Censored Rashbams on parashat Shemot
We begin Shemot, and leave Radak by the wayside in the Chut HaMeshulash commentary, since we only have Radak on sefer Bereishit.
Looking briefly at Eliyahu Munk’s translation, I see a few things that are skipped or recast. My general sense of concern, though, is that Rashbam is that Rashbam style is quite terse, so where Munk will elaborate to make it clearer, he may elaborate in a way I would disagree with. Now, of course he is entitled to disagree with Josh, but recall that in the printings, only the English is provided, so it isn’t transparent that this is an elaboration. Also, given other errors and an ideology imposed upon the text, I suspect such deviations from what I’d consider a straightforward reading.
At any rate, we can begin at the relative top, Shemot 1:7:
וּבְנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל פָּר֧וּ וַֽיִּשְׁרְצ֛וּ וַיִּרְבּ֥וּ וַיַּֽעַצְמ֖וּ בִּמְאֹ֣ד מְאֹ֑ד וַתִּמָּלֵ֥א הָאָ֖רֶץ אֹתָֽם׃ {פ}
But the Israelites were fertile and prolific; they multiplied and increased very greatly, so that the land was filled with them.
Rashbam writes:
פרו - בהריון.
פרו, the number of pregnancies;
וישרצו - לידה. שלא שִׁכָּלָה הרחם. שבכל מקום קטנים, קרוין שרץ על הארץ.
וירבו - גדלו ונעשו הקטנים גדולים ולא מתו בקטנותם.
וירבו, the number of births. All the infants born grew up healthy, there were no deaths of children as could normally be expected.
ויעצמו - שלא מתו אנשים, אלא היו הרבה ועצמו במאד מאד עד שנתמלאה הארץ אותם. וכן: והחצר מלאה את נוגה כבוד ה'. כמו מילאה. וכן: ושוליו מלאים את ההיכל כמו ממלאים את ההיכל.
ויעצמו, they did not even die in early adulthood, but they were all healthy specimens.
במאד מאד, until the whole country became full of them,
ותמלא הארץ אותם. The Torah describes a perception of fullness, much as Ezekiel 10,4 describing והחצר מלאה את נוגה כבוד ה', “the inner courtyard was filled with the glow of the Glory of Hashem.” This was a perception, not something tangible. Similarly, Isaiah 6,1 ושוליו מלאים את ההיכל, “and its skirts filled the Sanctuary.”
So, what is missing is the commentary on the word וישרצו. An English translation of this might be:
“and they swarmed — birth, namely that the womb didn’t miscarry. For in every place of minors, they are called ‘swarming on the earth’ “
I suppose it doesn’t sound very nice to talk about swarming, so perhaps that is why it is omitted. But it is strange because then an entire word in what is otherwise a repetitious chain of seeming synonyms is left untranslated. Perhaps this is motivated by other commentaries who took sheretz as a negative? (Bli neder, that would be for another post.) More likely, maybe that’s because that’s what Rashi writes for the word paru, about not miscarrying; and by vayishretzu he speaks about the miracle of six with one birth. By rendering it otherwise, Rashbam is implicitly arguing against Rashi / the midrash / implicitly being a rationalist and denying Biblical midrashic miracles.
I’m not sure about his interpretation about “perception of fullness”, and seems to miss some of the grammatical argument he’s making, something about the actors and the passive of the earth being filled. I think that perhaps, if we were to ask “what was bothering Rashbam, we could look to Chizkuni, who seemed to be bothered by a similar issue. To quote Chizkuni (also translated by Eliyahu Munk in a separate work):
ותמלא הארץ אתם כמו מהם. פירוש נתמלאה הארץ מהם, שהרי תיבת אותם מגזרת את כדכתיב ״אותו ואת בנו״, ומצינו את משמש בלשון מן, ״כצאתי את העיר״, ״חלה את רגליו״.
ותמלא הארץ אותם, and the land became full of them.” The word אותם here must be understood as if the Torah had written: מהם, “filled with them.” Seeing that the root of the word אותם is את, “with,” this is not strange at all. Compare Leviticus: 22,28, אותו ואת בנו, “it and its young.” We also find the word את on occasion as meaning: “from,” as in Exodus9,29, when Moses says: כצאתי את העיר, meaning: “when I go out from the city.” Another example would be: חלה את רגליו, “being sick from his feet and up.” (Kings I 15,23.)
Anyway, that it was a perception of fullness isn’t literally what Rashbam said, and its an expansion based on the sense of the prooftexts. But I’m not so sure that that was what Rashbam meant by those prooftexts. At any rate, compare with how ChatGPT’s o1 reasoning model did:
Translation of Rashbam's Comment on Exodus 1:7
ויעצמו – שלא מתו אנשים, אלא היו הרבה ועצמו במאד מאד עד שנתמלאה הארץ אותם. וכן: והחצר מלאה את נוגה כבוד ה'. כמו מילאה. וכן: ושוליו מלאים את ההיכל כמו ממלאים את ההיכל.
Literal Translation:
“‘And they became mighty ’ means that no men died; rather, they were numerous and became exceedingly numerous until the land was filled with them.
Similarly, the verse‘And the courtyard was filled with the brightness of the glory of the Lord’ (Ezekiel 10:4) is like saying ‘it was filled.’ Likewise, ‘and His skirts (robes) fill the Temple’ (Isaiah 6:1) is the same as saying ‘they are filling the Temple.’”
Explanation
Context of Exodus 1:7
The verse states:“And the Children of Israel were fruitful, and swarmed, and increased, and became very, very mighty; and the land became filled with them.”
Rashbam focuses on the word “ויעצמו (va-ya’atzmu),” commonly translated as “they became mighty/numerous.”
Meaning of “ויעצמו”
“שלא מתו אנשים” – Rashbam’s interpretation is that the population exploded not only because they kept having children, but also because people were not dying as expected.
As a result, “עד שנתמלאה הארץ אותם” – their numbers grew so large that “the entire land was filled with them.”
Parallel Verses
Rashbam then cites two verses to show how the Hebrew construction “מלאה” or “מלאים” works—how something is “filled with” something else:a. Ezekiel 10:4 – “והחצר מלאה את נוגה כבוד ה’” (“And the courtyard was filled with the brightness of the glory of the Lord”). Rashbam notes that this is equivalent to saying “the brightness of the glory of the Lord filled the courtyard.”
b. Isaiah 6:1 – “ושוליו מלאים את ההיכל” (“And His skirts [the robe’s train] fill the Temple”). It is as though saying “they are filling the Temple.”
By referencing these examples, Rashbam clarifies that when Scripture says “the land was filled with them,” it means the Israelites themselves had spread everywhere and filled every part of the land—just as God’s glory fills the courtyard or the Temple in those other verses.
Overall Point
Rashbam’s main point is to emphasize the sheer growth and continuity of the Israelite population:
Not only were they fruitful and multiplying, but there was an absence of normal mortality—so that their numbers swelled beyond measure.
The land became “filled” with them, parallel to how other biblical passages speak of something being so expansive or pervasive that it fills the space entirely.
Hence, according to Rashbam, “ויעצמו” signals extraordinary population growth—no one died, and as a result, they filled the entire land, much like the verses in Ezekiel and Isaiah where divine radiance or a flowing garment fills a space completely.
Another place where I think his translation may have gone awry is the result of Egyptian oppression in Shemot 1:12:
וְכַאֲשֶׁר֙ יְעַנּ֣וּ אֹת֔וֹ כֵּ֥ן יִרְבֶּ֖ה וְכֵ֣ן יִפְרֹ֑ץ וַיָּקֻ֕צוּ מִפְּנֵ֖י בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃
But the more they were oppressed, the more they increased and spread out, so that the [Egyptians] came to dread the Israelites.
A common understanding is that the amount of increase corresponded to the amount of oppression. So, had the Egyptians left the Hebrews alone, the Hebrews would have increased 2X, but since they oppressed them, they increased 3X. And the more oppression, the more of an increase. That would correspond to an interpretation of וְכַאֲשֶׁר֙ deliberately, “corresponding to”. See for instance Rashi:
וכאשר יענו אתו. בְּכָל מַה שֶּׁהֵם נוֹתְנִין לֵב לְעַנּוֹת, כֵּן לֵב הַקָּבָּ"ה לְהַרְבּוֹת וּלְהַפְרִיץ:
וכאשר יענו אתו AND AS THEY AFFLICTED THEM — In whatsoever matter it was that they set their hearts upon afflicting them so was the heart of the Holy One, blessed be He, set upon multiplying them and making them grow apace.
And compare to Ibn Ezra, that the affliction did not impact their rate of growth, so they continued to grow apace.
וכאשר יענו אותו. אע"פ שהיה בענוי כן ירבה כימים אשר לא עונה:
“Even though they were afflicted, so did they increase just like the days of no affliction.”
Rashbam says likewise, but you wouldn’t know it from the translation:
כן ירבה - כמו כן הרבה כמלפנים.
כן ירבה; the measures the Egyptians took to slow down the Jewish birthrate not only did not work but backfired.
Literally, and more succinctly, this should be:
“so would they increase — just like ‘so did they increase’ as they did before.”
This seems akin to an Ibn Ezra peshat. Meanwhile, saying that the attempt “backfired” rather than wasn’t successful implies that the birthrate actually increased.
My guess is that this wasn’t conscious mistranslation, but just reading the frummer and more traditional reading into a slightly but not really ambiguous text. If so, great care must be taken with all of the translations.
A bit later, in Shemot 2:5:
וַתֵּ֤רֶד בַּת־פַּרְעֹה֙ לִרְחֹ֣ץ עַל־הַיְאֹ֔ר וְנַעֲרֹתֶ֥יהָ הֹלְכֹ֖ת עַל־יַ֣ד הַיְאֹ֑ר וַתֵּ֤רֶא אֶת־הַתֵּבָה֙ בְּת֣וֹךְ הַסּ֔וּף וַתִּשְׁלַ֥ח אֶת־אֲמָתָ֖הּ וַתִּקָּחֶֽהָ׃
The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe in the Nile, while her maidens walked along the Nile. She spied the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl to fetch it.
Rashbam writes:
אמתה - שפחתה.
אמתה, not “her nursemaid,” but “her maidservant.”
This is extremely frustrating, and is a case of kol hamosif gore’a, whoever adds effectively subtracts. Rashbam does not say “not her nursemaid but…”. He only says “her maidservant”. Someone reading (only) the English would get the wrong idea.
Meanwhile, the obvious target of Rashbam is his grandfather Rashi, who commented:
את אמתה. אֶת שִׁפְחָתָהּ. וְרַבּוֹתֵינוּ דָּרְשׁוּ (סוטה שם), לְשׁוֹן יָד, אֲבָל לְפִי דִּקְדּוּק לְשׁוֹן הַקֹּדֶשׁ הָיָה לוֹ לְהִנָּקֵד אַמָּתָהּ, דְּגוּשָׁה, וְהֵם דָּרְשׁוּ אֶת אֲמָתָהּ – אֶת יָדָהּ, וְנִשְׁתַּרְבְּבָה אַמָּתָהּ אַמּוֹת הַרְבֵּה:
את אמתה means her handmaid. Our Rabbis, however, explained it in the sense of hand (cf. Sotah 12b) — but according to the grammar of the Holy Language it should then have been written אַמָּתָה , dageshed in the מ. — And the reason why they explained את אמתה to mean את ידה “she stretched forth her hand” is because they hold that Scripture intentionally uses this term to indicate that her hand increased in length several cubits (אמה, a cubit) in order that she might more easily reach the cradle.
So the two competing ideas are maidservant and arm. The arm explanation has an optional miracle of super-stretching associated with it. Rashbam is selecting the maidservant explanation.