Pesach How long were they in Egypt? by A.B.

210, 400, Or 430?

One of the best known questions regarding Pesach regards the duration of the Egyptian galus. Multiple variables appear in Chumash – 210, 400, and 430. How can they be reconciled?

In the Bris Bein Habesarim, Hashem reveals to Avraham the future awaiting his descendants and states: “Know with certainty that your offspring shall be strangers in a land not theirs, and they shall enslave them and afflict them four hundred years"(Breishis 15:13)

By contrast, when the Torah describes the leaving from Egypt, it gives a different figure, saying:

"And the dwelling of the Bnei Yisroel who dwelt in Egypt was thirty years and four hundred years. And it came to pass at the end of thirty years and four hundred years, on that very day, all the hosts of Hashem went out from the land of Egypt" (Shemos 12:40–41)

A simple reading of the second possuk might suggest that Klal Yisroel remained in Egypt itself for four hundred and thirty years. Yet Chazal explicitly ruled that this was not the case, and that the actual stay in Egypt was far shorter. From this starting point emerged one of the best-known chronological calculations.

Chazal established that the count of 430 years does not begin with Yaakov’s descent to Egypt, nor even with the beginning of the enslavement, but already with the moment when the decree of exile was pronounced to Abraham in Bris Bain Habesarim. This is stated explicitly in the Mechilta:

“‘And the dwelling of Klal Yisroel Israel who dwelt in Egypt was thirty years and four hundred years.’ But did they dwell in Egypt for four hundred and thirty years? Surely they dwelt in Egypt only two hundred and ten years!

“Rather, from the time the decree was decreed at the Bris Bein Habesarim until Yisroel went out from Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. And just as the decree was decreed upon Avraham at the Bris Bein Habesarim, so it was fulfilled through Yitzchok and Yaakov and their descendants" (Mechilta Shel Rabi Yishmael, Messechta Depischa, section 14).

The same appears in the Gemara (Megillah 9a) in the name of Rabi Yochanan.

The Seder Olam Rabbah (chapter 3) says likewise, but also including but also an answer to the contradiction between 400 and 430 years: "From Avraham Avinu until yetzias Mitzrayim were four hundred and thirty years. From the birth of Yitzchak until Yetzias Mitzrayim were four hundred years. From the time Yaakov descended to Egypt until Yisroel went out from Egypt were two hundred and ten years."

Thus, the 430 years are counted from the decree given to Avraham at the Bris Bein Habesarim, the 400 years from the birth of Yitzchok, the beginning of “your offspring shall be strangers,” and only 210 of those years were actually spent in Egypt.

This understanding becomes even clearer in the Aramaic translation of Onkelos, which translates the possuk in Shemos (12:40) that speaks of 430 years in a way that provides the answer given earlier: "And the dwelling of Bnei Yisroel who dwelt in Egypt and in the land of Canaan was four hundred and thirty years" (Targum Onkelos, Exodus 12:40).

Shemos Rabbas (section 1), Rashi, the Ibn Ezra (Shemos 12:40), Ramban (ibid), and Rabeinu Bechaye (ibid), the Abarbenel (ibid), and the Sforno discuss the contradictions mentioned above in similar vein.

The Kli Yakar (Bereishis 15:13) emphasizes that the entire period was not one of suffering. Commenting on the possuk, "For your offspring shall be strangers in a land not theirs four hundred years,” he notes, “It does not say 'and they shall afflict them four hundred years,' for the entire time was not one of affliction."

The Shloh Hakodesh (Masseches Pesachim, Peirush Hahagadah) says that the 30 extra years began not before the Bris Bein Habesarim, as explained earlier, but after the Bris Bein Habesarim. He reasons as follows:

“We must say that because the tribes sinned by selling Yosef, an extra 30 years was decreed upon them, because the 30 years of Yosef Hatzaddik’s suffering hat he endured from his birth until he stood before Pharaoh were not counted in the reckoning of the years of exile.

“In other words, if not for this, the years of exile would have begun from the Bris Bein Habesarim and they would have been in exile for only 400 years. But because they sinned by selling Yosef, the years of exile were only reckoned 30 years after the Bris Bein Habesarim, that is, from the birth of Yitzchok, and they had to be in exile for 430 years.”

I have an unresolved difficulty with the Sheloh Hakadosh’s explanation. Since the brothers only began afflicting Yosef years after his birth, why was Klal Yisroel punished for the full 30 years from his birth until he stood before Pharaoh?

So far, we have learned that the 30 extra years were at the beginning of the balus, either from the Bris Bein Habesarim, or from Yitzchok’s birth.

The Ramban (Shemos 12:42), however, offers an opposite approach, attaching the 30 years not before the 400 years but after they were already completed.

Noting that “no promise is secure against being nullified by sin except one that is given with an oath,” the Ramban notes that Klal Yisroel in Egypt were wicked to a great degree and even neglected bris milah as it says of Galus Mitzrayim in Sefer Yechezkel (20:8), “But they rebelled against Me and would not listen to Me; no man cast away the detestable things of his eyes, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt. Then I said I would pour out My wrath upon them in the midst of the land of Egypt.” Likewise, Yehoshua told the people (24:14), “Remove the gods which your fathers served beyond the river and in Egypt, and serve Hashem.”

“Therefore, their exile was lengthened by thirty years,” the Ramban writes, saying that “it would have been fitting for it to be lengthened even more, except that they cried out and multiplied their prayers,” as the possuk says (Shemos 2:23-24), “They groaned because of the labor and cried out, and their cry rose up, and Hashem heard their groaning.”

“For they were not worthy of redemption merely because the appointed time had come, but He accepted their cry and their groaning because of the great suffering they endured,” the Ramban writes, adding, “And why should it be difficult for the earlier commentators to explain that their exile was extended thirty years beyond the appointed time? For it was extended forty years because of the sin of the spies. All those forty years were a period of affliction for them, as it says, ‘And you shall remember all the way that Hashem your G-d led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to afflict you’ (Devorim 8:2).’”

“They also had a complete exile in a land not theirs, exposed to serpent, fiery serpent, and scorpion,” the Ramban writes. “Nor was fulfilled for them, ‘And the fourth generation shall return here,’ for within forty years that generation was certainly replaced, since another generation had already been born. But the sins caused everything.”

The Ramban concludes that this may be why the Bnei Efrayim left thirty years before the arrival of Moshe Rabeinu as Chazal say (Sanhedrin 92), “for they counted correctly and did not err, but ‘the wicked is caught by his own sins’” (Mishlei 5:22).

Taking all the sources are placed side by side, it becomes clear that the Torah’s various numbers represent varying degrees of suffering in our first galus, or extra periods of galus for Klal Yisroel’s wrongdoings.