Ksav Sofer: Why the Egyptians were suspicious of the Jews

Guest post by Rabbi Raffi Bilek

An interesting piece from the Ksav Sofer on Shemos 2:14,

 ספר כתב סופר על שמות פרק ב פסוק יד

אכן נודע הדבר. ונ"ל מבלי להאריך בדקדוקים, ע"פ שמפרשים וירעו אותנו המצרים, דהיינו שהחזיקו אותנו לפועלי און שאין אנו מכירים טובה, וחשדו אותנו כי נוספים אנחנו על שונאיהם ללחום בהם, וזה היה תכלית הרעה שחשבו עלינו רמיה בלב, ועל חשד זה שיעבדו אותנו בעבודת פרך. ולמרע"ה הוקשה איך עלה זה על דעת פרעה ועמו לחשוב מחשבות רעות כאלו, אבל יובן הדבר כי אנו אצל האומות נחשבים לעושי מרמה ותחבולות שונות בעלי מחלוקת וכדומה, יען שהם רואים כי איש (לרעהו) [על רעהו] יעמוד לדחותו מכל וכל ולדבר רעה עליו ולמוסרו ביד שונאיו, ולומדים קו"ח אם איש ברעהו יהתלו מכ"ש שישנאו אותנו ויחשבו עלינו תמיד מחשבות איך לרמות ולהטעות. והנה אילו היו המחרחרי ריב הולכים אל דייני שופטי ישראל לשאול את פיהם, לא היו הגוים יודעים מרמיות ותחבולות בני עמינו, אבל המה מוסיפים חטא ואשמה ואין נוטים אזנים לשופטים ודייני ישראל, רק מקריבים דינם אל שופטי אומות, וע"י זה נתחלל שמו הגדול ית"ש:

It appears to me, without discussing inferences extensively, according to what the commentators say about the verse “vayerau’u osanu hamitzrim” (Dev. 26:6), i.e. that they held us to be sinners since we were not grateful to them, and they were suspicious of us that we would join their enemies to wage war against them, and this was the evil that they ascribed to us, that they thought we were duplicitous, and as a result of this suspicion they enslaved us with crushing labor. And Moshe Rabbeinu asked how it could possibly occur to Pharaoh and his nation to think such negative thoughts; but the matter can be understood since we are thought of by the non-Jews as cheaters, schemers, quibblers and so on, since they see that people are trying to oust their fellow Jews, to speak evil about them, and to hand them over to their enemies. The non-Jews learn a fortiori from this that if the Jews are willing to fight against each other, all the more so they will fight against them and think constantly how to cheat and mislead them.  If these rabble-rousers would go to the Jewish judges to ask of them, the non-Jews would not know about the duplicity and cheating of our people; but instead they add sin and guilt and do not listen to the judges of Israel, rather they bring their cases to the gentile judges, and thus is the name of G-d profaned.”

The Ksav Sofer appears to accept here as a given that there are nasty people among the Jews – cheaters, liars, informers, and so on.  He laments, however, that in light of the existence of these problems Jews will take their suits to secular court rather than avail themselves of the Jewish judicial system.  (I presume that he would not be opposed to using the secular court where a beis din would rule it permissible.)  If we must accept that there are such low-level people among the Jewish nation, at least, he seems to suggest, let us avoid “airing our dirty laundry” by bringing in the non-Jewish authorities.

This is obviously not a new concern, nor is it out of fashion.  Readers of this blog have surely encountered this perspective in the very many discussions of child sexual abuse in the Orthodox community.  Of course, the Ksav Sofer was living in a different time and place than we are, and so while the keep-it-under-wraps approach certainly has a Torah basis, we need to make sure we are applying it appropriately for our generation. 

Were it realistically possible to manage sexual abuse cases within the Jewish community, I think that approach would have a lot more supporters. Unfortunately, as we have all seen too many times now, the Jewish infrastructure is not at this time able to address the problem.  The Baltimore Vaad Harabbonim put out an explicit statement to this effect, and over time more and more poskim have come to permit reporting to secular authorities from the outset.  If we are to protect our children, we must be prepared to do so.  There’s no question that it doesn’t make frum Jews look good when these things are plastered across the news – but the responsibility for the chillul Hashem lies squarely with the perpetrator of the abuse, not with those who try to stop him.  As always, Torah perspectives that were taken for granted in the past need to be balanced with daas and sensitivity to current concerns.