Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks The detail in the story of the Exodus is highly emphasized in the Torah, yet at first sight it appears almost unintelligible. Here is the command: Then the Lord said to Moses, “One last plague will I send against Pharaoh, against Egypt. After that, he will send you forth from here, and when he does, he will drive you out completely.
Now tell the people, men and women, to ask of their neighbors articles of silver and of gold.” (Ex. 11:1-2) And here is its fulfillment: The Egyptians urged the people to make haste and leave the country.
“All of us will die,” they said. So the people took their dough before it could rise, carrying it on their shoulders in kneading pans wrapped in their clothing. As Moses had told them, the Israelites had requested items of silver and gold, and clothing, of the Egyptians, and the Lord had given the people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians, and they had granted their request.
Thus they despoiled Egypt. (Ex. 12:33-36) Why the silver and gold? The Israelites were in such a hurry to leave, and the Egyptians so hasty in urging their departure, that they did not even have time for the dough to rise.
Why then was God so insistent that they take the time to ask for these parting gifts? What conceivable use did they have for them in the long journey across the Wilderness? Our perplexity is made all the more acute when we remember what they actually did with the gold. They used it to commit the worst sin of those years: th.