Dvar Torah- וארא

This week’s Torah portion, Va’eira, contains the first seven plagues of what conventionally is perceived as the Ten Plagues. But are the “Ten Plagues” made up of ten individual plagues? Is there anything in common between the plagues that make them anymore than ten isolated, separate types of punishments?

The Ten Plagues, by the way, are Blood (דם), Frogs (צפרדע), Lice (כנים), Wild Creatures (ערוב), Pestilence (דבר), Boils (שחין), Hail (ברד), Locusts (ארבה), Darkness (חשך), and Slaying of the Firstborn (בכורות). In the gmara, Rabbi Judah writes a mnemonic: דצ"ך עד"ש באח"ב (I suppose in English that's BF"L WP"B HLD"B, but that's not much of a mnemonic). But Rabbi Judah's abbreviations aren't just a handy way of remembering ten plagues; they also create groupings of plagues that teach us something about the exodus itself.

(A quick note: most commentators do not include the tenth plague, the Slaying of the Firstborn, with the previous nine. Therefore, the groupings as explained below do not include it.)

The Abarbanel, of Spanish Jewry in the late 15th century, takes these three groups and writes how each answers a theological challenge of Pharaoh. When Moses confronts Pharaoh for the first time armed with the famous line "let my people go!", Pharaoh responds with the following:

וַיֹּאמֶר פַּרְעֹה מִי ה' אֲשֶׁר אֶשְׁמַע בְּקֹלוֹ לְשַׁלַּח אֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל לֹא יָדַעְתִּי אֶת ה' וְגַם אֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל לֹא אֲשַׁלֵּחַ

"And Pharaoh said who is God that I should listen to him to release Israel? I do not recognize God, and also I shall not release Israel." (Exodus 5:2)

The Abarbanel writes that the phrase "who is God?" means that Pharaoh did not acknowledge the existence of a single deity, as opposed to the classical Egyptian polytheistic belief. The phrase "I do not recognize God" is interpreted to mean that Pharaoh did not acknowledge God's divine intervention in human affairs. And the challenge "and also I shall not release Israel" hints to a struggle of power, implying that Pharaoh did not believe that God controls everything, particularly the forces of nature.

The three groups of theee plagues, therefore, answered the three claims of Pharaoh. The first three plauges (blood, frogs, and lice) showed God's existence and control over all aspects: the Nile, the wildlife, the dust. The second three plagues (wild animals, pestilence, and boils) show God's intervention in human affairs, namely, that God inflicted the plague on Egypt, but not on the region of Goshen, where the Jews were living. Finally, the last three plagues (hail, locust, darkness) were displays of God's might and power as displayed through nature. Hail in the dry desert climate, a plague of locusts that was so great that it was comapred to the flood in magnitude, darkness so thick that a man could not move in it-- God turned on the works.

The more recent Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch, however, creates a different set of groupings. The first group contains the first plague of the above sets (namely, blood, wildlife, and hail); the second group contains the middle plagues of the groups (frogs, pestilence, and locusts); and the third group contains the final plague of each set (lice, boils, and darkness).

Rav Hirsch's first group carries the message of גרות, strangeness. Through these plagues, God teaches that while Egypt thought it owned the land and that Israel was the stranger, everyone is a stranger in His land. This message is conveyed by contaminating the landmark of Egypt, the Nile; by bringing creatures foreign to Egypt; and by bringing stormy weather to an arid desert region.

The second group Rav Hirsch teaches of עבדות, slavery. Through this group, God teaches that while Egypt thought that it was the master and Israel the slave, everyone is subordinate to His will. And just as Egypt thought that it had control over the people, it also thought it had control over certain forces in Egypt, such as wildlife, cattle, and agriculture. God therefore teaches that He is in control of the timid water creatures (frogs) that brazenly invade Egyptian land, as well as the cattle, which he decimates with a catastrophic plague, as well as the grain, which is destroyed with a swarm of locusts.

Rav Hirsch's final group of plagues teaches of ענוי, or suffering. The third plague in each set comes to punish the Egyptians for not listening to the will of God for the first two plagues of each set. This punishment, Rav Hirsch writes, is inflicted on the Egyptians bodies, as opposed to their property or environs. The lice, boils, and physically-limiting darkness come to punish the Egyptians for their iniquities.

The three lessons that Rav Hirsch believes God teaches through the plagues-- גרות עבדות and ענוי-- are not joined together through coincidence. Rather, they are derived from the following verse:

וַיֹּאמֶר לְאַבְרָם יָדֹעַ תֵּדַע כִּי גֵר יִהְיֶה זַרְעֲךָ בְּאֶרֶץ לֹא לָהֶם וַעֲבָדוּם וְעִנּוּ אֹתָם אַרְבַּע מֵאוֹת שָׁנָה

"And [God] said to Abram 'surely know that your descendents shall be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and they will be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years.'" (Genesis 15:13)

The three things that God promised Abram's descendents— strangeness, slavery, and oppression— were inflicted by the Egyptians onto the Jews, and thus, measure for measure, were subsequently brought upon them.

Regardless of whether you agree with the groupings of the Abarbanel or Rav Hirsch, it is important to know that both agree that the overall point of the plagues. The message can be found ten times in the parsha, in some form of the following:

וְיָדְעוּ מִצְרַיִם כִּי אֲנִי ה
"And Egypt shall know that I am God…" (Exodus 7:5)

The point of the plagues is to show Egypt, and the world, of God's existence and power in the world. Yes, they also served as a punishment, but bottom line, it was a lesson to everyone that God, though He may at times appear hidden, is the driving force behind our world.

Shabbat Shalom.