Written by d Fine
There’s a great vort the Kotzker Rebbe says in this week’s sedra on perek 2 pasuk 12. Moshe grows up in the house of Pharoah, and then goes out and sees an Egyptian taskmaster hitting a Jewish slave. The pasuk says (2;12) ‘And he [Moshe] turned this way and that way, and saw there was no man [looking at him], and he killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand.’
Explains the Kotzker Rebbe, this was the moment of decision for Moshe. He was Jewish but had been raised in the most Egyptian home. Thus, reveals that above pasuk: Moshe ‘looked this way and that way inside himself, and noticed that he was part Egyptian and part Jew, and he realized that this is no way to be a man to live, and so he killed the Egyptian part that was inside of him, and buried it deep down in the sand.’ This was Moshe’s moment of greatness, and the moment he decided to be 100% Jewish with no Egyptian in him whatsoever.
