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Bo | The Last Plagues


Translated by David Strauss
 

I.

The Torah does not tell us how long the plagues of Egypt lasted. Only the length of the plague of blood is spelled out (seven days), and Rashi follows a midrashic tradition in applying that to the other plagues as well. According to this midrashic calculation, the total duration was ten months, with one month for each plague that included a warning before the plague, the plague itself, and a break afterwards:

"And seven days were completed after the Lord had struck the river" (Shemot 7:25). Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Nechemya: One said: He would warn them for twenty-four days before the plague began, and for seven days the plague would affect them. And one said: He would warn them for seven days, and for twenty-four days the plague would affect them. (Shemot RabbaVaera 9, and similarly Rashi on Shemot 7:25)

But this approach is difficult, for the Torah states explicitly that the plague of hail took place in the spring:

And the flax and the barley were smitten; for the barley was in the ear (aviv), and the flax was in bloom. But the wheat and the spelt were not smitten, for they ripen late. (Shemot 9:31-32)

Ripe barley stands in its stalks in the month of Aviv, i.e., Nisan, as is stated in the Torah. It is also at that time that the flax is in bloom, and the wheat is still young.

Let us assume that the plague of hail was in the last Nisan of Israel's servitude in Egypt, the month in which they were redeemed. This would mean that the last four plagues – hail, locusts, darkness, and the killing of the firstborn – all took place within the two weeks between the first of Nisan and the fifteenth of Nisan, the day of the exodus. We also have to assume for this purpose that the beginning of chapter 12, which contains everything God said to Moshe in preparation for the exodus (the sanctification of the month, the Paschal lamb, and the details of the day of redemption), preceded what is described in chapters 9-11 (the plagues of hail, locusts, and darkness), but the Torah preferred to narrate the first nine plagues in a single sequence and only then to record the preparations for the day of redemption in chapter 12.

I have already noted the uniqueness of the last four plagues.[1] There may be narrative continuity among the first six plagues – from the killing of the crocodiles and the pollution of the Nile with their blood, to the fleeing of the frogs from the Nile and their death in the houses of Egypt until the land stank, and then to the arrival of the lice, the rats, the pestilence, and the boils from the filth that passed from the Nile to the land – but the plague of hail opens a new heavenly approach, with four plagues that touch directly upon the imminent redemption.

In my view, the sequence of events was as follows: On the night of the first of Nisan, Moshe and Aharon received the mitzvot of "This month shall be for you the beginning of months" (Shemot 12:2) and of the Paschal lamb (ibid., v. 3 and on). The next day, the hail fell in all its fury, and over the course of three successive plagues, the sun was not seen – whether because of the hail, or because of the locusts that covered the land, or because of the darkness. The transition to a lunar calendar in place of the solar calendar came together with these plagues that blocked out the sun and, as it were, the Egyptian sun-god as well. The plague of locusts struck before the tenth of Nisan, when the Israelites took the Paschal lamb in defiance of the Egyptians; immediately after the lambs were taken, all of Egypt (except the Israelite settlements) fell under the plague of darkness. The plague of darkness lasted for three days: the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth of Nisan. Light returned on the fourteenth, the day of Pesach, and the next day the people of Israel went out with a mighty hand in the sight of all Egypt. This also explains the three days between the taking of the lamb and its sacrifice (ibid. v. 6).

*

We shall consider another possible connection between the last four plagues. This connection was elaborated in great detail by Prof. I. Velikovsky, in an approach which is presented clearly in his book;[2] we will not dwell on his words at length but will focus on the testimony of Eusebius, quoting an ancient source that describes Egypt in the days of distress – days which Professor Velikovsky is inclined to identify with the last plagues preceding the exodus:

But as the king still persisted in his folly, Moshe caused hail and earthquakes by night, so that those who fled from the earthquake were killed by the hail, and those who sought shelter from the hail were destroyed by the earthquake. And at that time all the houses fell in, and most of the temples.

According to his understanding, there was a series of disasters that resulted from the cracking of the earth's crust, and they were responsible for natural phenomena that could be identified with the various plagues – especially the last four, from hail to the smiting of the firstborn. We can add to this the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire that went before the camp of Israel, and even the cloud that covered the sun for months and years, shielding the Israelites from the heat of the desert.

The book also contains testimony from the Ipuwer Papyrus, which was discovered in 1828, purchased by the Rijksmuseum in Leiden, Holland, and listed as Leiden 344.[3] That papyrus contains numerous phrases reminiscent of the plagues of Egypt, such as "the river is blood," "the people recoil from tasting, they are thirsty for water," "there is neither fruit, nor vegetable," "woe, all that was still seen yesterday is no more, the land is left as desolate as after the reaping of the flax," and many others.

One last comment on the plague of hail: Hail does not have to be the pellets of frozen rain with which we are familiar in winter. It could have been meteorite rain – for the hailstones that fell on the five kings of the South in their flight from Giv'on to Azeka and Makeda were not ice.[4] We know of similar historical events from both ancient and recent times:

a. Sixty-five million geological years ago – using the terminology of science – a meteorite ten kilometers in diameter struck the Chicxulub crater in the Yucatan Peninsula with the force of two thousand hydrogen bombs, causing massive damage that exterminated most of the dinosaurs in the world.

b. On 5 Adar 5773, a meteorite from a distant asteroid belt penetrated the earth's atmosphere. It was seventeen meters in diameter, composed of rock and iron, and weighed ten thousand tons. It survived thirty seconds in the atmosphere before the heat shattered it into many pieces at an altitude of about twenty-five kilometers. These pieces fell in the Chelyabinsk region of Russia and caused extensive damage and some twelve hundred casualties.[5] The meteorite's fragments struck the earth at a velocity of sixty-four thousand miles per hour. Their force was equivalent to a half-megaton bomb, twenty-six times the power of the first atomic bomb. The sounds were heard for hundreds of miles.

Indeed, what the Egyptians emphasize in their fear of the hail is the "sound (or voice) of God" that was heard in it:

And Moshe stretched forth his rod toward heaven; and the Lord sent thunder (kolot, "sounds") and hail. (Shemot 9:23)

Entreat the Lord, and let there be enough of these divine thunderings (kolot) and hail… the thunders (kolot) shall cease, and the hail shall be no more. (Ibid. 28-29)

And the thunders (kolot) and hail ceased… And Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders (kolot) were ceased. (Ibid. 33-34)

It is possible that the sounds were created by the flight of so many heavy stones, at a speed that broke what is called the "sound barrier" in aerodynamic terms[6] – a speed fifty-two times the speed of sound. Tens of thousands of large stones falling in succession created a cacophony of sounds that is difficult to describe, and all this, before the direct damage that was caused by those stones.

II.

In this section, we shall address the question of why there were precisely ten plagues, without necessarily explaining their internal division. This question occupied a number of our commentators, including the Maharal, in his work Gevurot Hashem, and Rabbi Yitzchak Abravanel. Most followed various paths based on Rabbi Yehuda’s division of the plagues (in the Midrash and the Haggada) into the categories of detzach – blood, frogs, and lice; adash – wild beasts, pestilence, and boils; be'ach – hail, locusts, darkness; and the smiting of the firstborns. We will take two approaches with this list: one relating to the number ten without internal division, and the other relating not to the number of plagues but to their content.

The first path was paved for us by two great leaders of the Gur Chasidic dynasty: the founder of the dynasty, Rabbi Yitzchak Meir, author of the Chiddushei ha-Rim; and his grandson, Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh, author of the Sefat Emet. This is what they said:

My grandfather, my master, my teacher, and mentor, zt”l, said that the reason there was a need for ten plagues was to remove the concealment and veil from the Ten Ma’amarot (Utterances) to make them into the Ten Dibrot (“declarations,” often translated in this context as commandments).

The explanation is as follows: In this world, it is concealed that the essential life-force of everything derives solely from the letters of the Torah – the Utterances through which the world was created. This is what is meant when it is said that the righteous are rewarded for sustaining the world created by the Ten Utterances (Avot 5:1). The meaning is that they know and are connected to the hidden source of life, which flows through the Ten Utterances. Through each plague, one layer of concealment was removed from one of the Utterances, transforming them into the Ten Dibrot). The term dibbur (speech) bears the sense of leadership, as it is written: "There is [only] one dabar [i.e., leader] for a generation" (Sanhedrin 8a). (Sefat Emet, Bo, 5731)

I will try to explain this to the best of my limited understanding: The Sefat Emet connects the ten utterances with which the world was created to the ten commandments that were given at Sinai. Utterance (ma'amar)and declaration (dibbur) both indicate a certain content conveyed from one to another; here, from God to His world or to His people. The content may be conveyed by way of a ma'amar, an “article.” The article is written in a book (or a newspaper), and the reader is acquainted only with its content. He does not necessarily know anything about the author from the contents of the article, and any personal or experiential connection with the author that the reader creates through the article is meager and contingent. The author of the article may disappear from the scene or from the reader's life while his article continues to influence his readers with its wisdom and content. According to the rules of modern hermeneutics, readers may influence the content and direction of the article with their own insights, even against the author's intentions.

Alternatively, content may also be conveyed by way of dibbur, speech. Speech involves direct conversation between the speaker and the one who hears him. Besides words, it involves tone, facial expression, and body language. Speech requires the presence of the speaker, and it creates a personal and experiential bond between the speaker and the hearer.

The ten utterances with which the world was created express the wisdom of the "article's author," God, who created His world. The laws of nature and their elements are a wondrous creation of sublime content, but they do not necessarily express God's personal presence in His world. He might, as it were, disappear from the picture, and the laws of nature and their elements would continue to function. The righteous, who sustain the world that was created by way of the ten utterances, know that this is not really possible, and act to make this clear. But the world as it normally functions could “forgo” God’s presence in its midst and continue to exist.

God's appearance at Sinai before His people, who then entered the stage of history, transformed the "ten utterances" into the "ten declarations." Their contents hold holiness and morality and they radiate God's presence with us in the here and now, the direct and experiential connection with Him at all times and at every moment that we observe them. Through His dibbur, God leads us and walks with us before the camp. The presence of the dibbur is manifested in the voice that is heard constantly between the cherubim and above the tablets in the Holy of Holies and in the words of the prophets. After the destruction of the Temple and the removal of prophecy, its (partial) presence finds expression in the sound of Torah that is reconstructed in our mouths.

The transition from ten utterances to the ten declarations was effected through the ten plagues. The ten plagues undermined confidence in the stability of the laws of nature, which had been  created by way of the ten utterances and seemed to indicate, as it were, that the world could hold its own without the presence of its Creator. After (almost) every blow, it was necessary to summon Moshe to pray to God to restore the laws of nature to their proper course. This was fitting preparation for the giving of the Torah and the ten commandments. The plagues provided the groundwork for the understanding that the world cannot sustain itself without its Creator’s constant presence. This presence obligates us to act – to observe the Torah and the mitzvot.

III.

We shall now consider the second possibility, that the number ten with regard to the plagues is not intentional but may be understood as "random." In Parashat Shemot, at the outset, God informed Moshe of only one plague, the smiting of the firstborns: "Thus says the Lord: Israel is My son, My firstborn. And I have said to you: Let My son go, that he may serve Me; and you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will slay your son, your firstborn" (Shemot 4:22-23). Why was the plan changed to ten plagues?

Perhaps the number ten was not intended specifically, and it could just as well have been six or fourteen. It is possible that the first nine plagues were added in a spirit of mercy, with the goal of bringing Pharaoh to let Israel go without a death blow for Egypt. These nine plagues struck at the infrastructure, the livestock, the wealth (including slaves, in the plague of hail), and the comforts of life, but the lives of the Egyptians themselves were not affected. In this way, the plagues could have continued one after the other until Pharaoh capitulated and sent Israel away. The hail broke the spirit of Pharaoh's advisors, and they demanded of Pharaoh that he let Israel go. Pharaoh began to relent, and agreed to let Israel go under certain conditions:

And Pharaoh's servants said to him: How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God; do you not yet know that Egypt is destroyed? And Moshe and Aharon were brought again to Pharaoh; and he said to them: Go, serve the Lord, your God; but who are they that shall go? And Moshe said: We will go with our young and with our old; with our sons and with our daughters; with our flocks and with our herds we will go; for we must hold a feast to the Lord. And he said to them: So be the Lord with you, as I will let you go, and your little ones; see that evil is before your face. Not so; go now the men, and serve the Lord; for that is what you seek. And they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence. (Shemot 10:7-11)

The conditions set by Pharaoh are reminiscent of the conditions under which Yosef and his brothers were permitted to go to Canaan to bury their father Yaakov:

And Yosef went up to bury his father… and all the house of Yosef, and his brothers, and his father's house; only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen. (Bereishit 50:7-8)

This is how the ancient Pharaoh guaranteed the return of Yosef and his brothers, and it is possible that it was from him that the Pharaoh in the time of Moshe learned to make this condition. But Moshe refuses to accept the limitation and insists on dictating the terms of Israel's departure himself. This enrages Pharaoh, and for the first time, their negotiations end with the expulsion of Moshe and Aharon from Pharaoh's presence.

This trend intensifies in the plague of darkness, when Pharaoh becomes more flexible in his stance while Moshe remains firm down to the last detail:

And Pharaoh called to Moshe, and said: Go, serve the Lord; only let your flocks and your herds be stayed; your little ones shall also go with you. And Moshe said: You must also give into our hand sacrifices and burnt-offerings, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. Our cattle also shall go with us; there shall not a hoof be left behind; for we must take from it to serve the Lord our God; and we know not with what we must serve the Lord until we come there. But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let them go. And Pharaoh said to him: Get you from me, take heed to yourself, see my face no more; for on the day you see my face, you shall die. (Shemot 10:24-28)

Here the rift between the enraged Pharaoh and the unyielding Moshe reaches its climax; it is irreparable, and the negotiations are finally terminated. This is the moment when all-out war between God and Pharaoh is declared, and the first act of war is the plague of the firstborns.

From the moment that Moshe was expelled with a threat from which there is no backtracking, God's war against Egypt took lives. Had Pharaoh been more tolerant of Moshe, it is possible that God would have struck Egypt with additional plagues in order to persuade them to let Israel go, without any lives being lost – for they too are His handiwork, and He did not desire their deaths. But the cessation of negotiations led to the decisive blow.[7]

*

We find a similar course of action on more than one occasion in the annals of Israel. Negotiations between God and the Jewish people come to an end when the harassment, or worse, of God's emissaries to the negotiations begin – just as Pharaoh's threat to kill Moshe if he would come back to see him ended the negotiations for the release of Israel and led to a bloody campaign against the Egyptians.

When the prophet Zekharyahu the son of Yehoyada was slain in the Temple courtyard at the command of King Yehoash, the punishment was immediate and without additional warning:

And the spirit of God clothed Zekharya the son of Yehoyada the priest; and he stood above the people, and said to them: Thus says God: Why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord, [when] you cannot succeed? Because you have forsaken the Lord, He has also forsaken you. And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the Lord. Thus Yoash the king remembered not the kindness which Yehoyada his father had done for him, but slew his son. And as he died, he said: The Lord look upon it, and avenge it. And it came to pass, when the year was come about, that the army of the Arameans came up against him; and they came to Yehuda and Yerushalayim, and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people, and sent all their spoil to the king of Damascus. (II Divrei ha-Yamim 24:20-23)

When the prophet Amos is expelled by Amatzya the priest of Bet-El from being a prophet in Israel, Amos sees his last vision and the great calamity that will immediately befall Israel – as indeed it did. An earthquake struck, impacting mainly the coastal settlements and the king of Assyria who invaded the land, and did not let up until the destruction of Shomron.                                     

Thus it is also said about the destruction of Yerushalayim by Nevuchadnetzar:

Moreover all the chiefs of the priests, and the people, transgressed very greatly after all the abominations of the nations; and they polluted the house of the Lord which He had hallowed in Yerushalayim. And the Lord, the God of their fathers, sent to them by His messengers, sending early and often, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling-place. But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy. Therefore He brought upon them the king of the Chaldeans, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man or hoary-headed; He gave them all into his hand. (II Divrei ha-Yamim 36:14-17)

The removal of God's prophets halted negotiations for the correction of Israel’s ways, and thus came the destruction. This also follows from the words of Yirmeyahu, who tells of being thrown into prison by the officials of Tzidkiyahu (chapter 38), and shortly thereafter describes the destruction of Yerushalayim and the Temple (chapter 39), may they be rebuilt speedily in our days, amen.

(Edited by Sarah Rudolph)


[1] See the discussion of Parashat Vaera here.

[2] I. Velikovsky, Ages in Chaos [Tekufot be-Tohu, Israel 5757, p. 23].

[3] Ibid. p. 17. The quotations in the coming lines are found on p. 20. A more detailed discussion of ancient Egyptian written records that appear to describe the exodus from Egypt is found in D. M. Levy and Y. Rothstein, Mikra ve-Arkhiologiya, Jerusalem 5771, pp. 18-23.

[4] See Yehoshua 10:10-11. In my opinion, the stones were dislodged from the mountain tops by an earthquake, which also explains other phenomena in the book of Yehoshua at the beginning of the conquest.

[5] On average, five hundred meteorites strike the earth every year. Usually they are completely vaporized in the atmosphere's protective shield, but some do penetrate. Even among those that penetrate the atmosphere's protective shield, most fall into the sea.

[6] In the vernacular: sonic boom.

[7] In the intense confrontation between Pharaoh and Moshe, one can also discern the half-full glass in Pharaoh's behavior. Until the plagues of locusts and darkness, Moshe and Aharon enter Pharaoh's palace freely, threaten him in the name of God, and taunt him, and then they emerge unscathed from his house without force being used against them. Several of the prophets of Israel were beaten, insulted, and imprisoned, and even more, when they spoke to the kings of Israel in a manner that was not to their liking. Until this point, Pharaoh, at least in this respect, behaved better than the kings of Israel! 

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