“And he [Moshe] turned and left Pharaoh…” (10:6)
The theme of Sefer Shemos is learning proper character traits from the Torah. The Midrash on the pasuk above is an excellent example of this. The Midrash states that Moshe turned away because he saw Pharaoh’s ministers taking counsel with each other.
Rav Avrohom Twerski zt”l told over a story about the great Rav Dovid Lauria zt”l. In Czarist Russia, it was not uncommon for Jews to be arrested on suspicion of treason. Anti-Semitism was rampant, and anyone who wanted to make trouble for a Jew would accuse him of plotting against the Czar. One such case involved R’ Dovid, who was arrested despite his protests of innocence. After several days in prison, he was brought before a board of inquiry. Several of the members of the panel began to discuss something that they didn’t want R’ Dovid to overhear, so they spoke in French. R’ Dovid turned and walked away.
The presiding officer reprimanded R’ Dovid for his disrespect in walking away from the panel. R’ Dovid said, “Your honor, I did not mean any disrespect. It was evident that you were speaking to speaking to each other in French rather than Russian because you did not want me to listen to your discussion. However, I am fluent in French, and it would have been dishonest of me to overhear something that you wanted to keep secret. That is why I walked away.” The panel was taken by surprise by the show of honesty and decided that a person of such integrity was speaking the truth when he protested his innocence. They promptly released him. R’ Dovid later explained that it would not have occurred to him to walk away from the panel until he remembered the Midrash that Moshe turned away from when he saw Pharaoh’s minister taking counsel. “Obviously,” he said, “it is not proper to eavesdrop and overhear when others wish to discuss something in secret.” A lesson in decency derived from the Torah spared the great R’ Dovid’s life!
