Refugee or Fugitive - Torah portion Shemot
In his zeal to counter the perceived threat from the Hebrews, Pharaoh issues a decree to kill the newborn boys: "And Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying: Every newborn boy you must throw into the Nile, and every girl keep alive." (Ex 1:22) He commands "all" his people, and doesn't specify "Hebrew" boys. The Talmud ( T.B. Sotah 12a ) picks up on this and suggests that Pharaoh's astrologers told him that the savior of the Hebrews was just born, but they didn't know if he was an Egyptian or a Hebrew. So Pharaoh imposed his decree to drown every boy on Egyptians and Hebrews alike. In this interpretation, Pharaoh is so determined to stop the Hebrews that he's willing to kill his own people if that's what it takes. The plain meaning however is that "Hebrew boys" is implied by the context. The phrase "all his people" then means that all Egyptians were commanded to carry out the decree against the Hebrews. Whi...