What were the scrolls that the Jews had in Egypt fortelling of the forthcoming redemption?

Question

I was reading Rav Melamed's Peninei Halacha, the Shabbat volume, and on page 5 he mentions that when the Jews were slaves in Egypt they had scrolls (megillot) in their possession telling of the forthcoming redemption that they would read on shabbat.

The source is from Shemot Rabbah 5:18:

מְלַמֵּד שֶׁהָיוּ בְיָדָם מְגִלּוֹת שֶׁהָיוּ מִשְׁתַּעְשְׁעִין בָּהֶם מִשַּׁבָּת לְשַׁבָּת, לוֹמַר שֶׁהַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא גּוֹאֲלָן, לְפִי שֶׁהָיוּ נָחִין בְּשַׁבָּת, אָמַר לָהֶן פַּרְעֹה, תִּכְבַּד הָעֲבוֹדָה עַל הָאֲנָשִׁים וְיַעֲשׂוּ בָהּ וְאַל יִשְׁעוּ וגו', אַל יְהוּ מִשְׁתַּעַשְׁעִין וְאַל יְהוּ נְפִישִׁין בְּיוֹם הַשַּׁבָּת.

Is there any more information about who would have written these scrolls, what they contained and who transmitted them through the years in Egypt? Is there any other mention of this in scripture?

Answer 1

Rav Yaakov Kaminetzky in “Emes LeYaakov” on Shemos 8 (9) quotes the medrash and suggests that Tehillim 92 (מִזְמ֥וֹר שִׁ֜֗יר לְי֣וֹם הַשַּׁבָּֽת) was one of the megillos. He quotes from Bovo Basro 14b that Tehillim 90 and the next 12 psalms were authored by Moshe.

In Egypt there was no doubt that

verse 8 -

“When the wicked flourish like grass, and all workers of violence blossom,....”

but Moshe sustained them with the hope that it was only so that they would be

….."only to be destroyed to eternity.”

They would then be able to say

verse 10 -

“For behold Your enemies, O Lord, for behold Your enemies will perish; all workers of violence will scatter.”

Even in the midst of exile they could trust in Hashem and proclaim

verse 6 -

“How great are Your works, O Lord! Your thoughts are very deep.

And at the end they could proclaim

verse 16 -

“To declare that the Lord is upright, my rock in Whom there is no injustice.”

Rav Kaminetzky refers to the opinion in the gemoro in Bovo Basro that the book of Job was also authored by Moshe and also deals with the issue of why the righteous suffer and therefore may have been another of the texts studied by our ancestors in Egypt.