike Rebbe translates the verse as “come let us make them wise”, meaning that the Egyptians wanted to make them wise in the secular Egyptian wisdom and through this they would defile the Chochma of the Jews.

~ Second night Seder 5699