Great Wealth

There was a promise made to Avraham Avinu that the Jewish people would leave Egypt with great wealth. The Talmud says that some individuals went to Moshe Rabbeinu and said that they didn’t care about the wealth. They were happy to just be getting out of slavery.

Hashem told Moshe that he could not break the promise that he had made to Avraham.

Rav Elazar Abuchatzeira pointed out that the reason why this was so important to Avraham, was that he foresaw the future. He was afraid that at some later time in history the Jewish people would make a request for reparations for all the years they were not compensated for their being slaves. By being given their compensation at the time of the exodus, this would create a situation where they would be able to completely sever ties with Egypt.

This was also the reason why it was important that we were driven out of the land. This, too, would create a situation of complete separation from Egypt.

The message here is that when we are around negative influences, we must separate and distance ourselves, to the point that we have completely broken ties with such negativity.