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Torah Insights for Shabbat Parshat Bo - January 18, 1997
We watch Pharaoh, over the course of the Ten Plagues, go from being the ruler of the most
powerful country in the world to being a veritable punching bag, taking blow after blow after blow.
As his power diminishes, he resorts to more and more desperate attempts to maintain some
measure of control in his confrontation with the Jews.
But after the eighth plague, Pharaoh explodes and threatens Moshe, ending their dialogue. No one
has ever suggested that Pharaoh was anything less than a competent, perhaps even brilliant, leader,
but cutting off his dialogue with Moshe appears counterproductive for him, making himself even
more vulnerable. But he does it anyway.
Perhaps one can develop an explanation for Pharaoh's behavior by finding a pattern in the way the
plagues are visited on the Egyptians. Many commentators, notably the Ramban, have described
patterns that repeat throughout the various plagues, at particular intervals.
There are four plagues during which Pharaoh attempts to bargain with Moshe in one fashion or
another, either to end the specific plague or to end the exile and all the plagues. In every one of
these plagues, some reminder of the plague remains even after the plague is over.
The first is the plague of tzefardei' a, frogs. Pharaoh makes his first offer to let the Jews go and
asks Moshe to pray for him that the plague end. Moshe, of course, agrees and the frogs die. The
Egyptians, we are told, gather the dead frogs in heaps and, as expected, a terrible stench fills the
land. The plague may be over, but not completely over.
The second of these "dialogue" plagues is arov, wild beasts. Pharaoh asks Moshe to pray for him
and Moshe accedes to that request because again Pharaoh promises that the Jews will be allowed
to go.
When the plague ends, the beasts leave. Not a single one remains. Over the long term, however,
this would have a negative effect in Egypt's ecosystem, as the lack of wild animals would cause
overbreeding in other species. Thus there would still be a reminder of the plague after the plague.
In the third plague, barad, hail, the barley and flax crops were eradicated, but the wheat and spelt
were not affected because they were late in ripening and were not yet grown. So each time the
Egyptians looked at their fields, they saw the limited crops that remained (until the plague of locusts
destroyed that too) and were reminded of what the hail had done.
Finally, the fourth plague, arbeh, locusts, ends when G-d brings a strong westerly wind to bear on
Egypt, and, as a result, not a single locust remains within the entire borders of the land. This is
remarkable. Not to have a single member of this species is a feat that modern science cannot even
begin to approximate. And since locusts may well have been an important food source, their
absence hurt the Egyptians as well. The pattern is set. In each case, the plague continues in some
way.
Following this pattern, at the plague of choshech, darkness, Pharaoh would have feared that some
aspect of the darkness would remain. Even more frightening was the inability of the Egyptians to
move during the plague of darkness, while the Jews could move about. The increasing weakness of
the Egyptians was contrasted to the growing strength of the Jews.
This realization must have hit Pharaoh very hard. He must have been truly demoralized by this turn
of events.
I suspect that the combination of his realizing that he had nothing left with which to bargain coupled
with his increasing awareness of the collapse of the Egyptian empire was too much for him.
Continued dialogue meant continued punishment, which meant continued exposure of weakness.
This was simply intolerable and so he cut off all dialogue in a desperate attempt to break the cycle.
The only problem with his thinking is that shortly after the plague of darkness came a different kind
of darkness, when in the middle of the night, G-d Himself descended on Egypt and killed the first
born of every household, including Pharaoh's. In that sense, the plague of darkness continued too.
Rabbi Barry Freundel
Rabbi Freundel is Rabbi of Congregation Kesher Israel
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