1) The Baal HaTurim writes (1:1) that the first pasuk in this week’s parsha hints to the weekly mitzvah of reviewing the Torah portion, as the letters in the word שמות can be expanded to read שנים מקרא ו אחד תרגום - reading the weekly portion twice and the Aramaic translation once. Why did Chazal require a person to read the words of the parsha twice, and the Aramaic translation once?
2) In this week’s parsha we learn how Pharoah instructed the midwives to kill the newborn babies (1:16). The Medrash Rabbah explains that Pharoah instructed the midwives as opposed to doing it himself, to avoid getting punished for the wicked act. The question is, the Medrash darshens from the pasuk, שופך דם האדם באדם דמו ישפך, that even if one causes the death of a newborn baby via an agent the one who sent him is accountable, as we say by non-Jews, yesh shliach lidvar aveirah, even when it comes to aveiros the one who sent the agent is held accountable. The pasuk means, שופך דם האדם באדם, if one causes blood to be spilt by sending an agent, even still דמו ישפך, the one who sent the agent is accountable and it’s considered as if he himself did the act. If so, what did Pharaoh gain, by non-Jews we say yesh shliach lidvar aveirah?
3) Rashi writes (2:1) that when Pharaoh decreed that all Jewish male children should be killed, Amram divorced his wife Yocheved. The Gemara in Berachos (10a) relates that Yeshayahu was sent to visit Chizkiyahu and inform him that he would soon die and forfeit his portion in the World to Come for neglecting to fulfill the mitzvah to have children. Chizkiyahu explained that he had seen through Divine Inspiration that any children he would have would be wicked. Yeshayahu responded that our job is to perform the mitzvos without calculations, and to leave the results to Hashem. Why wasn’t there a similar accusation against Amram for divorcing his wife and refusing to have children for fear that they would be killed?
4) In this week’s parsha we have the incident of Moshe Rabbeinu striking the Egyptian man. The pasuk says, “He saw there was no man, and he hid him in the sand”. The Ramban in Bereishis (37:10) writes: The minhag of hidden murderers is to bury the murdered body in the ground and cover it with earth, like it says in this week’s parsha “he hid him in the sand”. From the Ramban it seems that they don’t bury the murdered body because of the mitzvah of burial, rather they do it to hide any evidence. The question is, many poskim maintain that there is a chiyuv to bury a non-Jew (see Ramban, Ki Sisa, Shut”t Chavas Yoir 139, Minchas Chinuch 537, and many others). If so, why does the Ramban say that Moshe buried the body to remove evidence, why doesn’t he say he buried the body because of the mitzvah of burial? The Avos kept the Torah before it was given, so presumably Moshe did as well?
5) Who was the youngest documented mohel in Jewish history to perform a valid bris milah?
