ויפן ויצא מעם פרעה  And he turned and left Pharaoh’s presence

The Ramban comments on this pasuk, telling us that after Moshe Rabbeinu warned the Egyptians of the impending plague of locusts, he abruptly left the presence of Pharaoh and his advisors without requesting permission.  According to the Ramban, the reason was because Moshe saw that after the seventh plague of hail, the Egyptians were concerned that the locusts would come, eat all of their remaining crops, and that they would die of hunger.  The Daas Z’kanim’s questions how Moshe Rabbeinu even knew that the next plague was going to be locusts.  His answer is that Moshe Rabbeinu’s staff had the acronymדצ”ך עד”ש באח”ב engraved on it and he, therefore, knew what all of the plagues were going to be.

The moment that Moshe saw that the Egyptians were consulting with each other and mentioning their fear, he left.  This was to enable them to discuss the matter further without his being there, hoping that perhaps they would decide to free the Jews from Egypt.  The Sam Derech (Rav Simcha Zissel Broide ZT”L) states that Moshe’s thought process is hard to understand.  Hashem had already told Moshe Rabbeinu that He was going to harden the heart of Pharaoh in order to bring great signs and miracles.  Hashem had also told Moshe that Pharaoh would not listen to him.  If this is the case, why would Moshe even think for a moment that by telling the Egyptians about the plague of locusts that it would change their minds?

The Sam Derech answers that this is the power of speech and discussion among people.  Even Pharaoh and his advisors, whose hearts had been hardened, through discussion could still have been able to see the right path and might have let the Jewish people go.  Rav Naftali Amsterdam, one of the great disciples of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, once told his teacher that there was a certain individual who had reached amazing heights in his service of Hashem.  His teacher responded that he couldn’t believe that any individual could have accomplished this.  He responded that if that person had been part of a group, he would believe it, but as an individual it was impossible!

We see from this the importance of being willing to discuss ways to become  better servants of Hashem. When people work together, they can accomplish far more than any single individual could.