It came to me this year during the reading of Parshat “Bo el Pharaoh”, an innovative thought that I never considered before.
At the beginning of the Parsha, Moshe and Aharon warn Pharaoh about the eighth plague of locusts, they gave the warning, turned around, and walked out. Then Pharaoh’s advisers urged him to reconsider because “don’t you see that Egypt is destroyed?”
It occurred to me to understand, that the advisers give Pharaoh the following advice: What are you afraid of, that they will all flee? So listen to us, send forth the males only. If the women and children will stay behind, then it is virtually impossible that they will flee by themselves. This is what they meant by the words, “shalach es ha’anashim”.
In other words, it was the advisers that gave Pharaoh this advice from the beginning, and it was for this that Moshe and Aharon were called back.
So this test that Pharaoh give them by asking who exactly is going, mi va’mi ha’holchim, this was a test based on the advice of Pharaoh’s advisers. When they answered that we are going with the women and children also, this Pharaoh rejected, and told them that if they want they can go with the men only.
January 2024: I noticed this year that this pshat is given by the Chizkuni. So I retract from saying it over in my own name, and I will henceforth say that I was mekavain to the Chizkuni.
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