[Avodah] irrational anti-Semites?

[T613K at aol.com]

Pharaoh has two worries about the Jews, in the same sentence, that  seem to 
contradict each other: " the Jews are multiplying too rapidly,  there are too 
many of them" AND "they might go up out of Egypt." Well duh  if there are too 
many of them, LET them leave, wouldn't that be the  solution?  So it's hard to 
understand exactly what his point is.   "There are too darn many of them and 
they might leave!"  Makes no  sense.  (Reminds me of that joke, "I won't eat at 
that restaurant, the food  is terrible, and such small portions!")
 
Rashi says Pharaoh was speaking euphemistically, not wanting to curse  
himself, but his real fear was not that the Jews might go up and leave  Egypt, but 
that the EGYPTIANS might be forced to leave their own country!  
 
 
Hirsch says that the Egyptians -- like all anti-Semites -- wanted a few  Jews 
around, because they knew they were good for the country, but not /too/  many 
-- like there's some optimum number of Jews an anti-Semite would want in  his 
country, not too few and not too many.
 
The contradictory nature of Pharaoh's anxiety ("There are too many Jews but  
I don't want them to leave") reminds me of how the Soviets used to treat Jews 
--  hated them, persecuted them, but wouldn't let them leave.  It's like, "We  
all know this stinking country is a hellhole, one vast Gulag.  Why should  
you Jews be able to escape this prison-country?"  Like letting them leave  would 
be a privilege, a reward for being such impossible people.
 
There is also an additional phrase in there, "they might /join our enemies  
and fight us/, and then leave." It still doesn't make clear exactly what  
Pharaoh's concern was.  I'm not totally satisfied with Rashi or with Hirsch  but 
maybe somebody else came across another commentary on this question that  sheds 
more light on it?  Or do we just say, you can't expect anti-Semitism  to make 
sense, and that IS the message?
 

--Toby  Katz
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