We spoke of the utter madness on the part of the Egyptians to follow the Jews into an ocean, into a miraculous death-trap. Why did they do it?!?!
The Ramban explains that an extra measure of heart-hardening (maybe a super-measure, is more accurate) descended on them for this very purpose. For indeed this was nothing but a sheer miracle.
We said over the explanation of Rashi that the Egyptians had reason to want to believe that they could get at the Jews. That reason was that very great deal of their wealth was in the hands of the fleeing Jews, and it would be lost forever if they did not get it back.
Money has strange effects on a person’s thought processes; he begins to think in queer ways. And so their brain started fooling them to think that it’s not so dangerous to start up with the Jews, “perhaps we can prevail over them after all”.
Maybe this seems strange to us, but history is replete with examples of this. Many Jews stayed on in Nazi Europe when they could have escaped, because it meant leaving their money behind. In our own time, we see people in South Africa who live in a dangerous area and may know better than staying, yet cannot part with their money or comfort.
What is the moral in all this? That we be aware of the mind-warping effects of money, and take care accordingly.
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