פרשת וארא תש"ל - מכות מצרים

"Thus saith the Lord: In this thou shalt know that I am the Lord—behold, I will smite with the rod that is in my hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood."

"And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs."

"Else, if thou wilt not let My people go, behold, I will send swarms of creatures upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses..."

"For if thou refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them still"

"Behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thy cattle which are in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the herds, and upon the flocks; there shall be a very grievous murrain."

"For I will this time send all My plagues upon thy person, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people..."

"Behold, tomorrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail..."

"Else, if thou refuse to let My people go, behold, tomorrow will I bring locusts into thy border;"

S.v. And the magicians said: Since they saw that they did like Aaron's act with the snake and with the plagues of blood and frogs but they could not do now like what Aaron did; they said to Pharaoh, "This plague did not come on account of Israel, that you should send them away. Rather, it is a plague of God, according to the system of the stars, upon the constellation of Egypt... Moreover, [it was] since Moses had given word to Pharaoh about the plague of the Nile before it occurred as well as the plague of the frogs; but he did not mention the plague of the lice beforehand.

S.v. And the magicians said to Pharaoh, "It is the finger of God": ... And [regarding] that which R. Avraham [Ibn Ezra] said, that Moses did not inform them of the plague of lice – it appears in my eyes, that Aaron struck with the staff in front of Pharaoh's eyes, as he did with the soot (Exodus 9:10). But they did not warn him; since the Holy One, blessed be He, only warns Pharaoh in plagues that include the death of people. So with the frogs, it is written (Psalms 78:45), "and frogs, and they destroyed them," which hints to death... Likewise, the locusts killed them with hunger – as 'they ate the surviving remnant that was left to them after the hail.' And it is all mercy from Him towards man, as the matter that is stated (Ezekiel 33:9), "But if you have warned the wicked man to turn back from his way, and he has not turned from his way, he shall die for his own sins, but you will have saved your life." And therefore He did not warn him about the lice, nor the boils nor darkness. Only concerning the pestilence [did He warn]; since it is death,and fitting to come to man [as well as to the livestock] – as He said to to him afterwards (Exodus 9:16), "However I have spared you for this purpose." And so He informed him about the matter; how it would be. And about some of the plagues, He said, "Get up early in the morning, behold he is going to the water." And according to the simple understanding, it was at the time when the kings come out in the morning to amuse themselves by the water. And the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded Moses that he go there. And the reason is that, regarding the blood – in that it was the first plague – He wanted that [Moses] do it in [Pharaoh's] eyes, without being afraid of him. And that is the reason [for], "and you shall stand in front of him" (7:16) – that he stand in front of him 'with a high hand.' And likewise with the plague of locusts, it is stated (8:16), "Get up early in the morning and stand in front of Pharaoh, behold he is going to the water." And with the hail (9:13), "Get up early in the morning and stand in front of Pharaoh" – and it was also when he went out to the water. As the Holy One, blessed be He, wanted the locusts and the hail to be in the eyes of all the people; for when the king went out to the water, most of the people would go behind him. And behold, He warned him in front of their eyes – maybe they would yell out to their master to repent from his evil way. But if they did not do that, they would be liable for punishment. But with the other plagues, it was enough to [only] warn the king. Hence regarding them, it states, "Come to Pharaoh" (7:26; 9:1; 10:1) – such that [Moses would] go to his chamber. And it does not state this with lice and boils because Aaron needed to hit dirt, whereas the chamber of the king has no dirt, but rather 'floors of alabaster and marble.' And Moses likewise needed to throw the soot to the skies [to begin the boils]. And behold they did these two in front of Pharaoh when he was in the courtyard of the royal palace garden, or something similar to it.

ויאמר ה' אל משה בא אל פרעה, Moses warned Pharaoh twice before a plague materialized, whereas before the third plague he did not give any warning. This remained the pattern throughout all the plagues which occurred in groups of three. Before the plague of blood and frogs Pharaoh was warned, not so before the vermin. Before the plague of free roaming beasts and pestilence Moses extended a warning, whereas he did not warn Pharaoh of the plague of boils and carbuncles. Pharaoh was warned both before the hail and the locust, whereas the plague of darkness occurred without prior warning.

הנני משליח בך..את הערוב, “I will unleash against you...the wild beasts.” You will not find that any of the other plagues was introduced with the letter ה as a form of definitive article except here. We would have expected the Torah to write here הנני משליח בך ערוב. We must remember that these wild beasts were not newly formed creatures. They already existed but the new element was that they invaded man’s habitat, something uncharacteristic. We find something similar when other kinds of disasters are mentioned in the Bible, for instance Leviticus 26,22. The Torah writes in that context והשלחתי בכם את-חית השדה ושכלה אתכם, “I will dispatch against you the wild beasts of the field and they will leave you bereft of your children.” In connection with the plague of frogs the Torah did write: “all your territory with frogs,” and the frogs were also not a new creation but simply emerged from their habitat the Nile. This is the reason that the vowel patach is under the letter ב in the word בצפרדעים (verse 27). It was to show that these frogs already existed but merely left their habitat, the Nile and its banks. And in the Midrash in Shemot Rabbah 9,9 (on 7,17) the difference between G’d striking man and man striking his fellow man is that when man attacks someone he is anxious to do so suddenly so as to preserve the advantage of surprise. Not so G’d. G’d gives fair warning to enable man to fall in with His wishes before he is taught a painful lesson. G’d warned Pharaoh in seven out of the ten plagues in order to afford him an opportunity to escape the plague by releasing the Israelites. Job 36,22 testifies to this attribute of G’d when Elihu proclaimed: “See, G’d is beyond reach in His power, who governs like Him?” The author meant that although G’d does not have any need to do so, He affords every sinner the opportunity to return to Him in penitence before punishing him. Only if the sinner fails to avail himself of such an opportunity does G’d carry out His threat as we know from Job 36,11-12: “if they serve obediently they will spend their days in happiness, their years in delight; but if they are not obedient, they shall perish by the sword.”

S.v. And when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he became stubborn and would not heed them: It is likely that Moses and Aaron came to him after they removed the frogs to request from him that he send away the Israelites as he had promised them; but he did not listen to them. And they then said to him – according to what I think – that if he refused to send away the people, the dirt of the ground would be struck with the rod that was in their hands and [the dirt] would become lice. And when he refused to send them away, Moses then commanded Aaron that he should strike the dirt of the ground and it become lice in all the Land of Egypt – as was their custom in the previous plagues. For they would only bring the plagues for the purpose of his sending away the Children of Israel from Egypt.

"Thus saith the Lord, 'In this thou shalt know that I am the Lord...'"

This is that which is written (Job 36:22), "See, God is beyond reach in His power, who governs like Him?" It is customary in the world that when flesh and blood seeks to do bad to his enemy, he does so immediately, so that [the other] not become aware. But the Holy One, blessed be He, warns Pharaoh about each and every plague, so that he would repent. This is that which is written (7:17), "In this you will know that I am the Lord"; (7:27) "behold I will plague all of your borders with frogs"; (9:19) "send, hasten your cattle."

שלח את בני LET MY SON GO, הנה אנכי הרג וגו׳ BEHOLD I WILL SLAY etc. — This, it is true, was the last of the plagues, but it was by mention of it that God gave him the first warning regarding the plagues that would come upon him, because this was the severest of them all. This is what Scripture means by, (Job 36:22) “Behold God is mighty in His power”, therefore “Who is a teacher like unto Him?” — This signifies: A human being who intends to avenge himself upon his fellow keeps his plans secret in order that he may not seek means of escape. But the Holy One, blessed be He, is so mighty in His power that there is no possibility of escape from His hand except by returning to Him in penitence. Just on this account He teaches him (informs him what punishment will befall him) and so warns him to return to Him (Exodus Rabbah 9:9).