When I leave the city, I will spread out my hands to Hashem. (Shemos 9:29)
But inside the city, Moshe did not pray, because it was full of idols. (Rashi)
Moshe’s Shortcoming
Moshe Rabbeinu did not want to pray inside the city of the Egyptians because it was full of idols, and he was concerned about the influence this might have on him.
At first glance, this seems to reflect positively on Moshe. It seems to show his spiritual greatness. However, I once heard a great talmid chacham from Yeshivas Beis Hatalmud in America explain that this was actually a shortcoming of Moshe’s, on a certain lofty and subtle level.
How so?
The Torah says that during makas bechoros, Hashem Himself passed through the land of Egypt – ועברתי בארץ מצרים. Now, how could Hashem pass through a city full of idols? The answer is that the vast difference between Hakadosh Baruch Hu and the impurity of Egypt made it impossible for Egypt to wield any influence on Him.
Accordingly, why did Moshe Rabbeinu need to leave the city? If he was so distant from the Egyptians and so elevated above them, what they did would not have disturbed him. They would have had nothing to do with him at all.
So we see that the Egyptian environment could potentially have had some subtle, faint influence on Moshe Rabbeinu, thus he needed to leave the city.
A Vast Difference
This teaches us an important point about the influence of the environment on us.
The Rambam made this point clear:
It is the basic nature of human beings for their views and deeds to follow those of their neighbors and friends, and for them to do as their countrymen do.
We can’t just ignore this fact, and say, “What do I care about the surrounding environment? I don’t pay any attention to it,” because a person by nature follows his environment.
If so, how can a person stop a corrupt environment from affecting him?
The answer is that a person can only be affected by his environment when he has some connection to it. For instance, let’s say a person raises chickens for a living. Day after day, for hours upon hours, he is working with chickens and is right there in close contact with them. But he is not influenced by them in the least. He never ever entertained the thought of going into the coop with them and starting to crow...
When a person works with animals, he is not influenced by them. Because a person is influenced by his environment only if he has some connection to it, if he has something in common with it. A human being and his livestock are so different by nature that they don’t influence one another.
If a person comes to the internal realization that the difference between him and those around him is a vast and essential difference, like the difference between a man and his livestock, then he can guard himself properly from bad influences.
