The king of Egypt said to them, “Moshe and Aharon, why do you disturb the people from their work? Go to your own burdens!” (5:4)
Rashi explains that since the Levi’im were not required to participate in the physical labor, Pharaoh specifically said, “Go to your own burdens,” meaning, go take care of what you have to do in your house, but not the physical labor that all the other Jews were required to do.
The Zera Shimshon asks why it is that Shevet Levi was not included in the decree of the physical labor. After all, the passuk that describes the decree of the Egyptian exile and bondage does not differentiate between any of the shevatim. The passuk says (Bereishis 15:13), לא בארץ זרעך יהיה גר כי אותם וענו ועבדום להם, “Your children will be strangers in a land that is not their own. They will serve them and oppress them.” From this passuk, it seems that everyone would be part of this decree of slavery. If so, why is it that the shevet of Levi was excluded?
The Zera Shimshon answers that the Medrash (Rabba 1:10) says that when Yosef HaTzaddik passed away, the Jewish people stopped keeping the mitzvah of bris milah because they wanted to be similar to the Egyptians. When this happened, Hashem made the Egyptians hate them.
The Zera Shimshon points out that it seems that had the Jewish people kept the mitzvah of milah, they would not have been subjected to the slavery and backbreaking labor of the Egyptian exile. How is this in keeping with the passuk that seems to say that the Jewish people would have been subjected to this decree regardless?
The Zera Shimshon suggests that there were two parts to the decree of going down to Egypt. Originally, the decree was only that the Jewish people would be strangers in the land. If, however, they would not keep the symbol of the Jewish people, the mitzvah of milah, then they would be subjected to the additional decree of slave labor. Being that the shevet of Levi kept the mitzvah of milah, they remained strangers but were not subjected to the physical labor. All the other Jews, who gave up the mitzvah of milah, were subsequently subjected to the second part of the decree, namely, the backbreaking slave labor.
The Zera Shimshon derives this from the wording of the aforementioned passuk. The passuk says, “Your children will be strangers in a land that is not their own. They will serve them and oppress them.” The passuk could have said, “Your children will be oppressed in a land that is not their own.” As well, once the passuk said that they would be strangers, there is no need to add “in a land that is not their own.”
The Zera Shimshon says that if the decree was indeed a two-part decree, this passuk is very well understood. The first part of the decree was that the Jewish people would be strangers in a foreign land. If they were to be noticed and live as though it were not their own land, by keeping their Jewish identity through the mitzvah of milah, then the decree would end there. This is why the passuk adds “in a land that is not their own,” to emphasize that if they would live as though it were not their land and not try to assimilate, then all that the decree would entail would be living as strangers in Egypt.
If, however, they would not keep this difference, the passuk continues to tell what the second part of the decree would be: “They will serve them and oppress them.” This is why the passuk says the decree in two parts and doesn’t just say, “Your children will be oppressed in a land that is not theirs.”
