Parashat Shemot tells of the Egyptians' enslavement of Beneh Yisrael. We read that as Beneh Yisrael rapidly reproduced, and their population grew, Pharaoh feared that they would turn against the empire, and join with Egypt's enemies. He thus decided to enslave them, so they would not endanger the country. Pharaoh later decreed that all newborn boys among Beneh Yisrael should be murdered. The Gemara in Masechet Sota (11a) tells that Pharaoh actually consulted with his three advisors, all of whom are known to us from other contexts: Bilam, Yitro and Iyob. Bilam, the Gemara relates, made the suggestion to oppress Beneh Yisrael, and so he was killed in battle by Beneh Yisrael many years later. Iyob remained silent, without agreeing or objecting, and he was punished for his inaction by enduring harsh afflictions. Yitro fled, unwilling to take part in the inhumane treatment of Beneh Yisrael, and he was thus rewarded. If we think about it, the reactions of all three men are nothing short of baffling. Bilam, as the Mishna in Pirkeh Avot (5:19) describes, was exceedingly arrogant. He felt overly confident and secure. We would have expected him to dismiss Pharaoh's fears, to remind Pharaoh that Egypt was powerful enough not to feel threatened by Beneh Yisrael's rapid growth. Iyob, as we know, was an exceptionally righteous man. He is the last person we would expect to sit by idly as the panel of which he was part devised an evil plan to persecute an innocent sector of the population. And Yitro is described by the Rabbis as a profound thinker and philosopher, who studied and pondered all the different faiths in the world until arriving at the truth of monotheism. Surely a man with such brilliance could have shown Pharaoh the absurdity of his fears, that there was no reason to suspect that Beneh Yisrael, who had shown no signs of disloyalty, would turn against the country. Yet, Yitro did not speak up, and instead ran away. This shows us quite clearly how the Egyptian bondage unfolded in a way that nobody could have ever predicted. Beneh Yisrael lived peacefully in Egypt, without causing any trouble or inviting enmity, and yet, through a series of circumstances which they would never have foreseen, they found themselves brutally enslaved, and their infants put to death. However, this Parasha tells us also how the redemption from Egypt unfolded in no less an unpredictable fashion. A woman named Yochebed decided to hide her child from the Egyptian authorities, and placed him in a basket on the Nile River. The baby was discovered by none other than the princess – the daughter of the evil king who decreed that all infants among Beneh Yisrael should be put to death. We would have expected the princess – who immediately identified the child as a Jew – to comply with her father's edict, and kill the baby, or at least leave him to die on his own. But she not only saved the baby, in direct defiance of her father's decree – she brought him to the palace and raised him there, giving him the name "Moshe" which alluded to his having been drawn from the water ("Meshitihu") – loudly broadcasting the fact that she acted against her father! Remarkably, Pharaoh's own palace became the home in which the redeemer was raised. The Rabbis teach that Pharaoh decreed the murder of the infants because his astrologers warned that the one who would redeem Beneh Yisrael was about to be born. And yet, it turned out that Pharaoh himself raised this baby who would lead Beneh Yisrael to freedom. Just as the exile began as a result of a sequence of events that nobody could have possibly predicted, the redemption, too, unfolded in a likewise unpredictable manner. The Egyptian exile is viewed by our tradition as the prototype of all subsequent exiles, and the redemption from Egyptian bondage is viewed as the prototype for all subsequent redemptions. Just as the Egyptian exile began and ended in ways which nobody could have predicted – so will all our nation's exiles began and end in unpredictable ways. The current war being waged in Eretz Yisrael began in a way that no one could have possibly foreseen. No one could have imagined that a barbaric, primitive terror group could succeed in breaching Israel's state-of-the-art barrier, using the most advanced technology on earth, secured by what is likely the world's greatest intelligence apparatus. Hamas' success in attacking Israel on October 7, 2023 was something none of us could have predicted, and even now, it still boggles the mind how such a thing could have happened. It is clear beyond a doubt that this was Hashem's doing, that, just as Hashem brought about Beneh Yisrael's enslavement through a peculiar, mysterious sequence of events, He brought upon us the current crisis, as well. But we find comfort and encouragement in the knowledge that the resolution of this crisis, and our nation's redemption, will likewise occur in ways that we cannot possibly imagine. It is futile to try predicting what will happen and how this will end. And G-d certainly does not need our ideas. The only thing about the outcome that we know for certain is that it will be something which nobody can foresee right now. We must maintain our faith and fervently pray on behalf of our brothers and sisters in Israel, recognizing that the outcome will be determined solely by Hashem.