Cause and Effect

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Having delivered word of a fair few plagues already, Moshe is told to go see Paroh again, and the reason he is given is quite bizarre:

וַיֹּאמֶר ה אֶל-מֹשֶׁה, בֹּא אֶל-פַּרְעֹה: כִּי-אֲנִי הִכְבַּדְתִּי אֶת-לִבּוֹ -Hashem said to Moshe, “Go see Paroh, because I’ve hardened his heart”. (10:1)

What is the cause and effect in the instruction? Why is the fact Moshe is sent related to Hashem hardening his heart?

The Sfas Emes explains that Paroh’s heart was hardened, meaning his resolve was given the endurance to withstand the plagues. This was the challenge Moshe was sent to address.

The Sfas Emes teaches that every Jew must know that every hurdle and obstacle they will ever face in life is a challenge straight from God. It is precisely because God is testing you that you must rise to the occasion. When a כִּי-אֲנִי הִכְבַּדְתִּי אֶת-לִבּוֹ is placed before us, is precisely when we receive the instruction of בֹּא אֶל-פַּרְעֹה.

Darkness in a New Light

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There are interesting explanations of how the Plague of Darkness actually took place. On one hand, R’ Avraham Iben Ezra learns that it was a fog so tremendously thick that it extinguished any fire lit within it. He writes that he himself saw experienced such a phenomenon many times near the ocean. Yet the Torah Temima understands that the plague meant that the Egyptians were stricken with severe cataracts. The Vilna Goan explains that darkness is not like we commonly tend to think of as simply the absence of light, but rather a creation in its own right. Hashem however set up the light/dark relationship in such a way that light always wins in a “fight” with darkness. By this makkah, though, that relationship was reversed.

Rabbeinu Bachaiyei (Bo 10:21) seems to learn a pshat somewhere in the middle. He quotes the Medrash Shemos Rabba (14:1-3) detailing and expounding upon this plague. He mentions the tangibility of the darkness; this darkness was not just the absence of light. Rather, it was an existence in itself that had substance. So thick was it, that during the last three days of the six day duration of this plague, no Egyptian could move a muscle and was frozen in place. (Ralbag writes that Hashem sealed the Egyptians’ noses and mouths. They could not breathe for three days. That they did not die was a miracle. He did this because had the Egyptians breathed in this new, thick dark air, they surely would have died. Being kept alive without breathing for this time was a source of tremendous suffering for them.) Klal Yisrael, however, had plenty of light, not only in Goshen but even when they entered the Egyptian houses to search for valuables.n

Rabbeinu Bachaiyei explains the nature of this particular darkness. In order for the eye to see light, the light must travel from its source through the air into the eye. This is similar to hearing; the sound waves travel from the source to one’s ear. In other words, air is the medium through which light travels. During the first three days of the plague of darkness, Hashem “sealed” the pathways of the air from allowing passage of light. In the absence of the ability for light to get through the air automatically turns dark. For the last three days, Hashem thickened this dark air so much so that the weight of it did not allow them to move. This was not the case for Klal Yisrael; Hashem did not close the passageways of air for them. They were able to see freely and could go where they pleased.

In understanding this Rabbeinu Bachaiyei, it would seem that one would need to clarify his words as follows. We cannot say that all the air particles in any specific Egyptians house were sealed off to light. For if so, how could the Jew entering to search for valuables be able to see? On the other hand, to say that the air particles were open to light would mean that the Egyptians would be able to see! One must say that the plague of darkness how we tend to envision it. It wasn’t that the land of Egypt was completely dark. Rather, the air particles immediately and in closest proximity to the individual Egyptian were the ones that were sealed off from light (for the first three days, after which this very air became heavy enough to hinder any movement). It was as if every Egyptian had a heavy, dark shell around his body. But during the day, the land of Egypt itself was as bright as any other country.

One could comment, however, that according to this the Plague of Darkness effected the Jews as well. Being that the air directly surrounding the Egyptians did not allow light to pass through, all that a Jew saw in looking at an Egyptian was a thick human-shaped black cloud. The Jew would not have been able to see through due to the sealed air. If, for example, the Jew would want to know the identity of the Egyptian whose house he had entered by looking at him, he would not be able to (and those Jews who were able to tell specific Egyptians about the whereabouts of their valuables would have had to have know their identities by other means)! Possibly one could suggest that the air around the Egyptian worked like one-way glass; one side can see through while the other side can’t. The Jews could see the Egyptians while the Egyptians could not see out. The problem with this might be that if the light could not get in to the Egyptians, then it would not be reflecting back towards the Jews to enable them to see the Egyptians.

The easiest pshat in Rabbeinu Bachayei might therefore be that the air was open for the Jews and closed for the Egyptians. Though this may not make sense in our minds (as we asked above), we can safely throw up our hands and say, “Who is so wise to understand Hashem’s ways!” So writes the Alshich (10:21-23). The Ramban at the end of Parsha Bo explains that all the miracles preformed in Egypt were a testimonial for generations of there being really no such thing as nature, rather everything is Hashem’s doing. The miracles there were a wakeup call to this. After writing this, I found in the Medrash Tehilim (aka Sochar Tov 22:2) exactly this idea. “In the way the world works, can a man light a fire and say, ‘Ploni who is my friend shall benefit from this light, but Ploni who is my enemy will not’?! Rather everyone benefits together. Yet Hashem is not this way. He can shine light to one and place darkness on another.”

Early Redemption?

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.ב. הַחֹדֶשׁ הַזֶּה לָכֶם רֹאשׁ חֳדָשִׁים רִאשׁוֹן הוּא לָכֶם לְחָדְשֵׁי הַשָּׁנָה

2. This month shall be to you the head of the months; to you it shall be the first of the months of the year. (Bo 12:2)

The word beginning is used to describe the first month of the year and the beginning of the redemption for Yisrael. (M.R)

(Shir Hashirim 2:8) ’The voice of my beloved, behold this (time of redemption) has come’. Answers the beloved, ‘why have you come to this place of impurity’? Answers (the redeemer), get up my friend, my beautiful one, and go’.

Medrash Rabba (15:1) explains that the above Pesukim are a dialogue between Hashem and the nation of Yisrael. Hashem came to Yisrael and said, ‘behold the 400 years of exile is over, the redemption of Mitrayim is here’! To which Yisrael answers, ‘why have you come here? The 400 years of exile are not yet over’. In which Hashem answers, ‘your calculations are incorrect, for the 400 years are indeed over, get up and leave’! Immediately, the Leviim stand up and uncover their heads.

The Nechmad Lemareh goes wild on the above Medrash.

1) If someone is in jail and someone comes to pay his bail, does the inmate say I don’t want to leave my time isn’t up yet? What in the world is Yisrael saying to Hashem that we don’t want to leave because our time of exile isn’t up?

2) What is this argument between Hashem and Yisrael in regards to how long the time of the exile was supposed to last?

3) Why are the Leviim standing up and uncovering their heads?

There are four different ways of understanding how the 400 years of exile (which Hashem had told Avraham was going to have to happen) were completed.

a)      Either they never were fully completed in Galus Mitzrayim and the exile would be completed at the end of the 4 exiles (ie until Mashiach comes);

b)      They would be completed with the 40 years that we were exiled in the Midbar;

c)      The exile of Mitzrayim was so difficult that in 210 years the 400 years was completed (meaning Mitzrayim was worked us so hard that we had the amount of 400 years of pain in 210);

d)      The exile started from the time when Yitzchak was born for the Pasuk by the Bris Bain Habisarim (Be’er 15:13) says, ‘for your offspring will be strangers in a land that isn’t theirs’, your children starting with Yitzchak.

When Hashem came to Yisrael and said the time has come to leave Egypt, Yisrael became worried. They thought that perhaps the exile wasn’t over and Hashem was taking them out early. When was the exile supposed to finish? Either in the Midbar or during the next 3000 years during the four exiles. Yisrael said, ‘Hashem we don’t want to leave, we would rather finish the exile here in Mitzrayim and have the final Mashiach!’

The reason they felt that the exile must not have been completed is because: if the exile started at the time of Yitzchak then only the offspring of Avraham would merit to having the redemption. Yisrael was afraid that since they served idols, and stopped giving themselves bris milah (or doing Paruah of the Milah) they were no longer called the offspring of Avraham and would therefore not merit for redemption. In which Hashem answers that there is still a tribe that serves Hashem completely. Throughout all of the exile Shevet Levi never served idols, never assimilated and kept Milah. In fact Chazal say Shevet Levi didn’t do any hard labor, they sat and learned all day in the Beis Medrash. In Shevet Levi’s merit, all of Yisrael is called ‘the offspring of Avraham’; therefore the exile started at Yitzchak and the exile was over.

‘Immediately Levi gets up and uncovers their heads’. They thought the exile in Mitzrayim was because of the extremely hard labor which turned 210 years into 400. If that was the case then Levi didn’t contribute much to the redemption while their brothers had suffered greatly. Thus they covered themselves in shame. Once Hashem said that on the contrary, that Levi’s Torah learning was indeed the reason for the redemption, they immediately got up and uncovered themselves to let their Torah lead the way.

How to count a day

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The pasuk says regarding Yom Kippur:

שַׁבַּת שַׁבָּתוֹן הוּא לָכֶם וְעִנִּיתֶם אֶת נַפְשֹׁתֵיכֶם בְּתִשְׁעָה לַחֹדֶשׁ בָּעֶרֶב מֵעֶרֶב עַד עֶרֶב תִּשְׁבְּתוּ שַׁבַּתְּכֶם – It is a complete day of rest for you, and you shall afflict yourselves. On the ninth of the month in the evening, from evening to evening, you shall observe your rest day (23:32).

The Gemara in Pesachim 68b wonders what the Torah means by 9th; since the fast is n the 10th. The Gemara answers that it’s a mitzva to eat on the 9th, and the Torah views someone who eats on the 9th as if he fasted on the ninth and the tenth.

What is the Gemara’s problem and solution? We have this style of date in the Torah previously :

בָּרִאשֹׁן בְּאַרְבָּעָה עָשָׂר יוֹם לַחֹדֶשׁ בָּעֶרֶב תֹּאכְלוּ מַצֹּת עַד יוֹם הָאֶחָד וְעֶשְׂרִים לַחֹדֶשׁ בָּעָרֶב – In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening, you shall eat matzos, until the twenty first day of the month in the evening. (Exodus 12:18)

The Gemara did not make a similar deduction from why the Torah says that we should eat matzos on the 14th if in fact we eat them from the 15th. Why particularly by Yom Kippur?

R’ Shlomo Gantzfried notes that there is a halacha that a non-Jew may not keep Shabbos – how could the Patriarchs keep the whole Torah if they were still technically non-Jews?

R’ Pinchas Horowitz explains that there are two types of time spans – the Jewish calendar, where the night begins the calendar date; and the secular calendar, where the day precedes the night. The prohibitin for a non-Jew to keep Shabbos, as explained in Sanhedrin 56b, is keeping Shabbos for a full 24 hours (not necessarily on Saturday; the sane would be true of Monday). However, the source is Genesis 8:22 – וְיוֹם וָלַיְלָה לֹא יִשְׁבֹּתוּ – “day and night shall not recede”. We see that their calendar starts from the morning.

Therefore, the Patriarchs kept Shabbos as we keep it – Friday night and Saturday day. However, on Motzaei Shabbos, the subsequent night of the day they kept Shabbos, they did melocho, when it would still be considered Shabbos for a non-Jew, as his Shabbos would only start in the morning. Thus, they never fully kept a Shabbos of a non-Jew.

With this concept, R’ Gantzfried explains how we can understand why the Gemara is specifically bothered with Yom Kippur and not with Pesach. Pesach was mentioned before the Torah was given – the laws of Pesach are said whilst the Jews were still in Egypt; therefore, 14th at night means the night that actually comes after the day. However, when the Torah commands us about Yom Kippur, we are already in the Jewish calendar mode, thus “9th at night” really means a full 24 hours before Yom Kippur.

Therefore, the question from the Gemara was exclusive to Yom Kippur, and not to Pesach.

Night-night!

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וַיָּקָם פַּרְעֹה לַיְלָה, הוּא וְכָל-עֲבָדָיו וְכָל-מִצְרַיִם, וַתְּהִי צְעָקָה גְדֹלָה, בְּמִצְרָיִם: כִּי-אֵין בַּיִת, אֲשֶׁר אֵין-שָׁם מֵת. – 30 – And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead.

וַיִּקְרָא לְמֹשֶׁה וּלְאַהֲרֹן לַיְלָה, וַיֹּאמֶר קוּמוּ צְּאוּ מִתּוֹךְ עַמִּי–גַּם-אַתֶּם, גַּם-בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל; וּלְכוּ עִבְדוּ אֶת-ה’, כְּדַבֶּרְכֶם - And he called for Moses and Aaron by night and said: ‘Rise up, get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel; and go, serve the Lord, as ye have said.
(12:30-31)

As made abundantly clear by the bold letters, there is a repetition of the time the sequence of events that took place in light of the imminent arrival of the 10th plague. If Paroh only wanted to tell them to “rise up and go forth from among my people”, then there was no need to repeat that this occurred at night, as obviously it is established from the previous Pasuk that this is the case. So why the repetition?

An intriguing answer by the Griz, R’ Yitzchak Ze’ev Soloveitchik (biography here) and the Ohr Hachayim, R’ Chaim ibn Attar (biography here) that shows how the various Psukim link.

The previous time that Paroh had met Moshe and Ahron, their meeting did not go well. It (10:28) concluded וַיֹּאמֶר-לוֹ פַרְעֹה, לֵךְ מֵעָלָי; הִשָּׁמֶר לְךָ, אַל-תֹּסֶף רְאוֹת פָּנַי–כִּי בְּיוֹם רְאֹתְךָ פָנַי, תָּמוּת - Pharaoh said to him, “Go away from me! Beware! You shall no longer see my face, for on the day that you see my face, you shall die!”‘ Pretty bad meeting, but it got worse. After his final prophecy after this event, the Pasuk (11:8) says וַיֵּצֵא מֵעִם-פַּרְעֹה, בָּחֳרִי-אָף “And he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger.” In Zevachim 102a Resh Lakish explains that this means that Moshe slapped Paroh.

With their prior meeting fresh in his mind Moshe would understandably have been loathe to see Paroh, “for on the day that you see my face, you shall die”. If they hear him calling them, they weren’t going to come running.

Paroh understood this, and shouted “לַיְלָה“!! “It’s night-time!”. His threat had been “for on the day that you see my face, you shall die”, and perhaps was suggesting that he did not want to see them by day, but by night it was different.

So to answer our original question of why לַיְלָה is repeated, the answer is, it isn’t! If we add punctuation:

“!וַיִּקְרָא לְמֹשֶׁה וּלְאַהֲרֹן “לַיְלָה - And he called Moshe and Ahron saying “It’s nighttime!”- {my threat isn’t relevant now!}

So in fact, the second time isn’t a description of the setting, it is actually what he said!

Me too!

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A wonderful idea from the Sifsei Cohen, a student of the Arizal.

After Hashem sends down the hail that destroyed all the vegetation of Egypt, Paroh calls for Moshe and Ahron and says “ה’ הַצַּדִּיק וַאֲנִי וְעַמִּי הָרְשָׁעִים” This is generally translated as– Hashem is righteous, וַאֲנִי וְעַמִּי הָרְשָׁעִים – and I and my people are wicked. But this pasuk can be split up in a different way, which results in a change in its meaning; !ה’ הַצַּדִּיק וַאֲנִי -וְעַמִּי הָרְשָׁעִים – Hashem is righteous – as am I! וְעַמִּי הָרְשָׁעִים – and it is my people who are wicked!” . Paroh is faking innocence – and attempting to side with Hashem, and claims it is his people whom are wicked, not he!

In addition, if we take out וַאֲנִי, the roshei teivos (initials) of the remaining four words spell Hashem’s 4 letter name. The וַאֲנִי is in the center of this; it is interrupting the shem Hashem. He is claiming parity with G-d, and within G-d’s Name itself!

Paroh proceeded, and told Moshe that he will allow the Jews to go, so Hashem stopped the hail, yet Parah did not keep his word, and did not allow them to leave. Hashem says to Moshe in the first pasuk of next week’s sedra “בֹּא אֶל פַּרְעֹה כִּי אֲנִי הִכְבַּדְתִּי אֶת לִבּוֹ וְאֶת לֵב עֲבָדָיו לְמַעַן שִׁתִי אֹתֹתַי אֵלֶּה בְּקִרְבּוֹ - The Lord said to Moses: “Come to Paroh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, in order that I may place these signs of Mine in his midst” (10:1).

There is a problem with this that is not evident from a translation. Why does Hashem say כִּי אֲנִי הִכְבַּדְתִּי? The אֲנִי is superfluous , as הִכְבַּדְתִּי is in the first person, so there must be more to it than meets the eye. Literally, כִּי אֲנִי הִכְבַּדְתִּי means because of אֲנִי I have hardened – Hashem is saying that it is because of Paroh’s arrogance and usage of the word אֲנִי in 9:27 that הִכְבַּדְתִּי – I have hardened his heart so that שִׁתִי אֹתֹתַי אֵלֶּה בְּקִרְבּוֹ. Except, אֹתֹתַי can mean My signs or My letters. Hashem hardened Pharoah’s heart so that he can see ‘My letters’ in his midst. Which letters are we talking about? The letters that make up the name of Hashem which Pharoah had previously attempted to infiltrate!

So in essence, “because of אֲנִי, I have hardened their hearts to show my letters {ie G-d’s name, with all His power,} and showing it in their midst”.

This only goes to show how brilliant the Torah is, that it has so many levels of interpretation by just reading the words again.

Cross posted on http://thelivingtorahweekly.blogspot.com/