1
ושאלה אשה משכנתה. אע"פ שכתי' וישאלו העם זכרים ונקבות הזכיר כאן נקבות לפי שמנהג הנשים לשאל מאת השכנות יותר מהזכרים כלי תכשיט כסף וזהב: ושאלה אשה משכנתה, “Each woman will request from her neighbour, etc.” even though the Torah had used the masculine mode when speaking of the actual event, i.e. (Exodus 112, and 12,35) implying that both the males and the females would request valuables from their Egyptian neighbours, the reason that a feminine mode was chosen by the Torah here is that it is usually women who borrow from their neighbours, not men.