Then יהוה said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh. For I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his courtiers, in order that I may display these My signs among them, and that you may recount in the hearing of your child and of your child’s child how I made a mockery of the Egyptians and how I displayed My signs among them—in order that you may know that I am יהוה.” So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, “Thus says יהוה, the God of the Hebrews, ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? Let My people go that they may worship Me. For if you refuse to let My people go, tomorrow I will bring locusts on your territory. They shall cover the surface of the land, so that no one will be able to see the land. They shall devour the surviving remnant that was left to you after the hail; and they shall eat away all your trees that grow in the field. Moreover, they shall fill your palaces and the houses of all your courtiers and of all the Egyptians—something that neither your fathers nor fathers’ fathers have seen from the day they appeared on earth to this day.’” With that he turned and left Pharaoh’s presence.

This month shall mark for you the beginning of the months; it shall be the first of the months of the year for you.

This day shall be to you one of remembrance: you shall celebrate it as a festival to יהוה throughout the ages; you shall celebrate it as an institution for all time.

And when your children ask you, ‘What do you mean by this rite?’ you shall say, ‘It is the passover sacrifice to יהוה, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when smiting the Egyptians, but saved our houses.’ Those assembled then bowed low in homage. And the Israelites went and did so; just as יהוה had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did. In the middle of the night יהוה struck down all the [male] first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh who sat on the throne to the first-born of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the first-born of the cattle.

[z] יהוה said to Moses and Aaron: This is the law of the passover offering: No foreigner shall eat of it. But any householder’s purchased male slave may eat of it once he has been circumcised. No bound or hired laborer shall eat of it. It shall be eaten in one house: you shall not take any of the flesh outside the house; nor shall you break a bone of it. The whole community of Israel shall offer it. If a male stranger who dwells with you would offer the passover to יהוה, all his males must be circumcised; then he shall be admitted to offer it; he shall then be as a citizen of the country. But no uncircumcised man may eat of it. There shall be one law for the citizen and for the stranger who dwells among you. And all the Israelites did so; as יהוה had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did. That very day יהוה freed the Israelites from the land of Egypt, troop by troop.

And you shall explain to your child on that day, ‘It is because of what יהוה did for me when I went free from Egypt.’

Then יהוה said to Moses, “Hold out your arm toward the sky that there may be darkness upon the land of Egypt, a darkness that can be touched.” Moses held out his arm toward the sky and thick darkness descended upon all the land of Egypt for three days. People could not see one another, and for three days no one could move about; but all the Israelites enjoyed light in their dwellings. Pharaoh then summoned Moses and said, “Go, worship יהוה ! Only your flocks and your herds shall be left behind; even your dependents may go with you.” But Moses said, “You yourself must provide us with sacrifices and burnt offerings to offer up to our God יהוה; our own livestock, too, shall go along with us—not a hoof shall remain behind: for we must select from it for the worship of our God יהוה; and we shall not know with what we are to worship יהוה until we arrive there.” But יהוה stiffened Pharaoh’s heart and he would not agree to let them go. Pharaoh said to him, “Be gone from me! Take care not to see me again, for the moment you look upon my face you shall die.” And Moses replied, “You have spoken rightly. I shall not see your face again!”

ויהי חשך אפלה … שלשת ימים — there was darkness of gloom when no man saw another during those three days, and there was moreover another period of three days’ darkness twice as thick as this when no man rose from his place: one who happened to be sitting when this second period of darkness began was unable to rise, and one who was then standing was unable to sit down. And why did He bring darkness upon them? Because there were wicked people amongst the Israelites of that generation who had no desire to leave Egypt, and these died during the three days of darkness so that the Egyptians might not see their destruction and say, “These, (the Israelites) too have been stricken as we have”. And a further reason is that the Israelites searched (the darkness came just in order that they might do this) and saw their (the Egyptians’) jewels, and when they were leaving Egypt and asked them for their jewels, and they replied, “We have none at all in our possession”, they answered them, “I have seen it in your house and it is in such and such a place” (cf. Midrash Tanchuma, Bo 1; Exodus Rabbah 14:3).

AND MOSES STRETCHED FORTH. The Egyptians had no way of knowing that three days passed except through the Israelites, who had light. Now there are times when a thick darkness comes over the Atlantic Ocean during which time it is impossible for a person to distinguish between day and night. The aforementioned occasionally lasts for as long as five days. I myself have been there many times.

all the Israelites had light, etc. The Torah makes a point of writing ולכל, "and for every Israelite," to tell us that whenever a Jew went to the house of an Egyptian he had light even within the dwellings of the Egyptians. Another possible meaning of that line could be in answer to the question "where did this light emanate from?" The answer is that it was light originating in the Egyptians' homes. The absence of the word אשר is not especially significant as we have many examples when the Torah omits the word אשר. The meaning of the verse is analogous to our sages telling us that the wicked envelop themselves in darkness. Accordingly, we may understand the darkness as being something subjective; the Egyptians who were evil experienced darkness whereas the Jews who were good experienced light in the very places the Egyptians experienced darkness. The Torah alludes to this idea by writing: במושבותם, within their dwellings.