Parshas Va'eira
By Rabbi David Zauderer
Yes, folks! It’s that time of year again when we read publicly from the Torah in the synagogue on Saturday morning all about the Ten Plagues with which G-d punished the Egyptians for tormenting and oppressing the Jewish people for over 200 years (see Exodus 7:15).
Everyone knows the Ten Plagues, right? Blood. Frogs. Lice. Wild Beasts. Epidemic. Boils. Hail. Locusts. Darkness. and Plague of the Firstborn.
Well, here are ten things you may not know about the Ten Plagues:
(1) The first nine plagues, divided into three sets of three, were to prove G-d’s existence, authority and power to the Egyptians, while the tenth was to force them to release the Jewish people. Pharaoh received a warning from Moses about the first two plagues in each of the three sets of plagues. The third plague in each group came without warning, because once someone is twice warned and does not repent, it is unnecessary to warn him again. The total period of retribution for Egypt including all ten plagues was twelve months, ending at midnight on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nissan with the Plague of the Firstborn.
(2) During the first plague, the plague of Blood, all the water in the entire country turned to blood, making it impossible to drink. For the Jews, however, the water remained blood-free. When the Egyptians realized this, they forced the Jews to drink from the same cup as the Egyptians, but to their astonishment, the water remained fresh and pure in the mouth of the Jew but turned to blood in the mouth of the Egyptian! And a “bloody†good time was had by all … well, maybe not by the Egyptians!
(3) According to most Bible commentators, the second plague (Tzfardeia in Hebrew) was Frogs – small amphibious creatures who made loud croaking sounds. However, others suggest that the Tzfardeia were actually large amphibious reptiles – Crocodiles. Now that’s a whole different story! Until today, the Nile Crocodile is still considered the most dangerous of all alligators and crocodiles in the world. [I wonder, though, how those massive crocs could possibly fit into the Egyptians’ ovens and kneading bowls – see Exodus 7:28.]
(4) For the plague of Wild Beasts, animals miraculously converged on Egypt from every corner of the world. Lions and tigers and bears (oh my) together with leopards, panthers, wolves, pigs, donkeys, oxen, kangaroos, polar bears (!), wild goats and cats thundered across the trembling ground of Egypt. Rats, mice, weasels, lizards, turtles, snakes, scorpions, leeches and worms scrambled through the dust. Eagles, vultures, ravens, owls, pelicans, ostriches, flies, fleas, mosquitos, bees and hornets soared, swooped and buzzed overhead. The Egyptians barricaded themselves into their homes, hoping that it would stop the swarm of wild beasts from getting in – but it was not to be. Out of the water, a great “sea monster†with numerous long arms emerged (some suggest that it was a huge octopus) and ambled through the streets of Egypt, reaching into all the Egyptian houses through the roofs and ceilings, and breaking open their locks! You simply can’t make this stuff up!
(5) G-d had told Moses that He would harden Pharaoh’s heart after the first five plagues – beginning with the plague of Boils - and this is what He did now (see Exodus 9:12). Otherwise, Pharaoh would have been unable to withstand the boils, the worst of all the plagues to date. You see, the Boils were not just a case of bad acne or blackheads. They were actually infectious sores and blisters that destroyed the skin of the Egyptians like a flame and spread across their bodies. No human being could have withstood the pain and agony caused by the boils, and if G-d had not hardened Pharaoh’s heart, he would certainly have agreed to let the Jewish people go free. But G-d wanted Pharaoh to give in because he recognized G-d’s power and authority, not because he could no longer stand the pain. Therefore, G-d hardened his heart and gave him the strength to resist if he so chose. And Pharaoh chose to resist.
(6) The Midrash says that when Moses prayed for the plague of Hail to cease, an amazing miracle occurred, and the hailstones that were already on the way down remained suspended in mid-air (see commentary of Rashi to Exodus 9:33). Some of the hailstones later descended in the days of Joshua, and the remainder are destined to rain down upon our enemies in the apocalyptic battle of Gog and Magog at the End of Days. Welcome to the Twilight Zone!...
(7) As with all the other plagues, the plague of Locusts was an appropriate punishment for the Egyptians – measure for measure. The Egyptians had forced the Jewish people to plant wheat, barley, beans and lentils and to pick the fruit off the trees, all in order to keep them away from their families and prevent the further growth of the Jewish people. Then they had taken crops from the fields in which the Jews had toiled. Now, the locusts would devour all the crops in the land of Egypt. Furthermore, the Hebrew word for locust is arbeh, a variation of the word harbeh, ‘many’, since locusts usually arrive in great numbers. G-d had given the Jewish people the blessing of “arbehâ€, of becoming a nation of “many†people. The Egyptians had tried to crush this nation and prevent its growth, and therefore, they were punished with “arbehâ€, locusts.
(8) In Exodus 11:2, just after the plague of Darkness, G-d said to Moses, “Please speak in the ears of the people: Let each man request of his [Egyptian] friend and each woman from her [Egyptian] friend silver vessels and gold vessels ..†The Netziv, in his commentary on the Bible Ha’amek Davar, wonders how the Jews and their Egyptian captors suddenly became “friendsâ€. His incredible answer is that during the plague of Darkness, it was so dark that the Egyptians couldn’t move for a three-day period (see Exodus 10:23). So how could an entire nation survive without eating for three days? The Netziv explains that the Jews had compassion on their Egyptian oppressors and fed them and their children for three days (!) until the plague ended, and this caused a certain “friendship†between the Egyptians and the Jews. Who knew?
(9) According to our tradition, no less than 600,000 (!) firstborn died during the Plague of the Firstborn. But among the Jewish people there were no deaths. Even extremely ill Jews who by all right should not have survived the night were kept alive by G-d on that night. Otherwise, the Egyptians might have said that the plague was affecting the Jewish people as well as the Egyptians. The only firstborn Egyptian who survived the Plague of the Firstborn was none other than Pharaoh himself. According to a tradition recorded in Pirkei D’Rabbi Eliezer, Pharaoh also survived the Splitting of the Sea, and later reigned for 500 years as king of Nineveh, where he would rebuke his people and make them repent (as told in the biblical Book of Jonah).
(10) There is actually amazing “proof†to the veracity of the story of the Ten Plagues as recorded in the Bible. [No, the archaeologists have not found graffiti etched into the walls of the pyramids that says, ‘Benjamin wuz here 1500 BCE’!] In the early 19th Century a papyrus, dating from the end of the Middle Kingdom, was found in Egypt. It was taken to the Leiden Museum in Holland and interpreted by A.H. Gardiner in 1909. The papyrus describes violent upheavals in Egypt, starvation, drought, escape of slaves (with the wealth of the Egyptians), and death throughout the land. The papyrus was written by an Egyptian named Ipuwer and appears to be an eyewitness account (!) of the effects of the Exodus plagues from the perspective of an average Egyptian.
[Click here https://ohr.edu/838 to see excerpts from the papyrus together with their parallels in the Book of Exodus. Ultimately, we don’t need to rely on Egyptian papyruses to prove that the Torah is G-d’s truth – we have many other ways to prove our mesorah]
http://www.torchweb.org/torah_detail.php?id=600