After Moshe slayed the Egyptian for striking an Israelite, he went out the next day he witnessed to Israelites fighting. When he rebuked them one retorted (Shemot 2:14) “Do you plan to slay me as you have slain the Egyptian?”
Moshe’s response was to become frightened and state: (ibid) “Indeed, the matter has become known!”
Rashi comments that what became known is in what Israel was more sinful than other nations:
“I was wondering why the Israelites are considered more sinful than all the seventy nations [of the world], to be subjugated with back-breaking labor,[not it] has become known to me. Indeed, I see that they deserve it.”
Reb Mendel of Kotzk asked on this an interesting question:[1]
“Heaven does not allow any Jew of holy stature (guteh yid) to see the blemishes of Israel; how then did Heaven allow the true redeemer—Moshe—to see her blemishes?”
Rabbi Yehudah Leib Alter, the Sefas Emes, answers this question as follows:
“It was specifically because he was a true leader that he was shown their faults—so that he can know how to remedy them.”
[1] Emem Mkotzk Titzmach, Pg. 206
