A new king arose over Egypt who did not know Yoseph. And he said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and strong than we.” There is no mention of the Israelites usurping power from the Egyptians. No word about Israel’s accumulating greater wealth or assets at the expense of the indigenous population. No indication of Israel’s being non-cooperative, rebellious, or causing problems. This Egyptian ruler simply saw the Jews as a potential threat which was enough to warrant our enslavement and the eventual slaughter of our newborn males. It is part of the human condition to suspect ‘the outsider’ as it is quite normal to have anxiety over that which is foreign to us. It was not Pharaoh’s fears of Israel that was his sin; it was the actualization of those fears expressed in action. An individual need not berate herself for her thoughts, but only for the resulting unkind acts. Incidentally, how is it that a relatively small number of Israelites are labeled ‘numerous and strong’? Teaches R’ Yisrael of Rejean: When the Children of Israel are united as one nation they are so strong and enormous that there is no nation that can dominate it. כן ירבו...