Exodus · Chapter 10

And Hashem said to Moses: Go to Pharaoh, for I have made his heart and the heart of his servants stubborn, in order to place these My signs among them.

ויאמר ה' אל משה בא אל פרעה AND THE LORD SAID UNTO MOSES GO IN UNTO PHARAOH and warn him. שתי means my setting (an infinitive of שית), so that the phrase, which literally means “for the sake of my setting these my signs”, denotes “that I may set”.

AND THE ETERNAL SAID UNTO MOSES: GO IN UNTO PHARAOH; FOR I HAVE HARDENED HIS HEART AND THE HEART OF HIS SERVANTS. The Holy One, blessed be He, informed Moses that it is He Who has hardened their hearts in spite of their fear of Him during the hail and their confession of sin. And He explained to him: “The reason I hardened their hearts is that I might set in their midst these signs that I wish to do among them so that the Egyptians will know My power, but not in order that I can punish them more on account of this hardening of heart, and also that you and all Israel should recount during the coming generations the power of My deeds, and you shall know that I am the Eternal, and whatsoever I please, I do in heaven and in earth.”.

"Come to Pharaoh." Come to him this time, and do not be confounded by the fact that his heart has hardened until now, for it is I who have made his heart and the heart of his servants heavy. He mentions the heart of his servants because their hearts will soften when the plague of locusts arrives. The meaning of "that I have made his heart heavy" is: so that I might set these My signs in his midst. The scholars of Spain are not in agreement: some say that "שיתי" [shiti] is like "בינו" [binu], "שימו" [simu], and similar forms, and likewise "ישית" [yashit], "ישים" [yasim], "יבין" [yavin], and their like in all conjugational patterns. Others say it is from the Hif'il binyan, and that binyan is defective here, since they found: "or who placed [ישום] a mute" (above, 4:11), and "to rejoice over you for good as He rejoiced over your fathers" (Deut. 30:9), which is from the Qal binyan. And some say "ישיש" is like "ישוש," and "שיתי" is like "שומי" — and all of these are from the Qal binyan.

כי אני הכבדתי, even though Moses had said; “I know that you do not yet relate with awe and reverence to G’d,” (9,30) he thought that even if he does not humble himself to G’d because of G’d’s greatness, at least he should do what G’d says seeing that he has no choice, and can no longer withstand the cumulative effect of the plagues. He had arrived at this conclusion when he noted the words ה' הצדיק, “the Lord is the Just One.” However, when he found out that all these pious words notwithstanding Pharaoh continued to oppose G’d’s will in spite of the fact that he found it impossible to cope with the plagues, Moses had come to the conclusion that warning Pharaoh of an impending plague was an exercise in futility. This is why G’d had to tell him at this stage that already during the sixth plague (9,12) He had stiffened Pharaoh’s heart so that ordinary rules of psychology could no longer be applied to this man. The purpose was to enable G’d to demonstrate more miracles so that maybe some Egyptians would be moved by what they experienced to become penitents. If so, the Israelites in the future would be able to tell their children of the greatness of G’d’s miracles. This in turn would convince mankind that G’d loved His creatures and was very patient with them, giving them opportunities to mend their ways. This is why the warning to Pharaoh was in place although it would prove ineffectual. G’d’s plan was למען שיתי אותותי אלה אלה בקרבו, so that I can demonstrate these miracles of Mine in its midst, so that the people realise My greatness and return in contriteness.

ויאמר ה׳ אל משה, G'd said to Moses, etc. The Torah mentions אמירה, the soft approach as well as G'd's name as the Merciful One. This did not refer to the "sender," i.e. to G'd, but to the messenger Moses, as we see in verse 3. [Whereas as recently as 9,35 the Torah referred to Moses as having spoken sternly, דבר, to Pharaoh, now there is a change of mood. Ed.] Moses spoke in a kindly manner to Pharaoh even while delivering a warning of a devastating plague. G'd warned him to do so as otherwise he might have lived up to the description of the righteous man in Psalms 58,11 where the Holy Spirit describes the righteous as rejoicing when he observes G'd taking revenge. Moses is reminded that what truly makes the righteous happy is seeing G'd's attribute of Mercy in action. Furthermore, the Torah employs the attribute of Mercy to remind us that G'd did not send the plague immediately after the warning but gave Pharaoh time to change his mind and to release the Israelites. If he did this then he and his country would be spared the suffering entailed by the plague of locusts. According to Shemot Rabbah 9,12 a week or even twenty-four days would elapse between the warning and the implementation of the plague. All this was part of the attribute of Mercy in action. On the other hand, it is possible that our verse underlines that even the attribute of Mercy agreed joyfully that the time had arrived to take revenge on this enemy of G'd and the Jewish people (compare my comments on 7,2). כי אני הכבדתי את לבו, "for I have hardened his heart, etc." G'd means that Moses would realise as of now that He had indeed hardened Pharaoh's heart. Even the most obstinate person would have broken down by now if he had experienced what Pharaoh had endured during the last seven plagues. Only intervention by G'd could have accounted for his continued refusal to let the Israelites depart. G'd did not, of course, interfere outright with Pharaoh's free will; rather He performed a miracle such as the immunity of the wheat and spelt to the plague of hail, to give Pharaoh a chance to delude himself that G'd's power did not extend to those two categories of grain. When G'd said כי אני הכבדתי He referred to that phenomenon in the past tense. It is also possible that G'd's words were directed primarily at Moses who must have despaired of the purpose of going to Pharaoh time and again without accomplishing his mission. G'd told Moses that Pharaoh's obstinacy was not that of an ordinary human being, but the reason he could not respond as he should was that G'd Himself had hardened his heart. The moment G'd decided not to interfere with whatever motivated Pharaoh's decisions he would relent and send the Israelites on their way. ואת לב עבדיו, and the heart of his servants, etc. The reason G'd also had to harden the heart of Pharaoh's advisers was so that they would not urge him to release the Israelites. G'd had to do so in order to bring the plagues not only on Pharaoh but on the whol...

בא אל פרעה כי אני הכבדתי את לבו ואת לב עבדיו, “go toPharaoh for I have hardened both his heart and that of his servants;” We have not found this formulation in connection with any of the previous plagues. The reason that G-d reacted so harshly was that after Pharaoh himself had confessed that he had sinned, instead of releasing the Israelites, both he and his servants continued to oppress the Israelites. This retraction by Pharaoh forced G-d’s hand, so to speak, to react in kind, matching the punishment to the sin committed. [In verse 34 at the end of the last chapter the Torah testified that Pharaoh’s servants had supported him in his retraction of his confession. Ed.]

אשרי אדם מפחד תמיד ומקשה לבו יפול ברעה, “Happy is the man who is always anxious; but he who hardens his heart will fall into misfortunes” (Proverbs 28,14). In this verse Solomon commands a Jewish person to be of “soft” heart and to be constantly concerned about the purpose and outcome of all his activities. He warns us not to he hard-hearted in order to avoid being punished for obstinacy. The word אשרי, “happy is,” is applied here to an individual who excels in a single virtue rather than in a variety of virtues. This is the only instance instance where David or Solomon uses this word as applicable to the possession by a person of a single virtue. The reason that generally we do not find this word applied to individuals excelling in only one particular virtue alone is that the word presupposes the possession of a string of good characteristics in order for such people to be accorded this compliment. Let us look at Psalms 65,5: “Happy is the man You choose and bring near to dwell in Your courts;” the person chosen by G’d is not chosen by Him on account of his excelling in a solitary virtue; surely it is presumed that he is virtuous in a number of ways. The same is undoubtedly true of Psalms 84,6: “happy is the man who finds refuge in You, whose mind is on the (pilgrim) highways.” The expression מסלות, “highways,” proves by its being in the plural that the author speaks of the heart commanding a number of different virtues, such as reverence for G’d, faith in the Lord, etc., etc. The same is true of verse 13 in the same Psalm: “O Lord of hosts, happy is the man who trusts in You.” The virtue of trusting in the Lord itself comprises a number of positive traits and a number of praiseworthy virtues. In Psalm 1,1 where David describes as “happy” the person “who has not followed the counsel of the wicked,” the psalmist himself subdivides this virtue into neither having “sat with them, walked with them, or even having stood near them.” Just as in that instance more than one virtue or the ramifications of such virtue in all its aspects is required, so here too Solomon in describing a person as “happy” because he is constantly concerned or even “afraid,” refers to something more than meets the eye at first glance. He refers to people who weigh each one of their actions carefully, considering possible harmful effects and if the beneficial effects of their actions outweigh any possible harm they could cause. All this they do prior to deciding on a course of action. There can be no question that people who display this kind of sense of responsibility are possessed of a whole string of virtues. Seeing that the person who is described by Solomon as “happy” is motivated by his שכל, by his intellect, and cannot perform the virtues involved unless he employs his intellect he is called אדם rather than איש (as for instance in Psalms 1,1). The term אדם derives from אדמה, earth, soil. It is as if Solomon had said: “happy he who is cut off from the earth;” prior to cutting himself off from earth he was linked to material matters. Now, by employing the virtues mentioned by Solomon and employing his שכל, a disembodied phenomenon, he will remain conscious of the responsibilities he enters into with every one of his actions. Seeing that he worries about the result and wider impact of his actions, this alone will protect him against committing a sin. When a person eats and drinks in order to indulge his appetite he thereby makes himself a partner to the animals. If however, he uses such an activity only in order to better perform service to the Lord, by maintaining his physical health at maximum level, then he has elevated the act of eating and drinking to an entirely new and spiritual level. The considerations which are valid for the manner and purpose of our food and drink intake apply in equal measure to the marital relations between husband and wife. Anyone who while indulging in sexual intercourse even with his wife is concerned simply with satisfying his biological urges and the gratification of his libido, is thereby making himself a partner to the animals. His main purpose when engaging in sexual activity must be to fulfill the commandment to be fruitful and to multiply and to raise children who will be G’d-fearing and, if possible, Torah scholars. Any other considerations are a desecration of the sex act. Similar considerations must guide people engaged in trade and commerce. Naturally, they must avoid being devious, and refrain from lies and cheating. If they were to use their business to cheat people they would lose their standing both in this world and in the world to come. But, even when they merely do not cheat or deceive, they have not yet performed these activities in a worthwhile manner. Unless their purpose is not the amassing of material wealth but to have the opportunity to acquire virtues such as to give liberally to charity, to endow brides who have no dowry, etc., etc., they have not performed what Solomon speaks of in our verse. The very money which is acquired by means of extortion, etc., becomes the instrument of the extortionist’s death sentence in the world to come. The desire to own money of this kind for the brief duration of life on earth is in itself a capital crime. It is comparable to the story of the bird which was so anxious to feed on the grain within the net that it found itself trapped within the net without hope of escape. Concerning this Solomon said (Proverbs 1,17-19) “in the eyes of every winged creature the outspread net means nothing. But they lie in wait for their own blood, they lie in wait for their own lives. So are the ways of all those who are greedy for gain; it takes the life of its owners.” Solomon applied this parable to the people who are overly fond of money and are intent on amassing it. He said concerning such people (Proverbs 20,17) ”bread gained by deceit may taste sweet; but later his mouth will be filled with gravel.” The principles which must guide us in the examples listed apply to all of man’s activities. One must be worried constantly not to do something which runs counter to the teachings of the Torah and its outlook on life. Solomon views a person who is hard-hearted as the opposite of the one whom he describes as “constantly afraid.” The latter person obviously never considers the fact that he faces G’d every step of his life. The hard-hearted person does not think of what he does in terms of eventual reward of punishment. He who is constantly afraid does not have to worry about disaster facing him in the future as his lifestyle was his guarantee that no such disaster lurks in his future. He who is hard-hearted is always surprised when disaster strikes him and he is unprepared to cope with it. The reverse is true of the מפחד תמיד, the person who is constantly worried. His very worries are the reason that he will be spiritually uplifted. This is why Solomon applies to him the attribute אשרי, “happy.” Seeing that the proud and hard-hearted person elevated himself above others, Solomon chose the correct adjective when he described the result of such a person’s future as “he will fall into misfortune” We have a parallel verse in Proverbs 24,16: “for the righteous will rise even if he falls seven times; the wicked will be snared by evil.” Even a single stroke of misfortune will hit the hard-hearted so that he cannot recover from it. This is also the meaning of Psalms 34,22: “one misfortune is the deathblow of the wicked.” When Solomon wrote in Proverbs 16,4: “G’d has made everything for His purpose, even the wicked for the day of evil,” he meant that the evil which will strike the wicked has been prepared for him by G’d a long time in advance of it actually happening. It is part of what G’d does to enhance His Name, to be sanctified amongst those who observe His justice at work. What happened to Pharaoh in our portion and previously had long been planned by G’d. Seeing that he had hardened his heart he was bound to experience the down side to his behavior. He had hardened his heart without G’d’s intervention already in 9,34. What applied to him also applied to most of his servants. In the end G’d hardened his heart even further in order to demonstrate His power to the world. ויאמר ה' אל משה בא אל פרעה כי אני הכבדתי את לבו ואת לב עבדיו וגו', G’d said to Moses: “Go to Pharaoh. For I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants.” Pessikta Zutrata (Vaeyra 8,16) wrote that the arrangement of the ten plagues according to the pattern דצ'ך, עד'ש, בא'חב is based on the pattern of the first two plagues in a cycle being preceded by a warning whereas the third plague in that cycle occurred without warning as a punishment for the previous two plagues not having achieved their purpose. This is why the tenth plague was introduced again by a warning. When you examine the wording preceding the plagues in greater detail you will observe that the instructions to Moses prior to the plagues introduced by warnings always were that Moses either התיצב, בא, לך אל, ונצבת, השכם והתיצב, etc. Our Rabbis established the rule that if someone was warned not to commit a sin and was warned a second time there is no need to warn such a person a third time (Sanhedrin 81). Seeing that the plague of locusts was the second in the cycle designed to teach Pharaoh “that there is no One like Me in the whole universe,” there was no need to warn him of the plague of darkness which would follow the locusts if the people had not been released by that time. In view of the statement in Sanhedrin, I believe that Moses would issue warnings concerning the same plague twice, once at the river’s edge and once in Pharaoh’s palace. Whenever G’d instructed Moses: “go to Pharaoh, the meaning is that he was to go to the palace. The verses of the Torah prove this theory. When Moses warned Pharaoh of the impending plague of the waters of the Nile turning into blood (7,15), this is followed by the report that Moses went to Pharaoh’s house (7,23) where the Torah says: “he (Pharaoh) did not pay any heed to this either.” The Torah meant that Pharaoh did not pay heed to the second warning either. The same pattern occurred again and again with all the plagues concerning which Pharaoh was forewarned. The reason for these repeated warnings was to demonstrate the pride and arrogance with which Pharaoh reacted to these warnings. Pharaoh demonstrated his pride at the river claiming he had made the river, and he again demonstrated his pride in his palace feeling that this was not the place where anyone could dare threaten him. The very fact that Moses had the audacity to threaten him in his own palace put his back up. Were it not for this fact, why would the Torah have had to tell us that Moses came to his palace uninvited, and apparently not even at the command of G’d who had told him only to meet Pharaoh at the river’s bank? (7,15). The Torah wanted to show us Pharaoh’s arrogance. We have a similar situation with Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4,27) where the king boasted about his palace, saying openly that it demonstrated his glory and splendor. In verse 1 of that same chapter in Daniel he boasted: “I Nebuchadnezzar was tranquil and vigorous in my house, etc.” Just as Nebuchadnezzar’s arrogance was the reason for his downfall, so Pharaoh’s arrogance became the cause of his downfall. The plagues inflicted upon Pharaoh also emanated from “his” river and his palace. The Torah lists two reasons why G’d resorted to hardening Pharaoh’s heart. 1) in order to publicize His stature as the deity through a demonstration of His miracles. 2) In order for these miracles to become the talk of the town, world-wide. The expression שתי in למען שתי alludes to the ten plagues as the letter י in the middle was otherwise quite unnecessary.

“And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Come to Pharaoh, etc.’” Many have wondered about this section, as it does not mention what Moses should say to Pharaoh upon coming to him, since nothing is mentioned about the plague of locusts. What Ramban explained in the name of the Rabbati, that there is a hint to the plague of locusts in the phrase and so that you may tell in the ears of your son and your son’s son how I have made a mockery of Egypt, and it is written about locusts in Joel (1:3) Tell your children about it, and let your children tell their children — this is not sufficient to resolve this difficulty, because the very same question remains: why was it said specifically regarding this plague that he should tell it to his children more than all the other plagues? And I have an additional difficulty: why is the hardening of the hearts of his servants mentioned only in relation to the plagues of hail and locusts? According to the simple meaning, it seems to me that in all the plagues there is certainly no difference between Pharaoh and his servants, as Pharaoh surely felt them all just like his servants, except for the plague of famine and drought, which only affected his servants but not the king himself, since kings generally have storehouses of grain for years of famine. Only in an exaggerated case would famine affect the king himself. Therefore, regarding the hail it says, and he hardened his heart, he and his servants — not only he, but even his servants, who should have taken to heart that God had called for famine, nevertheless did not care because the wheat and the spelt were not struck. And when God said again to Moses, For I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, Moses understood from this that he should warn him a second time, that God had called for famine and yet they would not pay attention to his warning — not only Pharaoh but even his servants. From this, Moses understood that it was God’s will to send locusts, because typically, crops that have ripened in the field can only be destroyed by hail or locusts. And since hail had already occurred, this could only be locusts that would eat what the hail had left. Therefore, specifically regarding this plague it says, And Pharaoh’s servants said to him, ‘How long shall this be a snare to us?’ because the famine affected his servants more than Pharaoh, so they urged Pharaoh to send the people away. And what is said in this plague, and so that you may tell in the ears of your son and your son’s son more than in all the other plagues, here is a place for me to explain this based on what the Ramban wrote in this section in the name of Rabbeinu Chananel on the verse and after it there shall not be such (Exodus 10:14). And this is his language: “From Moses’ entreaty until now, locusts do not damage anything in the entire border of Egypt, and if they fall in the land of Israel and enter the border of Egypt, they do not eat anything from the produce of Egypt, and this is known to all, and about this it is said (Psalms 105:2), Speak of all His wonders.” End quote. Look to the right and see that the verse Speak of all His wonders is very similar to the verse and so that you may tell in the ears of your son and your son’s son. The explanation of the matter is that in all the plagues that were in Egypt, no trace of them remained in Egypt after their removal that would cause future generations to ask “what is this and what is this about?” For their memory was forgotten among the masses as the days grew long and everything was forgotten. But with the plague of locusts, a trace remained for generations even after the removal of the plague, for over the course of time, generations would find something new and see that locusts would come but not eat anything from the produce of Egypt. Then surely the children would ask about this miracle, why they do not eat from the produce of Egypt but only from the produce of the land of Israel. And you would necessarily have to respond with the story of all that happened in the land of Egypt, and that Moses said upon the removal of the plague that no locusts would remain in all the territory of Egypt, and through this they would tell of the miracles of Egypt and recognize the power of His blessed kingdom. This is what Rabbeinu Chananel concludes in his words with the verse Speak of all His wonders, for undoubtedly the Holy One, blessed be He, left this trace for generations so that through it they would remember the Exodus from Egypt and speak of all His wonders. This is what is meant by and so that you may tell in the ears of your son, etc. and you shall know that I am the Lord. For through this telling, future generations would know His blessed might and His wonders, and this explanation is precious and very correct. And what is said about the locusts in Joel, Tell your children, etc. — this is not a difficulty, for certainly it is appropriate to tell future generations how much sin causes harm to Israel so that future generations might take moral instruction. But here, certainly the explanation is not like this, for if so, why did He command to tell his children specifically about the plague of locusts more than all the plagues? Rather, certainly the reason is as we have mentioned. And that which the plague of locusts was not mentioned explicitly but only by hint is because the Holy One, blessed be He, wanted Moses to rebuke Pharaoh for his foolishness, for he was never humbled because of God’s word, but only because of the plagues that had already come. And repentance that a person does out of compulsion is not complete repentance, because when the compulsion is removed, he will return to his wicked ways, as happened with Pharaoh. Therefore, He did not explicitly mention the plague so that Moses would understand from this that he should begin with rebuke for his sin, and ask him to be humbled because of God’s word and not because of the plague, and then he would remain in his righteousness. And so Moses did, for the beginning of his words were How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? meaning before God’s word and not because of the plague. Therefore, Pharaoh’s servants said to him, “How long will this be a snare for us?” And they wanted to make a compromise with Moses before the coming of the plague, as Moses had spoken, and his servants bore the weight first for the reason explained above.

בא אל פרעה כי אני הכבדתי את לבו, “come to Pharaoh for I have hardened his heart.” G’d informed Moses that although, by natural processes, Pharaoh’s heart had already become softened, and he had even confessed his guilt, He, the Lord, had now hardened his heart again. למען שיתי, “in order that I can demonstrate, etc.;” to give Me an opportunity to perform My miracles so that the Egyptians (and the Israelites) will become familiar with My power; Pharaoh will not, however, be subjected to additional punishment on account of My having hardened his heart.

כי אני הכבדתי את לבו, during all the preceding plagues we do not find that G’d had told Moses that it was He Who had stiffened Pharaoh’s heart. However, since we have reached the stage where Pharaoh himself had said that “G’d is just whereas he and his people are the sinners,” (9,27) and still he had reneged and sinned deliberately, a phenomenon which must have seemed incomprehensible to Moses, G’d explains the psychology behind this, i.e. that it was not as hard to understand, as He Himself had to stiffen Pharaoh’s resolve causing him to renege. ואת לב עבדיו, as we are told in 9,34. שיתי, equivalent to שומי, “I am setting.”

בוא אל פרעה....מביא מחר, “go in unto Pharaoh...I will bring on the plague of locusts tomorrow to your territories.” How had Moses had advance warning of this plague, seeing that we have no word in the Torah where G–d had given him advance notice about this plague? We will have to fall back on the tradition that the acronyms of the ten plagues as per Rabbi Yehudah, had been etched into the side of his staff. The problem with this interpretation is that if so why did G–d bother to give him advance notice of the two plagues following after the plague of locusts? It may be more plausible to assume that the words למען תספר באזני בנך ובן בנך את אשר התעללתי במצרים, “in order that you will be able to tell your son and your grandson what I have wrought upon Egypt,” (verse 2) that this had included details about the forthcoming plague of locusts. We find that the plague of locusts recorded in the Book of Yoel (Yoel 1,3-4) was also introduced by the prophet telling his people to tell his children and grandchildren about it. [In that instance the plague of locusts smote the land of Israel. Ed.]

And so that you may recount before your son and your son's son the miracles that I performed in Egypt, and My signs that I placed upon them — and you shall know that I am Hashem.

התעללתי means I HAVE MOCKED, as in, (Numbers 22:29) “Because thou hast mocked (התעללת) me”; (I Samuel 6:6) “Indeed, when he mocked (התעולל) them”, which, also, is said in reference to Egypt. It is not an expression denoting doing and action, for were this so it should have written עוללתי, similar to (Lamentations 1:22) “And do (עולל) unto them as thou hast done (עוללת) unto me”, and to (Lamentations 1:12) “which he has done (עולל) unto me”.

HITH’ALALTI.’ “I have mocked him, for it is I Who hardened his heart and exacted punishments of him.” This is similar in intent to the verse: He that sits in heaven smiles, the Eternal mocks them. The Holy One, blessed be He, now informed Moses of the plague of locusts, [although this is not stated here in Scripture], and that he should tell it to Pharaoh, for what sense was there that he be commanded, Go in unto Pharaoh, and not say something to him, the plague being mentioned only in the words of Moses to Pharaoh, as Scripture spoke succinctly of this. So also was the case above with the plague of hail, where Scripture told of the words of the Holy One, blessed be He, to Moses, Stand before Pharaoh, and say unto him, etc., but did not at all mention that Moses said so to Pharaoh, as I have explained. The reason for it is that Scripture does not want to elaborate on it in two places, [i.e., when G-d said it to Moses, and when Moses relayed it to Pharaoh], and so it shortens the narrative sometimes at one point and other times at another. In Eileh Shemoth Rabbah, I have seen it stated: “And that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son. The Holy One, blessed be He, informed Moses what plague He is about to bring upon them, and Moses wrote it down with a hint: And that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son’s son, which is an allusion to the plague of locusts, just as it is said [of the locusts in the days of the prophet Joel], Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, etc.”.

"And that you may recount." He is speaking to Moses, who represents all of Israel, and likewise "that you may know that I am Hashem" — so that all of Israel should know this. The Torah speaks in human language in saying "התעללתי" ['I have made sport of them'], like a person who alters natural outcomes to take vengeance upon another.

ולמען תספר, and so that you Israelites will be able to tell about My attributes and remember this throughout future generations. (2) AND SO THAT YOU MAY KNOW. You, and your generations, and the Egyptians.

ולמען תספר, "and in order for you to tell, etc.," Why did G'd have to provide this additional reason to justify the plague of locusts? Besides, what is the meaning of the words אשר התעללתי במצרים? Why did G'd add: "and My miracles," as if this was something distinct from אשר התעללתי? Why did G'd add: וידעתם כי אני השם? I believe that first and foremost G'd wanted to make it plain that it was not His purpose to bring on the plague as an act of revenge on Pharaoh. Rather, the miracle was designed to strengthen Israel's faith in G'd so that they would remember these miracles forever. This could be achieved only if G'd not only performed the miracle without hurting any Israelite by it but that Pharaoh himself would be so impressed by the miracle that it would also impress G'd's power on the minds of the Israelites in an unforgettable manner. The psychology of the aforesaid is demonstrated in the halachah of the בן פקועה in Chulin 75. This concerns a fetus found alive [if the pregnancy was incomplete, or dead if the pregnancy was complete. Ed.] inside an animal after the mother-animal has been ritually slaughtered. The question is if the ritual slaughter of the mother-animal made the fetus fit for consumption by Jews without further ado. The Talmud discusses whether such an animal may be eaten without it being slaughtered seeing that the onlooker may suspect the person eating it of committing a sin; it concludes that when this animal has been different in at least two exceptional ways such as that it does not have a cloven hoof, everyone will remember what its origin has been and one will not suspect someone eating it without having performed ritual slaughter as having committed a sin. Although G'd had demonstrated miracles which clearly proved His power, this would not have sufficed to make a lasting impression on the Israelites unless He had at the same time proven that He distinguished miraculously between the guilty and the innocent, i.e. between the Israelites and the Egyptians and that the miracles had hurt only the guilty parties. When G'd said: "in order that you will tell your children and your children's children, etc." He meant that this would be assured only if He performed the miracles in such a way that only the Egyptians were seen to be hurt by them. The first impression would be created by אשר התעללתי במצרים, "How I wrought the plagues on Egypt;" the second and more lasting impression would occur when the Israelites realised את אותותי אשר שמתי בם, that what occurred was an outstanding miracle even if the Egyptians had not been a factor at all. These combined experiences would prompt the Israelites to tell their children about what they had seen. The purpose of telling their children was "so that you will know beyond doubt that I am the Eternal G'd."

התעללתי, any expression of this type, when it commences with the letter ת describes some kind of mockery or ridicule on the part of the subject vis a vis his opponent. When the same word appears without the prefix ת, the element of ridicule is absent. (Compare Rashi)

את אשר התעללתי, “how I have made a mockery.” According to the plain meaning of the text the words mean “I have toyed with them when I performed great acts of retribution.” The expression is similar to the one used by David in Psalms 2,4: יושב בשמים ישחק, אד-ני ילעג למו, “The One who resides in heaven laughs; the Lord mocks at them.” וידעתם כי אני ה', “so that you will realise that I am Hashem.” Not only for a brief period of time, but throughout the generations. The lessons learned from what happened in Egypt to the Egyptians served the people of Israel for hundreds of years as a reminder of G’d’s power. Even the Gentile nations were impressed and accepted the lesson. We find this reflected in Samuel I 6,6: (after the ark had been captured by the Philistines but had spread disease and disaster in their land the priests of the Philistines speaking to their countrymen) “Do not harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts. As you know, when He made a mockery of them, they had to let Israel go and they departed.” It is possible to explain the word התעללתי, as being derived from עילה, cause, pretext. Most actions performed in this terrestrial world are described as עלילות. We refer you to Psalms 105,1 הודיעו בעמים עלילותיו, “acquaint the nations with His deeds.” We have a similar meaning of the word in Samuel I 2,3 (Chanah speaking) כי א-ל דעות ה' ולא(ו) נתכנו עלילות, “for the Lord is an all-knowing G’d; by Him actions are measured.” Onkelos also translates our verse here in this manner writing ית נסין די עבידת במצרים, “the miracles You performed in Egypt.” David also refers to G’d’s deeds as עלילות in Psalms 66,5 “who is held in awe by men for His acts.” The reason that G’d’s activities are referred to by a word which hints at עילה is that He is the prime Cause of everything which transpires. All His actions have been inspired by His original planning when He created the universe and man. The meaning of our verse in short: “through His actions in Egypt, He demonstrated that He must have been the original Cause of all existence.” This may have inspired Hoseah 12,10 to write: “I am the Lord your G’d המעלך from the land of Egypt.” He meant that the Exodus was the point which made the Gentile nations realise who אנכי is and who אלו-היך is. A Midrashic approach: (Pessikta Zutrata on our verse) the word התעללתי means that in response to the Egyptian being עולל My vineyard (the Jewish people, depriving them of their infants like cutting off unripe grapes), I have done the same to them and remove them from this world.

ולמען תספר, “and in order that you will tell, etc.” What G’d said to Moses here, He said on behalf of the whole Jewish people, i.e. for the people to tell their children and grandchildren all that had happened to the Egyptians just before the Exodus, how G’d had made a mockery of the Egyptians. He mentions the hardness, obstinacy, of the Egyptians who were the servants of Pharaoh, seeing that the Torah had reported that both Pharaoh and his servants had (on their own) stiffened their attitude (9,34). This audience with Pharaoh had as its purpose to warn him of the impending plague of locusts if he would persist in reneging on his promise to let the Israelites depart. There would have been no point in sending Moses to Pharaoh unless he was meant to deliver a message. The Torah abbreviates the narrative of the first audience involving this warning, describing Moses as not waiting for any response from Pharaoh. The Torah sometimes chooses to be more succinct in its narrative than on other occasions. Midrash Shemot Rabbah 13,4 quotes G’d as having told Moses about the forthcoming plague by the hint that it would be something that would be talked about for many generations. The Midrash quotes Joel 1,3 which discusses another plague of locust, this time in Israel, as something that made an equally lasting impression.

התעללתי, engaged in actions.

And Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh and said to him: Thus says Hashem, the God of the Jews — How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? Send forth My people, and let them serve before Me.

לענת Translate as the Targum: TO BE HUMBLED. It is of the same derivation as עני poor, so that the passage signifies, “thou refusest to be poor and lowly before Me”.

AND MOSES AND AARON CAME IN UNTO PHARAOH. Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra commented: “We know that Moses never came to Pharaoh without being accompanied by Aaron, who was the interpreter. Scripture here makes a point of mentioning Moses and Aaron in order [to make clear] that Pharaoh’s command that both of them be brought again before him and his final act of driving them out — something he had not done previously — [applied to the two brothers alike].”

"And he came." We know that Moses did not come to Pharaoh without Aaron, since Aaron was the spokesman. The text now mentions both Moses and Aaron because they had both been brought back and then finally expelled — something that had not been done in any of the other plagues. "To humble" [לענות] — from the Nif'al binyan, derived from the root עני [affliction/lowliness].

עד מתי מענת, seeing that in the meantime I have demonstrated to you My dominance even in the atmosphere, how much longer will you refuse to humble yourself seeing that I control the very air you need to breathe? Seeing that you were not impressed, there is no sense in hoping that you will be impressed by the overwhelming show of strength represented by the plagues. However, perhaps if the impact of the miracle itself did not make an impression on you, perhaps the drawn out duration of the effect of the plagues may finally have the desired effect. This is why the question “how long must a plague continue before it will have the desired effect?” is not out of place.

ויבא משה ואהרן, Moses and Aaron arrived (at the Palace); the reason why the Torah did not mention during the other plagues that both Moses and Aaron arrived at the Palace together, is that Aaron had been present at every interview Moses had with Pharaoh. The reason that it needed to be stressed here, is that shortly the Torah will tell us that after Pharaoh had thrown out Moses and Aaron they were both recalled at Pharaoh’s servants urging him to do so. (Verse 8) לענות מפני, “to humble yourself before Me;” seeing that Pharaoh had boasted about the crops that the hail had not destroyed, [attributing it to G-d’s “weakness” Ed.] He retaliated in kind. כה אמר ה, ”thus has the Lord said, etc.;” other prophecies which have been introduced with this introductory phrase are numerous, as are commandments (in the future) which have been introduced with the introductory: “thus the Lord has said.” The author cites: Exodus 11,5; 32,27; Numbers 19,2; Numbers 30,2 as well as reminding us that in the Books of the prophets, especially Isaiah and Ezekiel, this formula is used frequently. It happens several times that what was predicted has not later on in the text been spelled out as having happened; [one of the reasons is that when the prophecy is a warning of something unpleasant it need not be fulfilled if the circumstances changed. Ed.] At any rate, in this case it was important for G-d to show Pharaoh that a prophecy by Moses would be fulfilled, because Moses, G-d’s spokesman, had said that it would. This is what Isaiah 44 26 had in mind when he said that G-d fulfills promises or threats made by His servants. (Compare our author on Exodus 11,4)

עד מתי מאנת לענות מפני, “how long will you still refuse to be humble before Me?” All that G’d asks of man is that he be humble and modest. Isaiah spells it out (Isaiah 66,2) when he said: “Yet to such a one I look; to the poor and brokenhearted, who is concerned about My word.” The same prophet also said (66,1): “the heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool...what place could serve as My abode?” Solomon confirmed this thought at the dedication of the Holy Temple in Kings I 8,27 when he said: “The heavens cannot contain You; how much less the house which I have built for You.” In view of all this “what house could possibly be big enough to accommodate Me, what place to serve as a resting-place for Me?” In spite of G’d’s being so far above anything remotely available on earth, He looks out for the brokenhearted on earth and for those who are concerned about His word. The brokenhearted one, עני, is identical with the נכנע, the humbled one. This is why Onkelos translates the words אל עני as לאתכנעא. We know the effect of humility on G’d from King Achav (Kings I 21,27-29) who humbled himself but once when admitting that he had sinned in allowing his wife to have Navot framed and executed. G’d used Achav’s repentance and humility to demonstrate to Elijah how much He valued such sentiments. He suspended the decree of death against him.

ויבא משה ואהרן, “Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, etc.” Ibn Ezra writes that it was a known fact by now that whenever a plague was to be announced both Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh. Why then did the Torah see fit to single out this occasion by writing that both Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh? The reason may be that we hear later that Pharaoh dismissed both Moses and Aaron summarily. Had we not been told that they both had come to Pharaoh, this would have sounded strange. Pharaoh’s reaction to the warning on this occasion was out of character, seeing that he had clearly admitted being in the wrong. Had it not been for G’d stiffening his attitude to the point of being rude to Moses for the first time, his behaviour would be totally beyond comprehension.

לענות, related to עני, poor, ענוי, oppressed, Pharaoh refused to humble himself, to act as if he was a poor man rather than an autocrat.

For if you refuse to send forth My people, behold, I am bringing locusts tomorrow into your territory.

BEHOLD, TOMORROW WILL I BRING LOCUSTS. Commentators have said that there was a long interval between the plague of hail and that of locusts, as is suggested by the expression, and [the locusts] shall eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field. In my opinion, the interval between these plagues was not a long one but rather was very brief. It is known that the judgment of the Egyptians did not last more than a year, this being so established through our knowledge of the years of Moses our Teacher, just as we have been taught in Tractate Eduyoth: “The judgment of the Egyptians in Egypt endured twelve months.” And so it is indicated by Scripture when saying, and they shall eat the residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail. And it is further written, even all that the hail had left, thus indicating that it was in that very same year. If so, [we must say that] the hail came down that year during the month of Adar, not before, for the barley was in the ears [and therefore smitten by the hail], but the wheat had not grown up and therefore its tender sprouts could not be completely destroyed by the hail, as they would grow back again. Then too the vine had not yet budded, and the trees were not in flower. It is for this reason that Scripture states, and [the hail] broke every tree of the field, meaning that it broke the branches and boughs. Then, in one month’s time, in the month of Nisan, the wheat and the spelt grew, these being the residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail, and the trees began to blossom and the flowers appeared. This then is the purport of the word hatzomei’ach (which groweth), since the locusts came and ate their blossoms and thus destroyed everything since they did not leave them a blossom or flower. And in this very month, the children of Israel were redeemed [from Egypt]. The verse which states [that the locusts consumed] all the fruit of the tree, [which would indicate that there were fruits already on the tree and, therefore, that a long interval must have passed between the plagues of hail and locusts], is to be understood as referring to the flower which produces the fruits, similar to the expression, every herb on the tree, [which cannot be understood literally, since herbs do not grow on trees. Consequently, it must be understood as Rashi has it: “any green leaf on the tree.” Here too then, “the fruit of the tree” is not to be taken literally, but should be understood as “the flower of the tree”].

"Locust" [ארבה] — a name of a species. Perhaps it is called thus because it is more numerous [רב] than the other species. It is written: "that which the locust [גזם] has left, the arbeh has eaten" (Joel 1:4), and of it is written "my great army" (ibid. 2:25); if so, the aleph is an added letter.

הנני מביא מחר ארבה, “behold I will bring on a plague of locusts,” Nachmanides writes that some commentators believe that many months separated the plague of hail from that of the locusts. These scholars base themselves on the line (verse 5) ואכל את כל העץ הצומח לכם מן השדה, “it will consume every tree that grows for you in the field.” [seeing that the Torah had described the hail as ruining all the trees, (9,25) until they had been replaced how could the locusts eat their foliage? Ed.] Nachmanides himself disagrees with this view, claiming that only a few days elapsed between the plague of hail and that of locusts, seeing that the judgments visited upon the Egyptians did not exceed a period of 12 months. Moreover, it is clear from the Torah that there had been some residue which had not been harmed by the hail (again verse 5,ואכל את יתר הפלטה הנשארת לכם מן הברד, “it will consume any remnants left intact for you by the hail.”) This clearly shows that both plagues occurred in the same calendar year. The hail could not have occurred before the month of Adar, as no crop would have had advanced enough to be ruined; the plague of locusts, obviously, must have occurred before the middle of the month of Nissan, the month of the Exodus. The trees that the hail struck were the branches which had not yet sprouted blossoms or fruit. The trees struck by the locusts had already produced leaves, etc.

And they shall cover the face of the sun over the land, so that one will not be able to see the land; and they shall devour what remains of the remnant that was left to you from the hail, and they shall devour every tree that sprouts for you from the field.

את עין הארץ means THE COLOUR OF THE GROUND. ולא יוכל AND HE — i. e. anyone who is looking — WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SEE THE EARTH; it speaks in (uses) an elliptical expression.

"And it will cover" — this is a figure of speech. "And one will not be able to see" — the word 'איש' [man/one] is missing from the text. Yefet said that many days elapsed between the plague of hail and the plague of locusts, on account of [the verse] "that which sprouts for you from the field."

ואכל את כל העץ, it will destroy it. The word אכל here is used in the same sense as in Psalms 79,7 כי אכל את יעקב, “for he has consumed Yaakov,” i.e. destroyed him. Deuteronomy 31,17 והיה לאכול also means “that it may be destroyed.”

הצומח לכם מן השדה, ‘”which grows for you from the fields.” The hail ruined what grew on the trees; the locust would ruin eat whatever grew afterwards.

הצמח לכם מן השדה, “which grows for you from the field.” The plague of locusts occurred in Nissan seeing that during that month the trees start budding and flowers become visible on earth. The plague of hail which had preceded it occurred in Adar. All the ten plagues occurred within one calendar year as we know from Ediot 2,10 where the Mishnah states that the judgments executed upon the Egyptians occurred within twelve months. Seeing that the hail which occurred in Adar had broken the trees, and the flax and barley which had sprouted previously had been struck down already, there was only one month left before the redemption of the Israelites. During that interval both the trees grew and the wheat and spelt sprouted forth seeing that these species ripened late. Concerning these two species the Torah speaks about “what grows for you from the field.” The locusts would devour anything which had not been destroyed by the hail. This is the way Nachmanides explains our verse. If we accept his words we would have to say that the last three of the ten plagues all occurred during the first half of the month of Nissan whereas the previous seven plagues were scattered over a period of eleven months. It would follow then that each of the previous plagues lasted for more than the seven days attributed by the Torah to the first plague, i.e. the river turning into blood. The interval between the plagues then would have been 30 days. [I believe this is a misprint and should read “21 days” as the author stated in his commentary on 7,25. Ed.] On the other hand, from the words: “seven days were completed” (7,15), we learned that the interval between the plagues was seven days. This would have applied to all the plagues so that we could divide the time equally between periods during which there was relief and periods when one of the plagues was in effect. If we were to assume that Moses began his career as a prophet on the 15th of Nissan and that G’d spent seven days persuading him to accept His mission, then these seven days corresponded to the seven days which the Jewish people would celebrate as the Passover holiday after the redemption. [The author had already alluded to these theories in connection in his commentary on 4,10 and 4,18]. Subsequent to the 21st of Nissan, Moses first returned to Midian. He should have proceeded to Egypt immediately, but he had to return to Midian to get permission to be released from his oath to Yitro that he would not leave the country without his permission. This is the reason the Torah had to write (4,18 that Moses returned to Midian and his father-in-law, and having done so that G’d told him in 4,19 to proceed to Egypt.) G’d spoke to him “in Midian,” i.e. He told him “since you swore an oath in Midian you have to be released from that oath in Midian.” Moses then proceeded to Egypt where both he and Aaron arranged an audience with Pharaoh when the King told them that he did not know Hashem, etc. All the subsequent developments, including the new decree for the Israelites to provide their own straw could have occurred within eight days until the end of the month of Nissan. According to one Midrash, Moses then went into a retreat for 3 months and was not seen by anyone. This brings us to the end of the month of Tammuz. The plague of blood would have covered the first seven days in Av. They were followed by relief until the end of the month. The plague of frogs and subsequent relief occupied the month of Elul. This pattern continued until the month of Adar when the plague of locusts was decreed. The plague of darkness occurred during the first seven days of Nissan followed by only seven days of respite. The plague of the dying of the firstborn occurred on the night of the 14-15th of Nissan so that the period from Moses’ experiencing the revelation at the bush until the Exodus was exactly 12 months. The wording in the Mishnah in Ediot that the judgments against the Egyptians extended over a period of 12 months must not be taken at face value then, but the Mishnah meant that from the time when G’d had decreed for these judgments to occur 12 months elapsed until the redemption.

And he will not be able to see the earth. Rashi explains [this refers to] the seer, but the essence [of this] is missing from the text. Additionally, according to his interpretation, the fact that they will not be able to see the land has no practical relevance to the damage. At the very least, it should have first mentioned and it will eat the remainder of what has escaped, as this is the main damage. Similarly, in the implementation of the plague, it is also said, and the land was darkened, and it ate all the vegetation of the land, implying that the reason for the eating was due to the darkening of the land. This matter requires explanation. And I say, from what is known that all blind people eat and are not satisfied, so too this locust plague, due to their great numbers causes the land to darken, and even the locusts cannot see what they are eating. Thus, they eat like a blind person [fumbling] in a chimney, and they are not satisfied. Therefore, it shall eat all that is in the field, and still not be satisfied until it enters from the field also into the houses, and your houses shall be filled, etc. And this is what it means by and one will not be able to see — meaning the locusts that were mentioned previously will not be able to see the land. And because the locusts will not see the land, they will eat everything and not be satisfied until they seek afterwards also what is in the houses. And what we find that in the actual plague they only ate what was in the fields and we do not find that they entered the houses, [this is] because it says And Pharaoh hastened to call Moses and Aaron. Why is the language of “hastening” not used in any other plague? Rather, because Pharaoh knew that if they did not find [enough food] in the fields, they would also eat what was in the houses. Therefore, Pharaoh hastened before they could enter his house, and thus [said] now, please forgive my sin — now, immediately, before they could enter the houses.

ולא יוכל (הרואה) לראות, anyone trying to see would be unable to see what he was trying to see as it was covered with locust. העץ הצומח, for the hail had destroyed the trees. The locust would devour anything which would grow after the hail.

And they shall fill your houses and the houses of all your servants and the houses of all Egypt — such as your fathers and your fathers' fathers have not seen, from the day they came to be upon the land until this day. And he turned and went out from before Pharaoh.

AND HE TURNED AND WENT OUT FROM PHARAOH. Due to the fact that the Egyptians were in a state of trepidation during the plague of hail, Moses thought that now too they would fear lest they die from famine if they lose the residue of that which is escaped, which remained to them. Therefore he went out without the king’s permission before they accepted or rejected his request, so that they might take counsel on the matter. This was indeed correct, for so the servants did and said to Pharaoh, Knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed? In the words of our Rabbis: “Moses saw the servants turning to each other, believing in his words, so he went out from there in order that they may take counsel to do repentance.”The correct interpretation appears to me to be that Moses did so every time he came to Pharaoh’s palace; he warned him and went out. Scripture found it necessary to mention it only here because of the sequel: And Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh.

"And they will fill" [ומלאו] — this word is unusual in the Holy Tongue, for the meaning of "ומלאו" is that the houses would be filled with them. We find "fill four jars with water" (I Kings 18:34), where it is a transitive verb, as if written with a patah under the mem and a dagesh in the lamed, from the intensive [Pi'el] binyan. "And he turned" [ויפן] — R. Yeshu'ah said that "ויפן" means [the subject returns to Moses, who] showed respect for the monarchy by facing the king as he departed, walking backward. Yefet said it means when he had finished his business — and likewise, "you shall turn in the morning" (Deut. 16:7). But then what is to be done with the phrase "and he turned this way and that" [ויפן כה וכה] (above, 2:12)? The meaning of "ויפן" derives from the root פנים [face], as if it means 'and he looked.' What is recorded here is that Moses departed from Pharaoh's presence without leave, and the text notes this because Pharaoh was angry and commanded that they be expelled after they had been brought back.

ויפן ויצא מעם פרעה, He turned and left Pharaoh's presence. By not asking permission to leave Moses demonstrated his lack of regard for this king who had once again reneged on his promise even after he had proclaimed: "G'd is righteous and I and my people are sinners." Actually, the wicked Pharaoh repaid Moses for this slight when he had him brought back to the palace unceremoniously in verse 8. After that Pharaoh expelled Moses from the palace in verse 11. He was aware of his lack of deference when he begged Moses to pray for him again in verse 16 adding: "I have sinned against the Lord your G'd and against you." He had never previously apologised to Moses, only to G'd.

ויפן ויצא מעם פרעה, “he turned around and left the presence of Pharaoh.” Moses left immediately after having warned Pharaoh of the forthcoming plague without taking his leave. This was a well calculated move by Moses who wanted to give Pharaoh and his advisors an opportunity to consult amongst themselves and to release the Children of Israel prior to the onset of that plague. During the previous plague of hail the Egyptians had already viewed themselves as if they were about to die so that now that Moses had warned that every remaining tree and food producing plant would die they had every reason to become scared. In fact, Moses had anticipated their reaction correctly as we know from verse eight where we are told that Moses and Aaron were recalled to the palace. This is the meaning of ויושב משה ואהרן, “Moses and Aaron were brought back.”

“And they shall fill your houses and the houses of all your servants and the houses of all Egypt.” Without doubt, the king’s house is more inner than the houses of all his servants, and the houses of all his servants are more inner than the houses of all Egypt. So how would the locusts enter first into the innermost areas and only afterward to the head of all streets? Rather, certainly this was done miraculously, because the punishment matched the sin. For he [Pharaoh] began the corruption first, and afterward his servants, because without doubt the sin was attributed more to him than to his servants, and more to his servants than to all his people, as Rashi explains regarding the frogs (7:28) where it says And they shall ascend and come into your house, etc., and into the houses of your servants and your people. And perhaps about this reversed order it says there was no locust like it before, meaning there could have been locusts like it, but not in this reversed order that was contrary to the way of the world. And he turned and went out from Pharaoh. It can be interpreted that he had not yet left, but rather turned his face away from him to leave, and he only left “from Pharaoh” but was still among his servants. And during this time, Pharaoh’s servants said to him, “How long will this be a snare to us?” They were pointing at Moses with their finger, saying, “This Moses, the man — we do not know how long he will be a snare to us.” And from the fact that they said this, we can learn that he was still among them. Therefore, Moses and Aaron were brought back — they were brought back automatically, because Pharaoh did not need to send for them as they were still among them and heard the words of his servants. And because of this, they were brought back and returned to Pharaoh, and he said to them, Go, worship, etc.

ויפן ויצא מעם פרעה, “he turned (without taking leave) and left the presence of Pharaoh.” Some commentators think that Moses turned to face the King and to retreat walking backwards, all the while facing the King. Other scholars, on the contrary, interpret our verse to mean that Moses turned his back on Pharaoh and marched out of the room. He indicated that he was angry and did not request permission to withdraw. The reason why Moses acted in this fashion was that he assumed that just as Pharaoh had once before demonstrated real fear during the plague of the hail, he would do so again now, and he would finally humble himself to prevent wholesale deaths from hunger of his subjects due to the locusts. By leaving at this moment, Moses wanted to afford Pharaoh and his advisors an opportunity to consult and agree on a course of action. Nachmanides writes that the correct interpretation of what the Torah narrates here is that this was Moses’ standard procedure after he had delivered a warning. The only reason why the Torah dwells on this detail here is that for the first time Moses and Aaron were recalled after they had left.

And the servants of Pharaoh said to him: How long shall this one be a stumbling block to us? Send forth the men, that they may serve before Hashem their God. Do you not yet know that Egypt is lost?

הטרם תדע means KNOWEST THOU NOT YET that Egypt has perished. (Cf. Rashi on Exodus 9:30.)

"And they said" — the interpretation of "הטרם תדע" ['Have you not yet been willing to know?'] is: have you not yet been willing for it to become clear to you that Egypt is lost?

עד מתי יהיה זה לנו למוקש, "how long will this one continue to be a snare for us?" Pharaoh's servants were most certainly not prepared to let the Israelites depart for the prophecy G'd had told Moses i.e. that He had hardened both the heart of Pharaoh and that of his servants would contradict such an assumption. All the servants had in mind was to ensure that the Israelites' departure would be such that they would be sure to return after having offered their sacrifices. This is why the servants did not pursue the matter once Moses had made it plain that they would take both their children and their aged with them. Their very words proved that they considered Moses' invoking G'd as the driving force behind the Israelites' demands merely as a snare. They could not believe that the great and powerful G'd whose existence Moses had demonstrated would bother to punish the Egyptians in order to let the Israelites go to the desert for three days. There is no greater denial of G'd than that. הטרם תדע כי אבדה מצרים, "do you not know yet that Egypt is about to be destroyed?" They meant "why wait till after Egypt is destroyed before letting these people go? Let them go now!" Why would the servants suddenly agree to take a chance of Egypt being destroyed after Moses had spelled out who was going to the desert? What made them keep their peace when they heard Moses' latest demand? In order to understand this we must first explore what Pharaoh and his servants had thought initially. Is there anyone so foolish that he would risk all the discomforts, pains and even danger of submitting to these plagues? Not only that but these people had endured that their deities were smitten, their livestock killed, their crops ruined, and even they themselves came within an inch of destruction. Ordinarily it would be considered unbelievable that there are people who are so stupid! Nonetheless, these people must have had some plausible reason to act in such a foolish fashion. Their behaviour is all the more strange as G'd had not demanded from Pharaoh that he free the Israelites but only that he should give them a three-day vacation! It is true that I have written (3,18) that Moses had never mentioned the three-day limitation to Pharaoh, that he had only spoken about celebrating in the desert (5,1) not mentioning any time frame, and that the only ones who did mention three days were the people (5,3); this indicated that G'd had not demanded a total release of the Israelites. I believe that Pharaoh's error was based on these conflicting demands by Moses on the one hand and the Israelites on the other. There could be no question that the word of G'd was the truth. Pharaoh and his servants had to consider two possibilties. 1) G'd did not desire a total departure of the Israelites but only an absence of three days' travel into the desert. 2) At the same time Pharaoh felt that the Israelites' demand for three days was a trick designed to cloak their true intentions never to return ...

ויאמרו עבדי פרעה אליו, (after having heard this threat) “Pharaoh’s servants said to him;” when we had read previously in 9,34 that both Pharaoh as well as his servants (ministers) continued to sin, that referred to the ministers who had advised him now to let only the men go into the desert to offer sacrifices as requested. They now questioned Pharaoh’s judgment by asking him if he wanted to wait until the whole of Egypt was ruined? They implied that if Egypt were to be ruined, in the end Pharaoh would have no option but to give in to the Israelites’ demands. Why not give in while Egypt was still a functioning nation?

עד מתי יהיה זה לנו למוקש, “for how long is this one going to remain a snare for us?” According to the plain meaning of the text the servants said this on account of Moses. This explains the words זה משה האיש, “this man Moses.” (Exodus 32,1) The ערב רב had been well aware that it was Moses who had caused the plagues and that he was the Egyptians’ bane. It is possible, however, to understand the words as aimed at the cause of the plagues, at G’d whom the Jewish people extolled in the song after the crossing of the sea (15,2) with the words זה א-לי ואנוהו, this is my G’d and I want to build Him a Sanctuary.” According to this version Exodus 13 8 בעבור זה עשה ה' לי, the word זה in that verse would also be a reference to an attribute of G’d. The advisors of Pharaoh would then have revealed their true nature by still denying the supremacy of Hashem.

ויצא....ויאמרו עבדי פרעה, “after Moses had left the servants of Pharaoh said, etc.” They waited until Moses had left, as they did not want to challenge their King in Moses’ presence, and they did not want to give Moses the satisfaction to know that they were afraid of him.

?הטרם תדע; do you still not realise that Egypt will be lost by the cumulative effect of these plagues?

And Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh, and he said to them: Go, serve before Hashem your God. But who and who are those going?

ויושב [AND MOSES AND AARON] WERE BROUGHT BACK (The verb has a passive meaning [Hophal], not an active as the particle את before משה and אהרן might lead one to suppose) — They were brought back by a messenger: they (Pharaoh’s servants) sent people after them and these brought them back to Pharaoh.

BUT WHO ARE THEY THAT SHALL GO? Pharaoh desired that their leaders, elders, and officers should go, men that are pointed out by name. Moses answered him that also the sons and daughters will go, “for we must hold a feast unto the Eternal, and it is mandatory upon us all to take part in the feast.” Pharaoh’s anger was then kindled on account of the sons and daughters, and he said that under no circumstances will he send the little ones, for they take no part in the offerings. Instead he would send all the adult males because of the feast which Moses mentioned, while the little ones and the women will remain [in Egypt].

"And he was brought back" [ויושב] — the word 'את' is like the thing itself. When a person says 'אוהבי' ['my lovers'], the yod is the sign of the first person; or when one says 'אוהב אותי' ['loves me'], the meaning is the same — the thing itself. Therefore, if one says 'Reuben killed את Simeon,' Simeon is the one killed; but when one says 'Reuben killed Simeon' [without את], the meaning is the same, as in "and the elder shall serve the younger" (Gen. 25:23), "that God created man" (Deut. 4:32). Do not think that the word 'את' is merely a sign of the object because it is frequently found as such — for it is also found with the subject, as in "and the lion and the bear" [ובא הארי ואת הדוב] (I Sam. 17:34), and others like it. R. Yehudah the Grammarian said that because of the word 'את,' it says "ויושב" [singular, 'he was brought back'] rather than "ויושבו" [plural]. In my view, "ויושב" is singular because Moses is the principal figure — and similarly, "Miriam and Aaron spoke" (Num. 12:1): she was the principal speaker.

לכו עבדו…מי ומי ההולכים "Go and serve…who are the ones going?" Pharaoh asked a rhetorical question; it had not occurred to him that they would demand that all of them should go. This is why he had simply said: "go and serve" without limiting the ages or sexes of who was included in that offer. He had naturally assumed that only adult males would particpate in the ceremony under discussion. This is why he said later: "your menfolk may go because that is all you ever requested." He did not even want all the adult males to go.

“Who and who are going.” There are questions in this matter: First, the repetition of who and who when one would suffice; second, the use of are going in the present tense, which is inappropriate as it should say “who will go,” implying the future, because are going suggests they are going now, but they have not yet gone; third, the phrase we will go appears twice, and surely one of them is superfluous, as it should say “with our youth and our elders, with our sons and our daughters we will go”; fourth, the phrase for it is a festival of the Lord for us, yet earlier it was said in the name of the Lord and they shall celebrate for Me in the wilderness, suggesting the festival is for the Lord and not for us. This distinction is well-known: a festival for the Lord involves divine service, while a festival for us involves the joy of the worshippers, as it is written a solemn assembly for the Lord (Deuteronomy 16:8), and it is written there shall be a solemn assembly for you (Numbers 29:35). Our Sages said (Pesachim 68b) as a compromise: “half for the Lord and half for you.” And here, who is wise and who knows the interpretation of this matter? Furthermore, the phrase this is what you are seeking is in the present tense, when it should say “this is what you sought” in the past tense, because now they are asking for more than that, as they said with our youth and our elders, etc. — indicating they wanted to uproot everything from there. The explanation of the commentators is already known, and instead of the word this [otah], it should have said “it is what you seek.” And the explanation for all these questions is, that Pharaoh did not ask Moses who would go, but rather decreed definitively that only the males, whose way it is to sacrifice, would certainly go. He said, Go, serve the Lord your God, and [implied], “Search throughout the entire world and see what is customary — who typically goes [to sacrifice].” Therefore, he repeated who and who, meaning whether you look to the right or to the left to see in every place what is customary regarding who typically goes to sacrifice. This explains the language of those who go, which refers to all those who go [to sacrifice] throughout the world, “and from there you will see and likewise you shall also do” according to what is customary. Moses replied, With our young and with our old we will go. Seemingly, according to the simple meaning, the word we will go is completely superfluous. That is to say, both [times he says, “we will go”] are unnecessary, since he is responding to the question of who and who will go. He should have answered “our young and our old, our sons, etc.” with all of it referring to those who are going. But certainly, it does not refer to those who are going. Rather, [Moses] was saying: “You tell us to go as is the way of those who go [to sacrifice] throughout the world, but we will not do so. Rather, with our young and with our old we will go.” And there is a distinction between we will go and “those who go,” as one is not comparable to the other. Even though among all those who go to sacrifice, only those whose way it is to sacrifice actually go, nevertheless, we will all go completely. And he gave a reason for this: because it is a festival of the Lord for us. For indeed, regarding all those [in the world] who go only to sacrifice, it is appropriate that only those who typically sacrifice should go. But for us, beyond the service, namely the festival to the Lord, we have another additional commandment, which is the joy of the festival. This is what he meant by saying because it is a festival of the Lord for us — it needs to be for usTherefore, Moses said we will go twice, to make two divisions among those going: “our young and our old we will go” to serve, and “our sons and our daughters” will go for the purpose of joy — meaning that we will rejoice with them to fulfill God’s commandment upon us to give half to the Lord and half to ourselves and our children, for the sake of joy.

מי ומי ההולכים?, “who are all those who are going?” Pharaoh wanted to know, that seeing the request of the Israelites had been for a leave of absence to offer sacrifices to their G’d, who would be the people involved in that other than adult males of superior rank, the ones normally performing such rites. Moses replied that seeing the occasion was happy one, a festival, the entire nation would participate in such celebrations.

And Moses said: With our young men and with our elders we will go; with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our cattle we will go, for it is a festival before Hashem for us.

"For it is a festival of Hashem to us" — for sacrifice, and it is a commandment upon all of us.

כי חג לה' לנו, “for we celebrate a festival in honour of the Lord;” it is customary to celebrate festivals in the presence of wife and children.

כי חג ה' לנו, “for it is a festival of Hashem for us.” The festival Moses and Aaron spoke about was the holiday of Shavuot, the day the Torah would be given. G’d had already advised Moses of that event when He had told him at the burning bush: “when you take out the people from Egypt you will serve Me at this Mountain” (3,12). The festival Moses spoke of is not to be understood as the festival of Passover; the Passover was observed inside Egypt. It is also impossible to understand the word חג Moses spoke about as the festival of Tabernacles as nowhere is that festival connected to the Mountain of G’d. There is no doubt therefore, that the festival in question is Shavuot which occurs in the month of Sivan. The Torah writes: “in the third month after the Exodus of the Children of Israel from Egypt they arrived in the desert of Sinai.” The date mentioned there was the first day of Sivan (Shabbat 19). After an interval of five days the Torah (Ten Commandments) were given at Mount Sinai.

And Mosheh said, With our children and with our old men will we go; with our sons and with our daughters we will go; with our sheep and with our oxen we will go; for we have a solemn feast before the Lord.

And he said to them: May the Word of Hashem be of support to you in the same way that I would send forth you and your little ones — see, for the evil that you are intending to do is before your faces, as you turn back.

כאשר אשלח אתכם ואת טפכם [MAY THE LORD BE WITH YOU] AS I WILL LET YOU AND YOUR LITTLE ONES GO — even though I were to let go also the flocks and herds as you have said. ראו כי רעה נגד פניכם Understand this as the Targum takes it: See, the evil you are about to do wilt turn against yourself. I have heard a Midrashic explanation: There is a certain star the name of which is רעה “Evil”. Pharaoh said to them, “By my astrological art I see that star rising towards you in the wilderness whither you wish to proceed. It is an emblem of blood and slaughter”. Consequently, when Israel sinned by worshipping the calf and the Holy One, blessed be He, intended to slay them, Moses said in his prayer, (Exodus 32:12) “Wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say, He brought them forth together with רעה (i. e. under the influence of the star רעה); this is, indeed, what he (Pharaoh) has already said, “See, the ‘רעה’ is before you”. At once, “the Lord bethought Himself concerning ‘רעה’”, and He changed the blood of which this star was an emblem to the blood of the circumcision because indeed Joshua had them circumcised. This is the meaning of what is said, (Joshua 5:9). “This day have I rolled from off you the reproach of the Egyptians”, for they said to you. “We see blood impending over you in the wilderness. (Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 1:392; cf. also Rashi on Joshua 5:9.)

SEE YE THAT EVIL IS BEFORE YOUR FACE. “The intent of the verse is as the Targum [Onkelos] explained it.” Thus the language of Rashi. Now how commendable it would have been if Rashi had written out [the text of Onkelos he referred to], since there are variant texts of this Targum! In some texts, it is written: “See, the evil you are about to do is set against you.” According to this text, it appears that Onkelos intended to explain: “the evil you are contemplating to do is set before you, bearing witness against you that it is your desire to escape altogether.” This is similar to the verse, And set two men, base fellows, before him [Naboth], and let them bear witness against him, saying, etc. It is also similar to [the expressions]: And they sat down to eat bread, which the Targum translates v’istacharu (and they sat down), [the same as the term istacharat that appears to be in the Targum here]; Arise, I pray thee, sit, which the Targum translates istachar (sit). And there are versions of [Targum Onkelos] in which it is written: “will turn against yourself.” The purport thereof is thus: “Behold, this evil you are about to do is destined to turn against you, for it will pass upon you.” This is similar to the expression, So shall no inheritance of the children of Israel pass from tribe to tribe, which the Targum translates: lo tistachar (not pass), [similar to the Targum here, l’istachro]. This explanation finds authority in the Midrash of the Sages, who said in Eileh Shemoth Rabbah: “[Pharaoh said]: ‘It is the custom of young men and the elders to offer sacrifice, but is it the custom of children and the little ones to do so? He who says so intends only to escape. See that which you want to do, namely to escape, will turn against you, that you will not go forth from here,’” a kind of measure for measure. And I have found yet another version in the Targum: “your countenance does not bear witness to the absence of this evil,” meaning that “your countenance does not bear witness to the removal of the evil in your hearts. On the contrary, the show of your countenance bears witness against you.”In line with the plain meaning of Scripture, [the intent of the verse is to be understood as follows]: “Know that evil is before you, ready and imminent to come upon you from me, for I will requite you evil when I see that you want to escape.”

"And he said" — 'So may Hashem be with you' — as you say 'with you.' The meaning of "See that evil is before your faces" is that the evil is near to you and before your faces; and in keeping with this meaning, what follows is connected — "for that is what you are seeking," meaning it is right that I do so. Pharaoh supposed that they intended to flee. Know that our teacher Moses did not tell Pharaoh that they would return, lest he be made a liar; rather, he said only that they would travel a three-day journey. The Egyptians' understanding was that they would return, for they had lent them their belongings, and for another reason: had Pharaoh given them leave to go and they did not return, he would not have pursued them. Hashem commanded this to be done so that he would pursue them and be drowned. This is stated explicitly: "and they turned back and encamped before Pi-hachirot" (14:2). One must not question the ways of Hashem, for He does all things in wisdom, though it be hidden from the eyes of the wise — as in the word of David: "When you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then act decisively, for then Hashem will go forth before you to strike down the camp of the Philistines" (II Sam. 5:24).

כאשר אשלח אתכם ואת טפכם, even less your livestock. ראו כי רעה נגד פניכם. I warn you that what you have in mind will boomerang on you and instead of improving your lot will worsen it. Pharaoh used this expression in a sense similar to Esau rejecting his birthright saying הנה אנכי הולך למות, “I am pursuing a path which will lead to my premature death, anyway” (Genesis 25,32). A similar meaning is Solomon saying in Proverbs 5,5 of the immoral woman: רגליה יורדות מות “her feet go down to death.” Our sages in Berachot 28 described the same thought as והם רצים לבאר שחת.

ראו כי רעה, “see you are planning something wicked;” i.e. “you are planning to escape from the land and all your obligations.” נגד פניכם, “it is clearly visible from your whole mien, as if written on your faces. This is why you insist on taking all your portable belongings with you.

ראו כי רעה נגד פניכם , “see here, the evil you plan is staring you in the face.” The meaning of these words is best expressed by Onkelos who translates: ”the evil you have in mind will backfire against you.” The word לאסתחרא in Onkelos means the same as תסוב in Hebrew, i.e. to turn back, to “backfire.” Our sages in Shemot Rabbah 13,5 explains Pharaoh’s argument being that normally young men and their elders are in the habit to offer sacrifices to their gods. Not so their infants and their wives. Anyone who insists that all these people come along must plan to flee and not to merely take a temporary leave of absence. This was the “evil” which Pharaoh accused Moses and Aaron of planning. A Midrashic approach quoted by Rashi understands the word רעה as the name of a star or planet (Mars) which is so named as it symbolises bloodshed and war. Pharaoh foresaw in his astrological charts that the Jewish people would suffer a blood bath in the desert. He warned them that their leaving Egypt would prove worse for them than their remaining in Egypt. Esau used to call that star Edom. This is why he referred to מן האדום האדום הזה, when he asked Yaakov to share with him that famous dish of broth (Genesis 25,30 — see our commentary there). The wicked Pharaoh who was an expert astrologer called the star in question רעה. He attributed all misfortune in the world to the influence of that planet. He himself became a victim of that planet’s force as part of G’d’s retribution of measure for measure. When he foresaw a blood bath facing the Jews, he did not realize that this was the reference to the Israelites who would be killed because they served the golden calf. This is what Moses referred to in his prayer after the sin of the golden calf when he said to G’d: “why should the Egyptians who would take note of G’d killing the entire people be able to say (boast) ברעה הוציאם, ‘He took them out under the auspices of the planet (horoscope) רעה, only in order to kill them’” (Exodus 32,12). Moses pointed out that if G’d carried out His intention of killing the people (32,10) He would cause a desecration of His recently established great name by playing into the hands of the Egyptians who had predicted this already here. As a result they would retroactively deny their recently held conviction that G’d had orchestrated the plagues out of His love for the Jewish people. They would henceforth attribute all those plagues to the stars and their respective constellations. When G’d accepted Moses’ argument, i.e. וינחם ה' על הרעה אשר דבר לעשות, “G’d relented concerning the רעה He had said He would do,” (32,14) He decided that the bloodletting would be that when Joshua would perform mass circumcision of the Israelites born in the desert. In Joshua 5,9 we find the expression “to-day I have removed from you the shame (full prediction) of Egypt.”

And he said to them, “Let the Lord be with you, etc.” You are saying to associate God with you when I send you and your children, because you [want] to go for the service of God and your children for your joy, so that God will be associated with you. Therefore, I say, Let the Lord be with you only if I send you and your children, for I have no desire to send the children with you, and then God will also not be with you, because it is not proper to associate God’s name with something else. See that evil is before your faces — for you are going to sacrifice in order to nullify the influence of the star called “evil,” and it should be enough for you to be saved from the evil. Yet you also seek abundant joy, to flee from one extreme to the other — this is not proper. Not so, let the men go and serve the Lord, for “it” — meaning the joy — is what you seek. I say that you seek joy and are inventing it from your hearts, for it does not come from the Most High, but you are seeking this joy from your hearts. For at first you said in God’s name, They shall celebrate for Me in the wilderness — for Me implies for My name alone, for Me and not for you. So how can you now say in God’s name for it is the Lord’s festival for us? For God is not a man that He should change His mind. Rather, it is certain that you are seeking this from your [own] hearts. Therefore, Pharaoh was filled with rage against them, and consequently he drove them out from before Pharaoh. And what it says with our youth and our elders, with our flocks and our herds implies that they made themselves secondary to all of these, since they did not say “will go with us.” Yet Pharaoh said even your young ones will go with you, implying that the children were secondary to them. This will be explained adjacently, God willing. “Look, for evil is before your faces, etc.” According to what our Sages said (Shabbat 156), “One who is born under the influence of Mars will be a person who sheds blood. What is his remedy? He should become a butcher or a surgeon.” The reason for this is that the Holy One, blessed be He, does not completely override the astrological influences, but rather this is what the Lord will do for those who fear the Lord and think of His name — that when there is some evil indicated in the astrological configuration, then the Holy One, blessed be He, redirects the influence toward something else similar to it, in such a way that one who observes a commandment will know no evil. And the decree of the astrological configuration will be fulfilled in any case. And in this way, we find (Moed Katan 9b) “Go to them so they may bless you.” They said to him, “May it be God’s will that you sow but not reap… may your house be destroyed…” He replied, “All of these are actually blessings…” People question why they blessed him with parables and riddles instead of blessing him clearly and not with riddles. Rather, because he saw that the celestial decree indicated “you will sow but not reap” and wanted to transform it into a blessing in a way that would fulfill the celestial decree while ensuring he would not be harmed. Similarly, when Israel left Egypt, Pharaoh saw through his astrology that the planet Mars, whose name is “Ra’ah” [evil], was rising against them, indicating bloodshed. The influence of this planet could only be remedied through a circumciser or a slaughterer, and both together are good. This is because there is uncertainty whether this planet indicates actual killing, or merely wounds and bruises alone, or both together. Therefore, to remedy this uncertainty, both are needed: a circumciser and a slaughterer. For this reason, God gave Israel two commandments: the blood of the Passover sacrifice and the blood of circumcision. He wanted to save them from the celestial decree and redirect the influence of that planet toward the slaughterer and circumciser – the slaughterer referring to the slaughtering of the Passover sacrifice, and the circumciser referring to circumcision. A hint to this matter is that the numerical value of “Ra’ah” [evil] equals that of “orlah” [foreskin]. They were commanded regarding both to be saved from actual killing and from wounds and bruises. Pharaoh said, “I see that the planet whose name is ‘Ra’ah’ is rising to meet you and all who leave Egypt, whether men, women, or children. So how will you remedy these two aspects of the celestial decree? Granted, the men can remedy it through the blood of the Passover sacrifice and circumcision, but how will the women and children remedy it? For women are not obligated in circumcision, and it is not the way of children to slaughter sacrifices. Therefore, let the men go and serve the Lord, for that is what you seek – to remedy the influence of the planet.” After all, you have already said, Lest He strike us with pestilence or sword. This is the reason for and we will sacrifice to the Lord our God specifically – not just about going – so that Pharaoh would not say, “Go serve some service without sacrifice,” which would leave your livestock here. Therefore, Moses said, and we will sacrifice so that those who go would not be struck with pestilence or sword due to the planet’s influence. That is why he mentioned the term strike, indicating those who would go in any case. Thus, your own mouth testifies against you that you need to remedy the influence of the celestial decree indicating pestilence and sword, and this can only be remedied by the men, so women and children must necessarily remain with us.

ראו כי רעה נגד פניכם, “see here, your evil intent is staring you in the face.” The evil you plan to embark on, i.e. your attempt to flee from Egypt, is clear from the fact that you want to take even your small children with you. Another possible explanation for the above line is: you should face the fact that you will shortly be faced with retaliation by me, so that your illusion of freedom will be short-lived. Alternatively, the words ראו כי רעה נגד פניכם, could mean “the evil which you intend to do will boomerang and hit you in your faces.” I will forbid you to leave altogether, and you will be paid back tit for tat.

כי רעה נגד פניכם. You have foolish designs in your hearts. The accuracy of this interpretation is reflected by Isaiah 5,21 הוי חכמים בעיניהם ונגד (פניהם) נבונים, “Ah, those who are so wise, in their own opinion, so clever in their own judgment.” Pharaoh was at pains to tell Moses that what he thought was good for the Jews was not good for them at all.

Not so; go now, the men, and serve before Hashem, for that is what you have been seeking. And he drove them out from before Pharaoh.

לא כן NOT SO as you have said, to take the children with you, but 'לכו נא הגברים ועבדו את ה GO YE WHO ARE ADULT MEN AND SERVE THE LORD. כי אתה אתם מבקשים means FOR THAT IS WHAT YE DID SEEK till now: let us sacrifice to our God — and it is not the custom for little children to offer sacrifice. ויגרש אותם AND HE DROVE THEM OUT — This is an elliptical phrase and it does not expressly state who drove them out (i. e. the subject of the verb is omitted).

"Not so; go now, the men" [הגברים] — the word 'גבר' [gever] throughout Scripture refers to males, but not so the word 'אדם' [adam]. "For that is what you are seeking" — referring back to the evil mentioned above.

לכו נא הגברים, “you, i.e. the men, may go;” the children will remain behind as guarantees that you will return. ויגרש אותם, “he dismissed them (expelled).” The reason that Pharaoh had not expelled Moses and Aaron up until now, before they had been recalled, when they were not even allowed to leave before having been given express permission to do so, was because he thought that G-d would not bring on the same plague a second time. (Sotah 9) [Pharaoh considered locusts as a repeat of the hail, as both plagues ruined the food supply from the earth. Ed.]

ועבדו את ה' כי אותה אתם מבקשים, you have requested from me to let you serve the Lord; what do you need women and children for? This is why Pharaoh got angry and expelled Moses and Aaron, adding that “by G’d I will not grant such an unreasonable request!” (verse 10) (2) AND HE the one who expelled them EXPELLED THEM.

And Hashem said to Moses: Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt, and the locusts shall come and ascend upon the land of Egypt, and devour all the vegetation of the land — all that the hail left.

בארבה means on account of the plague of locusts (the prefix ב signifies “on account of”).

"With the locust" [בארבה] — R. Moses ha-Kohen said that the meaning of "בארבה" is that he placed locusts on his staff, but this is not correct. Rather, the meaning is 'with/for the locust,' so that it should come.

על ארץ מצרים בארבה. A reference to the region from which the locusts generally came, i.e from the southern part of the continent. We have references of this kind in Isaiah 5,26 describing that these locusts traveled long distances before arriving in Egypt.

בארבה, with locusts. The word may either refer to a single locust which stuck to Moses' staff, or he may have articulated the word ארבה as he inclined his staff as a sign that the reason he inclined his staff was in order to initiate the plague of locusts.

על ארץ מצרים, “on the land of Egypt.” According to what we would have expected, Moses should have extended his staff over the sea of reeds, in order call forth the locusts, as the locusts are found near the sea of reeds. However, since G-d intended for Moses to extend his staff over the sea of reeds at the time when the Israelites needed that sea to split in order to let them cross, G-d did not want the sea to depart from its routine for a second time.

And Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and Hashem guided an east wind over the land all that day and all that night; when morning came, the east wind had carried the locusts.

ורוח הקדים THE EAST WIND — It was an east wind that brought the locusts because that came (blew) from the direction opposite to it (to Egypt), since Egypt was in the south-west, relative to Palestine, as it is explained in another place (Numbers 34:3).

"East wind" [קדים] — this is an adjective, for 'קדמה' means eastward; that direction is named because it is foremost [נקדם] among the directions, since from there the sun begins to shine; therefore the west is called 'after' [אחור], as in "if I go forward [קדם], He is not there, and backward [אחור], I cannot perceive Him" (Job 23:8). "Carried the locust" — from its place, and deposited it throughout all the kingdom of Egypt.

רוח קדים, “an east wind.” It is called קדים, as this is where the sun begins its daily route; this is also why west is called אחור, “hindmost,” as this is where the sun completes its daily route.

וה' נהג רוח קדים, “and G’d guided an easterly wind, etc.” As on previous occasions, the letter ו at the beginning of the name of G’d is an allusion to the celestial tribunal working together with G’d. An easterly wind is perceived as a forerunner to disaster striking on earth. We find that wind in evidence in 14,21 prior to the Egyptians drowning in the sea after the sea had been split to allow the Israelites to cross safely. Jeremiah 18,17 wrote concerning the surviving tribes of Yehudah and Binyamin “I will scatter them in front of the enemy like an easterly wind.” Concerning the other ten tribes (prior to their exile) Hoseah 13,15 writes: “a blast of the easterly wind from the Lord will come blowing up from the desert and it will dry up its fountain and his spring will be parched.” Describing Israel going into exile, Isaiah 27,8 writes: “assailing them wih fury unchained, His pitilesss blast of the easterly wind bore them off on a day of gale.” There are more such quotes to be found in the Bible pertaining to an association between an easterly wind and disaster. הבוקר היה ורוח הקדים נשא את הארבה, “when it had become morning, the easterly wind had carried the locusts.” The easterly wind brought disaster with it, whereas a westerly wind removed disaster. This is why the Torah wrote (verse 19) Hashem turned back a powerful west wind; it carried the locusts away toward the sea and spewed it out there. The reason the Torah had spoken about “it was morning,” is an allusion to the fact that usually disaster strikes the wicked in the morning. We have scriptural support for this from Psalms 101,8: “each morning I (G’d) will destroy all the wicked of the land.” When Moses predicted the disaster which would strike Korach and his fellow rebels, he said (Numbers 16,5) “in the morning G’d will make known who is His and who is holy.” We also find that the salvation of the righteous occurs in the morning such as in Exodus 34,2 where G’d told Moses to be ready in the morning to ascend the mountain and to receive the replacement of the first set of tablets which he had smashed. Isaiah 33,2 also speaks of salvation for the righteous in the morning when he writes: ”be their arm every morning, also our deliverance in time of stress.” Lamentations 3,23 also refers to G’d’s mercies being renewed every morning and His grace being ample.

ורוח הקדים נשא את הארבה, “and this easterly wind carried the locusts.” Seeing that an east wind is a blast of hot air, as we know from Jonah 4,8, where the effect of this hot easterly wind on Jonah’s state of mind is described, and it is the custom of locusts always to make their appearance when it is hot, as we already know from the prophecy of Nachum 3,17 מנזריך כארבה וטפסריך כגוב גבי החונים בגדרות, ביום קרה שמש זרחה ונודד ולא נודע מקומו אים, “Your guards were like locusts, your marshals like piles of hoppers which settle on the stone fences on a chilly day; when the sun comes out, they fly away and nobody knows where they are.” When G’d would want the plague to disappear, all He had to do was to command a west wind to that region.

And the locusts ascended over all the land of Egypt and settled throughout the entire territory of Egypt — exceedingly severe; before them there had never been locusts like them, and after them there shall be none like them.

ואחריו לא יהיה כן NEITHER AFTER THEM SHALL BE SUCH — That plague of locusts which happened during the days of Joel of which it is said, (Joel 2:2) “there hath not been ever the like” — which statement teaches us that it was more grievous than that in the days of Moses — was, however, caused by many species of locusts, together, those called ארבה and ילק and חסיל and גזם; but that which happened in the days of Moses consisted of only one species (the ארבה) and any ארבה like that there never was and never will be.

NEITHER AFTER THEM SHALL BE SUCH [LOCUSTS]. Scripture informs us by way of prophecy that after them, there would never be such [locusts]. Now Rashi commented: “[The plague of locusts] which occurred during the days of Joel, of which it is said, There hath not been ever the like, teaches us that it was greater than that in the days of Moses. The one that happened in the days of Joel was caused by many species together: locust, caterpillar, canker-worm, palmer-worm. But the one which occurred in the days of Moses consisted only of one species, the like of which there never was and never will be.”I have found difficulty in understanding the explanation of the Rabbi [Rashi]. It is written [of the plague which happened in the days of Moses], He also gave their produce unto the caterpillar, and it is also written, He spoke, and the locust came, and the canker-worm without number. Perhaps the Rabbi [Rashi] will answer by saying that in the days of Moses, locust proper was greater than that in the days of Joel, but all other species of locusts in the days of Joel were greater than those in the days of Moses. But these are useless arguments. Instead, [we must say that the expression], in all the borders of Egypt, is connected with the end of the verse: before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such there [in Egypt, but in other places there may be]. It is possible that because the land of Egypt is exceedingly moistened by the river, locusts are not abundant there, for these naturally come in years of drought, as is mentioned by the prophet Joel. Now Rabbeinu Chananel has written in his commentary on the Torah: “From the time that Moses our teacher prayed [for the removal of the locusts] till now, the locusts have not caused damage to the entire land of Egypt, and if an attack of them does occur in the Land of Israel and they proceed to enter within the border of Egypt, they do not devour the produce of the land. People say that this is known by all. Come and see! In the case of frogs, Moses said, Only in the river they will remain, and therefore the altamtzach — [the Arabic word for frogs] — have remained in the river till now. However, in the case of the locusts it is written, There remained not one locust in all the border of Egypt. It is of a phenomenon of this kind that Scripture says, Speak ye of all His marvellous works. ” Thus the language of the Rabbi. In my opinion, the plain meaning of the verse, [neither after them shall be such], is that because the plague of locusts is known to come in all generations, and moreover since this one [in the days of Moses] came in a natural way, it having been the east wind that brought the locusts, [and there was thus reason to believe that such a plague would again come upon Egypt in a natural way], Scripture therefore states that such locusts were the greatest that ever occurred in the natural order of things. Neither before them were there such locusts as they, nor after t...

"And it went up" — the statement "and after it there will not be such" was written on the basis of prophecy.

ואחריו לא יהיה כן, “and there will never be a plague of locusts like this;” according to Rashi, the meaning is “a single type of locust.” Seeing that the Bible records other plagues of locusts at least as severe, (Psalms 105,34, Yoel 1,4), and Rashi was surely aware of this, we must understand the words of Rashi as referring to a single species of locusts at the same time. In the days of Joel ben Patuel each type of locust came separately, one after the other.

ואחריו לא יהיה כן, “and after it there will never again be its equal.” The Torah refers to a plague consisting of a single species of locusts, seeing that the prophet Yoel 2,2 describes a plague consisting of a variety of species of locusts, a plague which surpassed that of the one which occurred in Egypt now. The verse in Yoel speaks of “a day of densest cloud spread like soot over the hills; a vast enormous horde- nothing like it ever happened, and it shall never happen again through the years and ages.” In Yoel 2,25 when the prophecy had become true the prophet records: “consumed by grubs and locusts the great army I let loose against you, etc.” In Psalms 105,34 David elaborates on this plague in Egypt explaining that there are altogether seven species of locusts, naming them ארבה, סלעם, חרגול, חגב, גזם, ילק, חסיל. Interestingly, the name ארבה occurs seven times in our paragraph. The species called ארבה is the largest and most voracious of them all, as it is described as “My great army” by G’d in Yoel 2,25. Nachmanides explains that seeing the very occurrence of a plague of locusts is not something so extraordinary, and moreover it is usually carried by an easterly wind, the Torah had to add that the phenomenon of locusts experienced by the Egyptians at the command of Moses was something absolutely unique and could not be compared to previously known infestations of locusts. Rabbeinu Chananel, focusing on the words: “and there would be none like it in the future,” writes that no such plague would ever brought on again by a prophet. He sees in our wording here a parallel to Kings II 18,5:a “He trusted only in the Lord, the G’d of Israel; there was none like him among all the kings of Yehudah after him.” This means that Chiskiyah’s faith in G’d was indeed unparalleled but that the level of his fear of sin and other good virtues was matched by others. We also have a verse in Joshua 10,14: “neither before nor after has there ever been such a day when the Lord acted on words spoken by a man.” There too the meaning is that miracles such as performed at the instigation of Joshua remained unparalleled, but that G’d Himself might perform miracles greater than Joshua’s. We know of an incidence of G’d delaying sunset in order to enable Nakdimon ben Gurion to make good on a guarantee (Taanit 20), the difference being that on that occasion G’d acted without prompting by any man.

ואחריו לא יהיה כן, “and after it there will never be its equal.” The plague of locusts during the life of the prophet Joel could not be compared with the plague in Egypt, as the latter comprised a single species of locusts, whereas in Israel at the time of Joel there were a number of different species of locusts combining to make the experience so memorable. (compare Rashi) Nachmanides questions the above, quoting Psalms 78,46: “He gave their crops over to the grubs, their produce to the locusts.” He also quotes another verse in Psalms 105,34 “Locusts came at His command, grasshoppers without number.” According to both these verses there were more than one species of locusts that invaded Egypt during the plague described in our chapter. Perhaps, in order to reconcile the apparently conflicting statement by Rashi with the verses mentioned fro the Book of Psalms, Rashi meant to say that the species of locusts which invaded Egypt in our chapter was a much larger one than people had ever become familiar with, whereas the species that appeared in the time of Joel were larger than the several species which became manifest in the days of Moses. This attempt to resolve the problem is futile, as there is no question that when the Torah in our chapter discusses the uniqueness of this plague of locusts it means that neither prior to that time nor afterwards did such a plague ever again occur on such a scale. Rabbeinu Chananel, on this verse, writes first of all, that the Torah means that such a plague of locusts, which had been predicted by a prophet, never occurred again. The invasion of the land of Israel in the time of the prophet Joel had not been announced beforehand by a prophet. Furthermore, ever since the prayer of Moses to have the plague of locusts removed, Egypt was never again plagued by locusts. [My edition of Rabbeinu Chananel does not contain such a statement, Ed.] At any rate, Rabbeinu Chananel feels that just as Joshua requested the miracle of the sun and moon being arrested in their orbits until he had mopped up the opposing armies, Moses predicted the miracle of the plague of locusts, and he did not even have to request it.] It is possible to understand the plain meaning of our text differently. Just because a plague of locusts was something quite common in those regions in those times, and moreover, seeing that the one which occurred during the reign of Pharaoh, was orchestrated by a completely natural event, namely a strong east wind blowing, it was necessary for the Torah, i.e. in this instance Moses, to mention the fact that it would occur, to point out when and how it would occur, and that it would be disproportionately severe in the damage it would cause, so much so that it would be more severe than anything like it ever, before or after. This would bring home to the victims that this was not a natural disaster but a punitive act by the Creator.

ואחריו, “and after it (there will never again be a plague of locust of such dimensions.)”. When describing a similar plague in the Book of Yoel,2,2, the prophet stated s that never again had there been a plague of locusts of such dimensions, nor would there ever be again. Apparently there are many different strains of locusts, and the statements by both the Torah and the Book of Yoel do not refer to the same strain. Even so, we are puzzled by a statement in Psalms 78,46, as well as 105,34-35 as the same strains of locusts are mentioned. Possibly, in the days of Moses all the different strains of locusts combined to invade that country at the same time. [A week before writing these lines, the land of Israel was invaded by a plague of locusts originating in Egypt and was repelled by spraying poison from airplanes. Our farmers had been very concerned. Ed.] The references in Yoel apparently must have referred to one specific strain that invaded the land of Israel at that time in such intensity. The Torah treated the strain known as ארבה and that of ילק as distinct species. [This makes sense as some kinds of “locusts,” are permitted to us as food, whereas other kinds are not. Ed.]

And they covered the face of the sun over all the land, and the land was darkened; and they devoured all the vegetation of the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left — and there remained no greenery on tree or plant of the field throughout all the land of Egypt.

כל ירק means any green leaf (not “any herb”, since it speaks of the ירק of the trees); old French verdure.

"And it covered" — the meaning of "and the land was darkened" is that the locust interposed between the sun and the land, for the land is always in darkness on its own.

ותחשך הארץ, “the earth became darkened;” from the amount of shade produced by the flying swarms of locusts.

ויכס את עין כל הארץ ותחשך הארץ, “it covered the surface of the entire land and the land was darkened.” There was no area which remained free from locusts. The matter is comparable to Yoel 2,9: “they rush up the wall, they dash about in the city; they climb into the houses, they enter like thieves by way of the windows.” The word עין here is derived from גוון, i.e. all the normal colors on earth turned to look black.

And Pharaoh hastened to summon Moses and Aaron, and said: I have sinned before Hashem your God and before you.

"And Pharaoh hastened to call" — through his messengers. He added saying to them 'I have sinned,' because he had expelled them shamefully from before him.

על ארץ מצרים בארבה, before the locust could destroy also the roots of the wheat and spelt and other plants they had been devouring. 10,20-23. נטה ידך על השמים, “in the direction of the atmosphere referred to as “heaven.” We have explained this in connection with Genesis 1,7.

חטאתי לה, “I have sinned against the G-d called Hashem.” He acknowledged the attribute of mercy, realising that this G-d had warned him before bring evil upon him. ולכם, “and against you,” for having thrown you out of my palace in disgrace.

חטאתי לה' אלו-היכם ולכם, “I have sinned against the Lord your G’d and against you.” The reason Pharaoh added the words: “against you,” was because he had treated them disrespectfully and expelled them from his palace (verse 11).

חטאנו לה' אלוקיכם ולכם, “we have sinned against the Lord your G’d and against you.” He apologized to Moses and Aaron for having insulted them and banished them from his presence.

And now, forgive my sin only this once, and pray before Hashem your God, that He may remove from me only this death.

NOW THEREFORE FORGIVE, I PRAY THEE, MY SIN. This is an expression of respect to Moses [on the part of Pharaoh] since Moses was in G-d’s stead to Pharaoh, and very great in the land of Egypt. [Hence Pharaoh addressed this appeal to Moses alone, as the singular verb sa (forgive) indicates, for the king knew of the extraordinary position of Moses, as explained.] And entreat ye the Eternal your G-d. He addressed this appeal to both Moses and Aaron. He respectfully spoke thus every time [that he asked for prayer on his behalf] although Pharaoh knew that Moses alone was the one who prayed, for so he told him: Against what time shall I entreat for thee; And I will entreat the Eternal; I will spread forth my hands to the Eternal. Moses did not say it in the plural, [i.e., “we shall entreat”], so that he should not utter a falsehood, [but Pharaoh nevertheless addressed himself to both as an expression of respect].

"And now, forgive" [שא נא] — I will explain the phrase "שא נא" in the portion of Ki Tissa. The meaning of "only this once" is: for I will no longer sin by rebelling against the word of Hashem. Because Moses was angry, he did not tell him to send the people, but went outside the city as was his custom and prayed.

ועתה שא נא חטאתי אך הפעם והעתירו לה' אלו-היכם, “and now, please forgive my sin only this once and entreat the Lord your G’d.” Nachmanides points out that Pharaoh should have said: “pray to the Lord that He should forgive my sin.” After all, it was not up to Moses to forgive sins. The reason he worded his plea as he did was that G’d had appointed Moses to be a deity as far as Pharaoh was concerned (compare 7,1). The reason Pharaoh used the plural, i.e. העתירו, was in honour of Aaron. Pharaoh knew quite well that only Moses would do the praying. Moses had told him already twice “I will entreat the Lord” (8,25 and 8,5). רק את המות הזה, “only this death.” This teaches that human beings also died during the plague of locusts, just as they had died from the effects of the hail. Perhaps the locusts caused them to become blind as a result of which they were prone to have fatal accidents. In the days of Joshua it is reported that the affliction of the skin disease called tzoraat caused blindness (Sotah 36). Alternatively, the reason that Pharaoh referred to this plague as “this death,” was that seeing the hail had killed the crops, the earth and the fruit, the locust finished what was still left over. As a result Pharaoh was correct in describing the situation in Egypt now as one of “this death.” The Torah adds the word רק, “only,” as a hint that the way he felt about things was temporary. As soon as there would be relief he would undergo a change of heart. What appeared to him as hopeless at this moment would suddenly assume a totally new dimension. He would think that he had survived the worst that the Jewish G’d was able to do to him. He revealed his eventual change of mind by asking that Moses entreat G’d “only at this moment.” He implied that there would not again come a time when he needed Moses’ intercession.

“And now, please forgive my sin, etc.” Since Pharaoh said, I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you, he mentioned the sin against God first because it was too great to bear, more so than the sin he committed against Moses and Aaron. Nevertheless, the Holy One, blessed be He, forgives iniquity and is more abundant in pardoning than flesh and blood. Therefore, Pharaoh first asked forgiveness from Moses and then from the Blessed God, thinking that if Moses forgave him first, then Moses would become an intermediary between him and God. Still, God would not be displeased that Pharaoh delayed asking Him first, because the Holy One, blessed be He, is abundant in mercy, and with Him is forgiveness. Moreover, God knows that Pharaoh needs an intermediary, which is why it says, And now, please forgive my sin. Meaning, now immediately please forgive my sin, and afterward pray for me to the Lord your God. And regarding why he said please forgive in the singular form rather than “please forgive” in the plural form, perhaps because since Moses grew up in Pharaoh’s house, Pharaoh knew that he was an extremely humble man who pardons and forgives anyone who causes him pain. Therefore, he thought there was no need to ask forgiveness except from Aaron, as Pharaoh did not know Aaron’s character. And regarding what it says, “remove from me only this death,” some say that he [Pharaoh] requested that He [God] only remove the living [locusts], because they are harmful and cause death, but not the salted ones [dead locusts] that were already dead, since they don’t cause death or harm. And the Holy One, blessed be He, did not grant him this request and sent away even the salted ones [dead locusts].

שא נא חטאתי, “please forgive my sin.” Pharaoh employed the singular mode when addressing Moses seeing he was the senior leader and was an elokim, Divine representative vis a vis Pharaoh. When appealing for their prayer on his behalf to G’d, he employed the plural mode, i.e. העתירו, not העתר. He did so as a form of courtesy, knowing full well that it was Moses who would pray for the cessation of the plague. We know this already from Moses’ offer למתי אעתיר, “for when shall I pray,” during the plague of the frogs. He is also on record as having said: והעתרתי אל ה' “I shall entreat the Lord.”

And he went out from before Pharaoh and prayed before Hashem.

And Hashem turned a very strong west wind, and it carried the locusts and cast them into the Sea of Reeds; not a single locust remained in all the territory of Egypt.

רוח ים is A WEST WIND. ימה סוף INTO THE RED SEA — I say that the Red Sea was, as to part of it, in the west opposite the whole southern side of Palestine, and was also eastward of the Land of Israel; therefore a west wind blew the locusts into the Red Sea which was in the opposite direction to the west of Egypt. Thus do we find mentioned regarding the boundaries of Palestine that it (the Red Sea) faces the east of Palestine, since it states, (Exodus 23:31) “[And I will set thy boundaries] from the Red Sea even unto the sea of the Philistines”, which means from east to west since the sea of the Philistines was in the west, as it is said of the Philistines, (Zephaniah 2:5) “the inhabitants of the sea-coast, the nation of the Cherethites (the Philistines)”. לא נשאר ארבה אחד THERE REMAINED NOT ONE LOCUST — not even those which they had salted — for they had salted some of them (Exodus Rabbah 13:7).

"And Hashem turned a west wind" [רוח ים] — the west is called 'sea' [ים] in the Holy Tongue, because of the Great Sea that issues from Spain and passes along the land of Egypt toward the Land of Israel, and it is on the western side. It is not the ocean [ים אוקינוס], for Israel did not inherit that far. This sea is called the Spanish Sea — the Great Sea — because its width is three hundred parasangs, whereas the other seas in the Land of Israel, such as the Sea of Reeds, the Sea of Kinneret, and the Dead Sea, none of them are thirty parasangs wide.

רוח ים חזק מאד, “ very strong westerly wind;” the east wind had brought the locusts and the west wind swept them away. This had been alluded to in verse 13: והרוח הקדים נשא את הרבה, “and the east wind had carried the locusts ויתקעהו, “the Torah had used this verb in connection with Lavan in Genesis 31,25: ולבן תקע את אחיו and Lavan pitched tent with his brothers.” In other words, the wind arrested the flight of the locusts.”

לא נשאר ארבה אחד בכל גבול מצרים, “not a single locust remained on Egyptian territory.” Moses’ prayer remained in force until this day. Locusts do not attack crops in Egypt. Even when locusts fly southward from the land of Israel and cross the border with Egypt, they will not molest fields in Egypt. This is a well known fact. When Moses prayed that the frogs should remain only in the river (8,8) a certain insect called altamseh remained; this insect multiplies from time to time and infests the land areas of Egypt. It is reported to sometimes swallow two human beings at one gulp. It is immune against spears and arrows and unless struck in its underbelly it cannot be killed. It is a sub-species of frogs. It was a remainder of Moses’ plague. However, due to Moses’ prayer now, not a single locust remained in Egypt that could breed there. This is how Rabbeinu Chananel explains this, and is a reflection of the verse in Chronicles I 16,9 “speak of all His wondrous acts.”

לא נשאר ארבה בגבולך, “not a single locust remained behind within the boundaries of your country.” The locusts, as opposed to the frogs at the time, did not die, the reason being that they had not come into existence for the purpose of this plague. They had merely been transported across a great distance, away from their natural habitat [this is all based on the opinion that the words ותעל הצפרדע in 8,2 appears in the singular mode as opposed to the other occasions when this word appears in the plural mode. According to this view, a single frog became converted into millions of frogs for the sake of the plague, but after it had already left the river Nile. The frogs would therefore not have been able to “return” to their habitat, not having had a habitat in the first place. Ed.]

ויהפוך ה' רוח קדים, because the east wind had brought them from the west so that a west wind will bring them back to where they came from.

But Hashem strengthened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not send forth the children of Israel.

"And He hardened" — in keeping with what the Sages of blessed memory said: 'One who comes to defile himself, doors are opened for him.'

ויחזק ה' את לב פרעה, “G’d reinforced Pharaoh’s resolution.” It is totally unnatural for a person experiencing the kind of plagues Pharaoh and the Egyptians endured not to suffer a total mental collapse. The Torah had already described how, during the first five plagues, Pharaoh had drawn on his psychological reservoirs of obstinacy to stand fast in face of these plagues. Starting with the sixth plague, pestilence, however, G’d had lent him psychological support as we read for the first time in 9,6. This bears out what the prophet said in Jeremiah 18,6, “O House of Israel, can I not deal with you like this potter?- says the Lord. Just like clay in the hands of the potter so are you in My hands!” The prophet continues: “one moment I may decree that a nation or a kingdom shall be uprooted, etc., but if that nation turns back from wickedness I change My mind, etc.” Similarly, Solomon states (Proverbs 21,1) "Like channeled water is the mind of the king in the G-d’s hand; He directs it to whatever He wishes".

And Hashem said to Moses: Stretch out your hand toward the expanse of the heavens, and there shall be darkness over the land of Egypt — a darkness that persists even after the night passes.

וימש חשך signifies and it (the darkness mentioned in the preceding phrase, ויהי חשך) shall darken for them the natural darkness to a higher degree than the darkness of night: i. e. the darkness of night shall become even more black and dark. וימש means as much as (is a contraction of) ויאמש (a Hiphil form of אמש, evening darkness). We have many words in which an א is omitted; since the sound of the א is not very marked, Scripture is not particular about omitting it. An example is: (Isaiah 13:20) “the Arabian לֹא יַהֵל there”, which is the same as לא יַאֲהֵל, shall not pitch his tent. Similar is, (II Samuel 22:40) “וַתַּזְרֵנִי with strength”, which is the same as וַתְּאַזְרֵנִי “And thou hast girded me” (cf. Psalms 30:12). Onkelos translated it in the sense of removing, from the same root as, (Joshua 1:8) “it shall not depart (ימוש)”, his rendering being, “[and there shall be darkness..] after the darkness of night has departed”, i. e. when the time approaches near to the light of day. But the statement does not then fit with the ו of וימש, because this word is written after ויהי חשך. A Midrashic statement explains it in the sense of (Deuteronomy 28:29) “groping (ממשש feeling) at noon-day”, so that the meaning would be that it was of such a double character and so thick that there was something tangible in it (Exodus Rabbah 14:1-3).

"And He said" — by way of reason we understand that the staff was in his hand, even though it is not written. "And let the darkness be felt" [וימש חשך] — Yefet said that "וימש" is like "וימיש" [in the Hif'il], meaning it would cause every darkness there was to depart and a thicker one would come in its place. Others say it is missing an aleph, and that the word 'אמש' in the Holy Tongue means 'last night,' as in "last night he said to me" (Gen. 31:29), and in Arabic 'أمس' [ams] — for shin and samech interchange in many words, as in 'שמש' [shemesh] / 'שמס' [shemes]. But their interpretation yields no sense. In my view, "וימש" is from the root 'ימשש' (Deut. 28:29), and there is no objection from the fact that it is a doubled-root verb, for paralleling it in this matter is "their hands, that they do not feel" [ולא ימישון] (Ps. 115:7). The subject refers back to Egypt, since 'מצרים' [Egypt] is grammatically singular, as in "Egypt said, 'I will flee'" (below, 14:25). The meaning then is that they would grope through the darkness with their hands — it would be so thick that no fire or candle could burn. The proof: "no man saw his brother" — neither by the light of day nor by the light of candles.

נטה ידך על השמים, “in the direction of the atmosphere referred to as “heaven.” We have explained this in connection with Genesis 1,7. וימש חשך, this will remove the normal darkness called “night.” The reason this was necessary was that the night consists of air ready and capable to absorb light in the morning. The darkness that would occur now was something unable to interact with light at all. The reason for this inability to interact with light was the density of the texture of this darkness. As a result of this totally different kind of darkness לא ראו איש את אחיו, for even a lit up flare would not be able to make a “dent” in that darkness.

“Stretch forth your hands to the heavens” – the air is called heaven. ויהי חשך, “there will be darkness.” This plague was not preceded by a warning, as G-d did not want the Egyptians to have an opportunity to first hide their valuables.

נטה ידך על השמים, “ extend your hand toward (over) the sky.” Verse 22 confirms that this is exactly what Moses did. The unusual preposition in both verses is the word על instead of אל? How could Moses extend his hand “over” the sky? At the sea (14,16) Moses did extend his arm over the sea, but here this hardly seems possible! It is possible to explain that seeing the planets are physical bodies and every normal natural function is an integral part of their composition, that the word על in this context is not to be understood as a physical “above” but as denoting the assumption of sovereignty over something. Moses assumed dominion over the sky, the domain within which the planets are presumed to orbit. All miracles are essentially manifestations of a power above or beyond the natural forces operating in the universe. A careful perusal of all verses in the Torah will show that the expression על השמים, occurs only in connection with two plagues, i.e. hail and darkness. The reason this expression is used there is that though both of these plagues descended from the sky (as distinct to plagues originating in the water or on earth) the word שמים was not to be confused with רקיע, horizon or sky. The power which propelled these plagues into action was not one that is part of the domain “sky.” This is also the reason that when these plagues materialised the Torah employs the kind of expression we find during the story of creation, i.e. ויהי ברד, or ויהי חשך, “there came into being hail,” or “there came into being darkness.” When the manifestation of the other plagues is described the Torah uses words such as והיה instead of ויהי. The letters in the word ויהי are the ones that depict matter coming into existence and that is why Moses with the help of his staff was able to work this kind of miracle. [Kabbalists have demonstrated that there are numerical values in the word מטה and the word א-ד-נ-י which, when added to the letters in the word ויהי, make such manipulations of the laws of nature more plausible. Ed.] You will notice that whereas the plagues of hail and darkness materialised immediately after Moses inclined his staff, the plague of locusts and the splitting of the sea occurred either a day later, after G’d had made a wind blow in a constant direction or at least after a full night of such a wind. These factors plus the use of the expression יד which is a reference to G’d’s יד הגדולה, great punishing hand, explain why during the plague of darkness the Israelites who were wicked (would not abandon idol worship and slaughter the passover lamb) were stricken also. According to many sources only 20% of the Israelites actually qualified for redemption. The others died during the darkness so as not to offer the Egyptians the satisfaction of seeing that Jews had been afflicted also. There are actually three kinds of darkness of which the Torah speaks in this portion. We have here the expressions ויהי חשך, וימש חשך, ויהי חשך אפלה. “darkness will materialise,” “darkness will be tangible” (verse 22) and “there was a thick darkness” (verse 23). Actually these three descriptions of darkness correspond to three other terms for darkness we know from the Torah which are עלטה, אפלה, ערפל. The עלטה was the kind of darkness experienced by Avram during the covenant of the pieces (Genesis 15,17). אפלה is the kind of darkness which occurred in Egypt, whereas ערפל is the kind of darkness which engulfed Moses on his ascent to Mount Sinai (Exodus 20,18). The meaning of the expression וימש חשך is that the darkness will continually deepen. The word is related to אמש, “last night.” The Torah means that this darkness will be deeper than last night’s darkness. Alternatively, the word is related to the expression לא ימיש, “He would not remove (the cloud).” It means that even after the departure of the natural darkness of night, this darkness would not lift. This proves that the plague of darkness commenced in the morning when it was light already. Had It begun at night the Egyptians would simply have thought that this was a night lasting for three days. The miracle would not then have the had the desired effect. This is reflected in Onkelos’ translation בתר דיעדי קבל לילא, “after it had already almost become daylight, night set in.” This is also how Elihu in Job 34,25-26 describes it, i.e. “truly, He knows their deeds, night is over and they are crushed;” He strikes them down with the wicked where other people can see.” In other words, G’d struck the Egyptians wherever they happened to be be where others can see this. They perished there on the very seats being unable to move as we read in verse 23: “none could even rise from his place for three days.” Shemot Rabbah 14,1 understands the word ימש as “tangible, something that can be felt and touched. The word would be derived from ממש as in Deut. 28,29. ממשש בצהרים, “groping about at noon (like a blind man)”. This is also what is meant in Psalms 105,28: “He sent darkness, it was very dark, did they not defy His word?” The appropriate nature of this plague may best be explained by means of a parable. A king who was displeased with a number of his subjects told one of his servants to punish 50 of the rebellious citizens. The servant proceeded and punished 100 of them. In other words, the servant used his authority to add something of his own. Here too, G’d had given darkness instruction to envelop the Egyptians. Darkness used the opportunity to add something of its own, so it intensified what G’d had decreed. Instead of only חשך, “simple darkness,” which if non-stop for three days is pretty bad by itself, “It became חשך אפלה.” Some of our sages debate the origin of this darkness. Whereas Rabbi Yehudah holds that it originated in celestial regions, Rabbi Nechemyah holds that it originated in gehinom, in hell. Rabbi Yehudah bases his opinion on Psalms 18,12: “Who made darkness His screen (G’d),” whereas Rabbi Nechemyah bases his view on Job 10,22, ”a land whose light is darkness, all gloom and disarray whose light is like darkness.” Tanchumah Bo 2 as well as Shemot Rabbah 14,2 claim that the plague lasted for a total of seven days. They base this on the verse (22) “there was a thick darkness throughout the land of Egypt for a three-day period.” This is followed by verse 23: “they did not see one another and could not rise from their respective seats for a period of three days.” This verse refers to the second period of three days. It was followed by “and for all the Children of Israel there was light in their dwellings.” This applied to the seventh day. This seventh days was similar to Exodus 14,20 ויהי הענן והחשך ויאר את הלילה, “there was the cloud and the darkness and it lit up the night” (when the Egyptians pursued the Israelites). The apparent contradiction is resolved by under-standing the darkness as enveloping the Egyptians, whereas the Israelites enjoyed the light in that same place. The same would have happened here. This is also the reason for the word במושבותם, “in their dwellings,” i.e. in the dwellings in which the Egyptians could not see a thing. The main thrust of this Midrash is to teach us that the darkness was not a kind of solar eclipse. On the contrary, the sun operated completely normally during all these days. In fact, the whole universe operated normally; the palpable darkness was as if each individual Egyptian had been imprisoned all by himself in a black box seeing the atmosphere of Egypt had been darkened. The Israelites did not only benefit by the fact that this change in the atmosphere did not affect the province of Goshen, their principal abode. The author claims that it is a scientific fact that just as a voice penetrates solids in order to reach the ears of the listener, so light, especially light emanating in heaven (sky), does the same. [An interesting thesis of sound and light waves considering he wrote in the 14th century. Ed.] The miracle was that G’d interfered with this system of light reaching the Egyptians. He shut off every Egyptian’s “antenna” for these light waves without interfering with the source of their transmission. Seeing that the Egyptian airspace could not receive these light waves it simply turned a natural black for them. They could not see the stars and the moon either seeing their capacity to receive light waves had been tampered with. Once this stage had been reached, G’d intensified this darkness to the extent that it was felt physically, preventing people from being able to move without “bumping” into darkness at every move they tried to make. The reason all this did not affect the Israelites was that their “antennae” had not been deprived of the ability to absorb light waves.

“And darkness was removed/touched [vayamesh].” This is a term of removal, because it is the nature of creation that every person has both day and night. What did the Holy One, Blessed be He, do? He removed the ordinary darkness of night from the territory of Israel and placed it upon the land of Egypt. Therefore, the Egyptians had double darkness, and for this reason the wicked are silenced in darkness (1 Samuel 2:9) even during the day, because the sun had no time to shine except during the day, since the night was already dark anyway. And for this reason, the children of Israel had light in their dwellings even at night. A hint to this is that [the verse] and for all the children of Israel there was — these four words end with the letters that spell “lailah” [night]. And afterward it is written light in their dwellings, as if to say that even the night was light for Israel, as it is written and the night is light around me (Psalms 139:11). And this is what Rashi meant when he said that the darkness was doubled, that is, the measure of both day and night. And what Rashi asks, why did He bring upon them darkness — and Rashi did not ask this regarding all the plagues — because in all these plagues, if Pharaoh had wanted to repent while the plague was still active, he could have. But here, no one rose from his place for three days, and even if he had wanted to repent during those three days, he would not have been able to. So why would such a thing come from Him, blessed be He? For although God had already hardened his heart, that was because Pharaoh himself had hardened his heart while the plague was active, therefore it is justified to harden his heart after the plague passes. But during the plague of darkness, even if he had wanted to repent while the plague was active, he couldn’t. So why did God bring this plague, preventing him from the path of repentance? It was because of the wicked among Israel, etc.

וימש חשך, “the darkness will be tangible.” This expression describing touching something, as when Yaakov expressed his concern to his mother Rivkah that his father, being blind, would subject him to the ”touch-test.” (Genesis 27,12) The darkness was so opaque that the people could feel it with their hands. The reason was that this “darkness” was not merely the absence of light of the sun, but it was caused by the descent of “thick” air into the lower atmosphere covering Egypt. This layer of “thick” air extinguished any candles or other artificial means of lighting the Egyptians would use at night to see by.

וימש חשך, same as ויאמש חשך. This construction with variable spelling is similar to Isaiah 13,20 ולא יהל שם ערבי meaning the same as ולא יאהל שם ערבי, “no Arab shall pitch his tent there.” By remembering this missing letter א, we understand the meaning of the line as “the darkness of the (previous) night will continue and intensify so that there will be no light for three days.”

And Moses stretched out his hand toward the expanse of the heavens, and there was a thick, palpable darkness throughout all the land of Egypt for three days.

שלשת ימים denotes a triad of days. old French terziane; so, too, שבעת ימים everywhere it occurs denotes in old French a septaine of days (a period of seven days). 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 he stretched" — and they knew it was three days only because of Israel, who had light. In the ocean there comes a thick darkness in which a person cannot distinguish between day and night, and this sometimes lasts five days — I myself was there many times.

ויט משה את ידו, "Moses inclined his hand, etc.," We need to understand why Moses had used his staff to bring about the plague of locusts (verse 13) when G'd had told him to incline only his hand (verse 12). There had not been a single plague so far which was introduced by Moses being told to use "his hand" rather than his staff. Perhaps the reason why this plague was different is best explained in Shemot Rabbah 14, according to which the darkness in Egypt belonged to the category of darkness described in Psalms 18,12: "He made darkness His screen, dark thunderheads, dense clouds of the sky were His pavilion around Him." Inasmuch as the darkness was of a supernatural kind, Moses did not consider it appropriate to raise his staff against supernatural phenomena. Other rabbis, commenting in the same section of that Midrash, considered this darkness as belonging to purgatory. Both groups of rabbis may have been correct; there were two categories of darkness. One prevailed during the three days no Egyptian could move, the other during the days they merely could not see one another.

ויהי חשך אפלה, “there was a thick darkness;” Rashi comments that the Israelites were able to see as usual and could find where the Egyptians kept their valuables, so that when the time came to ask for them they could know if they lied when claiming they did not possess certain items an Israelite had requested. This is the deeper meaning of Exodus 12,36: וה' נתן את חן העם בעיני מצרים וישאילום, and the Lord had disposed the Egyptians favourably towards the people and they lent them willingly. ויהי חשך אפלה שלשת ימים ולא קמו איש מתחתיו, “the thick darkness remained for three days so that not a single Egyptian even dared to rise from where he had been sitting on. This means that the darkness lasted a total of six days, Moses did not decree the plague to last one quarter of a month. This is also how the verse is explained in the Mechilta [according to Rabbi Chavell, this is an error); in Rabbi Kasher’s Torah Shleymah (item 66) a Midrash Rabbah is quoted which deals with the seventh day of that plague instead.]: Rabbi Levi explained that the Almighty reserved the seventh day of darkness for when the Egyptians tried to cross the Sea when a dark cloud enveloped Pharaoh’s army, as indicated also in the Targum ad loc.

חשך אפלה, a combination of regular darkness (absence of sunlight), plus added deep darkness.

No man could see his brother, and no man rose from his place for three days; but for all the children of Israel there was light in their dwelling places.

THEY SAW NOT ONE ANOTHER, NEITHER ROSE ANY FROM HIS PLACE. The meaning thereof is that this darkness was not a mere absence of sunlight where the sun set and it was like night. Rather, it was a thick darkness. That is to say, it was a very thick cloud that came down from heaven. It is for this reason that He said, “Stretch out thy hand toward heaven to bring down from there a great darkness which would descend upon them and which would extinguish every light, just as in all deep caverns and in all extremely dark places where light cannot last [as it is swallowed up in the density of the thick darkness].” Similarly, people who pass through the Mountains of Darkness find that no candle or fire can continue to burn at all. It is for this reason that they saw not one another, neither rose any from his place, for otherwise they would have used the light of fire. This is the intent of the verse, He sent darkness, and it became dark. It was not the usual absence of daylight above but an extraordinary darkness as well. It is possible that it was such a very thick cloud that there was something tangible in it, as our Rabbis have said, and as indeed it happens on the Atlantic Ocean, as Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra testified.

"And no man rose from his place" — from his house, as in "each man shall remain in his place" (16:29), for where would they go without light?

לא ראו איש את אחיו, for even a lit up flare would not be able to make a “dent” in that darkness.

ולכל בני ישראל היה אור, 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.

היה אור במושבותם, “there was light in their dwellings.” It is noteworthy that the Torah here does not refer to the province of Goshen as it had done during other plagues, but implies that Israelites living in other parts of Egypt were also not affected by this plague. Our sages claim that when an Israelite entered the house of an Egyptian he was able to see normally in that house also. (Sh’mot Rabbah 14,3)

מתחתיו, according to the plain meaning: “from his house.” The reason was that they did not know where they would be headed. היה אור במושבותם, even if he lived right next to an Egyptian.

And Pharaoh summoned Moses and said: Go, serve before Hashem — only your flocks and your cattle shall remain behind; even your little ones may go with you.

יצג means SHALL REMAIN STANDING in its place.

ONLY LET YOUR FLOCKS AND YOUR HERDS BE STAYED. Since the Israelites were keepers of cattle, and all their wealth and belongings consisted of cattle, Pharaoh thought that they would not leave all their possessions and flee from the country. Even if they were to flee, he would be left with their great wealth, as they were very rich in cattle.

"And he called" — after three days, when they saw light. "Only your flocks and your herds shall remain" — to determine what was in Moses' heart, whether he intended to flee. And [Pharaoh] said: "even your little ones shall go," echoing what Moses had told him at the outset: "with our young and with our old we will go" (v. 9).

ויקרא פרעה, Pharaoh called, etc. This occurred after the plague had run its course; previously the Egyptians had been incommunicado. Pharaoh expressed his anger over that fact by adopting a severe tone when addressing Moses in verse 28 when Moses had been adamant that even the livestock would accompany them into the desert. He would not have dared threaten Moses unless the plague had already run its course without Moses having prayed for it to be lifted. גם טפכם, also your children. It is somewhat strange that Pharaoh mentioned first who could not go before conceding that the children could accompany their parents. Perhaps Pharaoh was clever enough to first spell out the conditions under which permission would be granted for the Israelites to leave [The author presumably refers to the halachah that unless the condition is mentioned first and not as an afterthought it is not binding. Ed.]. According to the above we may understand the verse as Pharaoh saying: "go and serve the Lord as you have said, i.e. the men and not the children; if you fulfil the following condition namely that your livestock stays in Egypt, I am even prepared to let you take your children along. If you do not agree to this condition I do not revoke my permission, but then only your menfolk may go because they are the ones who perform the religious rites you spoke about." Perhaps the Gentiles generally consider that any condition in a commercial transaction has to precede the main part of an agreement and not merely appear as a codicil.

רק צאנכם ובקרכם יוצב, “only your sheep and cattle will stay here; as guarantee that you will return.”

רק צאנכם ובקרכם, “only your flocks and your herds shall remain.” Earlier, during the plague of locusts, (verse 11) Pharaoh had demanded that the children and women remain behind. as it was customary only for adult males to engage in the religious rites Moses had been speaking about. He reasoned that if the fathers were forced to leave behind their children they would not flee the country. Now, under the impact of the darkness, he had become willing to allow the children to accompany their fathers — גם טפכם ילך עמכם, “your children may go with you also.” Pharaoh still wanted to detain the principal wealth of the Israelites, i.e. their flocks and their herds. He reasoned that even if per chance the Israelites would try to escape by not returning, he would at least become the beneficiary of the wealth they had left behind. This is why Moses replied to this suggestion by saying (verse 24) “you will even add to our wealth by giving us of your own livestock begging us to offer sacrifices on your behalf.” He did not need to add that there could not even be a question of their taking their own flocks and herds with them. Moses made the point sound more palatable by saying they did not know which kind of animal G’d would instruct them to offer as sacrifices. This is Nachmanides’ way of interpreting this dialogue.

And Pharaoh called to Moses. Even though in all the plagues he called for Moses and Aaron, nevertheless, now he only called for Moses, because he knew that when Moses was born the entire house was filled with light, and he thought that perhaps this was a sign for the future that he [Moses] would have the special power to bring light to a place of darkness. “Only your flocks and your herds shall be detained.” If their flocks and herds are detained, then what will they sacrifice? And the word only is superfluous. And why does he call them here flocks and herds and afterwards says and also our livestock shall go with us? Furthermore, it is difficult to understand why he inserted flocks and herds between connected phrases, for he should have said “Go, serve the Lord, also your little ones shall go with you, only your flocks and your herds shall be detained,” because the statement also your little ones shall go does not fit after shall be detained, and the word also is superfluous. Additionally, it is difficult to understand what he means by saying you shall also give into our hands sacrifices and burnt offerings. If this also comes to include the livestock of Israel, then why does he repeat and say and also our livestock shall go with us? Haven’t they already been included in the word also? It appears that our livestock refers to camels and donkeys, because without doubt the Israelites also had camels and donkeys, and regarding them he says and also our livestock shall go with us. For even though it is not appropriate to offer them as sacrifices, nevertheless from it we shall take to serve the Lord our God, meaning we shall take from it and sell them and buy with their money sheep and cattle for the service of God. Therefore it says from it we shall take to serve rather than “from it we shall serve,” using language of purchasing and buying, and thus necessarily this livestock refers to those not suitable for sacrifice. However, in order to resolve all the questions, I say that the Israelites acquired much livestock beyond the sheep and cattle they already owned, because they knew they would be going to a desert that is not a place for livestock. Pharaoh thought that they bought these in order to sacrifice them to God so they wouldn’t need to take from their homes a bull or from their pens he-goats. This is the meaning of our livestock, namely the sheep and cattle that they purchased now. Therefore, Pharaoh said, Only your sheep and cattle shall remain, and with the word only he excluded their recently acquired livestock, that it should go with them for sacrifice purposes. And it is obvious that this livestock must go because there can be no sacrifice without them. But even your children, who are not necessary for the service but only for celebration, may nevertheless go. Moses said, not only is it obvious that our sheep and our cattle that we already have must go — for how could it be that we would not take from the firstborns of our flocks and our herds that we already own to sacrifice to God, as it is not respectful to buy from the market to sacrifice to God instead of taking from the choicest sheep and cattle we already own — but you must also provide us with sacrifices and burnt offerings. And if you [Pharaoh] would say, “If so, you presumably intend to sacrifice the best, which would be the sheep and cattle that grew up in your stalls, and therefore what you purchased you intend to keep for yourselves, so at least let the livestock you purchased remain here, since you don’t intend to sacrifice from it” — to this Moses responded, Our livestock, too, shall go with us, etc. For we did not purchase it to keep for ourselves, but because we shall not know with what we are to worship the Lord, as Rashi explains, perhaps He will ask for more than what we have. And with this, all the questions are resolved. Also your little ones shall go with you. He made the little ones subsidiary to them, while Moses said the opposite, We will go with our sons and our daughters (Exodus 10:9), making themselves subsidiary even to the little ones. This is because Moses, due to his great humility, made himself subsidiary to everyone — to youths, elders, sons, and daughters — all were essential in the service of the blessed God, [saying] “and we will go with them incidentally because we are subsidiary to them.” And concerning with our flocks and with our herds we will go (Exodus 10:9), since they were going to be slaughtered for divine service, obviously we are subsidiary to them, as our Sages said (Genesis Rabbah 33:1) You save man and beast, O Lord (Psalms 36:7) — man is saved by the merit of beasts. But Pharaoh, for the sake of dignity, could not properly make them subsidiary to the little ones, therefore he said also your little ones shall go with you, making them [the adults] primary and the little ones subsidiary to them. And what Moses said, also our livestock will go with us, here he made the livestock subsidiary, because here he speaks of livestock possessions, and it is the way of the spiritually complete that their possessions are subsidiary to them and they rule over their possessions, unlike the way of lesser people, whose possessions rule over them to direct them wherever they desire, as we elaborated on this in the portion of Vayishlach on the verse I have plenty (Genesis 33:9) — see there. Whether according to the first interpretation we mentioned above that also our livestock refers to camels and donkeys, or according to the second interpretation that it speaks of what they acquired as animals for their needs, ultimately it’s all property possession, and it is not the way of the spiritually complete to make themselves subsidiary and their possessions primary. But above it said with our flocks and with our herds we will go (Exodus 10:9), [referring to animals] going for divine service to be slaughtered, [and so] they made themselves subsidiary as mentioned.

צאנכם ובקרכם יוצג, “your flocks and herds will stay put.” Pharaoh, knowing that the Israelites’ original vocation was to be cattle herders, was convinced that if they meant to leave permanently, they would not leave their livestock behind. Even if he should have miscalculated, Pharaoh figured that the huge amounts of livestock left behind by the Israelites could be viewed as a compensation for the need to make do without their slave labour.

And Moses said: You must also place in our hands sacred slaughter-offerings and burnt offerings, that we may offer them before Hashem our God.

גם אתה תתן THOU MUST GIVE ALSO — It will not be enough for you that our cattle will go with us but you will give also of yours.

THOU MUST ALSO GIVE INTO OUR HAND SACRIFICES AND BURNT-OFFERINGS. Moses did not make this a condition, neither did Pharaoh. Rather, these are words to impress Pharaoh. In effect Moses was saying to him that G-d’s power will be so heavy upon him and his people that even sacrifices and burnt — offerings and all that he hath will he give for his life. Indeed, when Pharaoh said to Moses and Aaron [at the time that he gave the people permission to go], And bless me also, he would willingly have given all his cattle in atonement for his sin [of rebelling against G-d’s command till then]. Moses however had no intention to do so, for the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination, as it pleased the Eternal to crush him, not to forgive him but instead to punish him and to overthrow him with all his host in the midst of the sea. Now our Rabbis have said that Pharaoh’s expression [to Moses and Aaron], Take both your flocks and your herds, as ye have said, refers to their saying to him, Thou must also give into our hand sacrifices and burnt-offerings. Perhaps the Rabbis intended to say that Pharaoh hinted to Moses and Aaron that he is ready to give them whatever they say, but not at all that they took anything from him. It may be that he supplied them with sacrifices and burnt-offerings for their use so that the Israelites would fulfill their own obligation [in the observance of G-d’s feast]. But this also is not correct.

"You yourself must also provide us with sacrifices and burnt offerings" — you too are obligated to give into our hands sacrifices and burnt offerings to offer on your behalf.

גם אתה תתן בידנו זבחים, "you too will give into our hands meat-offerings, etc." It is somewhat difficult to understand why a servant of the only G'd should ask a confirmed sinner such as Pharaoh who had repeatedly raised his voice against G'd to offer his animals to the G'd of the Hebrews as sacrifices on his behalf. Do we not know that G'd hates the offerings of sinners? While it is true that we learned in Chulin 13 that the words איש איש in Leviticus 22,18 are the basis for our ruling that G'd accepts sacrifices from Gentiles, this certainly does not mean that a Jew should request a Gentile to offer such offerings! A close look at our verse will show you that Moses did not request such offerings. He had only said ועשינו לה׳ אלוקינו. Moses predicted that Pharaoh would voluntarily give the Jews animals which would be suitable as offerings to G'd and that the Israelites would use these animals for such a purpose on their own behalf. The animals were to be viewed as gifts from Pharaoh to the Jewish people to enable them to have enough animals for their requirements. We have proof of what Moses had in mind because we are taught in Menachot 63 that the only sacrifices accepted from Gentiles are total offerings, as opposed to peace offerings. Since Moses spoke also about זבחים i.e. peace-offerings, it is clear that he did not mean to offer these animals on behalf of Pharaoh.

גם אתה תתן בידינו, “also you will give to us,” Moses tells Pharaoh that not only will the Israelites take with them their own livestock, but Pharaoh will give them of his own livestock as sacrifices to be offered by them on his behalf. Pharaoh did not ask Moses and Aaron to pray for the removal of the darkness as he thought that surely the Israelites are afflicted by the same plague, and if so, prayer would be useless.

גם אתה תתן בידינו זבחים ועולות, “you too will give to us (from your own herds) meat offerings and burnt offerings.” Moses did not intend to use Pharaoh’s animals as sacrifices by the Jewish people, seeing that such offerings belonging to idolators, would be an abomination in the eyes of Hashem. He made these remarks to show Pharaoh that not only would he not benefit financially by the departure of the Israelites, but on the contrary, he would be so anxious for them to leave when the time came that he would compensate them financially in order to get rid of them sooner. The Lord’s hand would be felt so severely that Pharaoh would be willing, if only able, to offer all kinds of sacrifices to assuage the Lord’s feelings which he had hurt by his obstinate posture during this whole period. All he would be concerned with at that time would be to save his own life.

And also our livestock shall go with us; not a thing shall remain behind, for from them we must take to serve before Hashem our God — and we ourselves do not know what we shall offer before Hashem until we arrive there.

פרסה is the hoof of the foot; in old French plante. לא נדע מה נעבד means WE DO NOT KNOW WITH WHAT WE MUST SERVE we do not know how heavy will be the service: perhaps He will ask more than we have in our possession.

"And also" — not a hoof shall remain of any species of our livestock, for we do not know which species will be chosen and how many from it we shall offer — and this is the meaning of "we do not know how we shall worship."

וגם מקננו ילך עמנו, "our cattle also shall go with us, etc." Why did Moses have to add that the Israelites would take along their own cattle seeing that Moses had already said they would even take along livestock donated by Pharaoh? Obviously, Pharaoh's animals would be in addition to their own! We have to assume that Moses was concerned lest Pharaoh misunderstand the words גם אתה as referring to the children. Pharaoh might have understood that Moses had demanded that not only would they take their children but they demanded that Pharaoh give them in addition of his own herds. To avoid such a possible misunderstanding, Moses, as if correcting himself, said "also our cattle will go with us. This is a very forced explanation. Another difficulty in the verse is Moses' having to justify that they would take their cattle because they would use some of it as sacrifices. What new facts did he reveal to Pharaoh with these words? If he wanted to tell Pharaoh that their sacrificial acts would include the slaughtering of sheep (a sacred animal in Egypt) he had already told Pharaoh this when he told him that Pharaoh himself would supply animals for that purpose. Another curious statement by Moses in this verse is his comment "we do not know what we must serve the Lord until we get there." Apparently Moses indicated that he did not know how many animals G'd would require of them and that was also the reason that he expected Pharaoh to contribute to the number of animals. However, if that were the reason, Moses should have spoken not about "what" would be required but about "how much" would be required. Moses may have wanted to rebut one possible argument namely that they did not need to take along all kinds of species, only the ones suitable as sacrifices. This is why Moses said: "we do not know what (species) we will be required to offer as sacrifices." Therefore, Moses said we have to take along even those species which ultimately will not be used as sacrifices. This is also why he added: "not a hoof will remain." This reference included such animals as horses, mules, camels and donkeys as they are all included in the term מקנה. When Moses appeared to imply that the Israelites would even use the last-mentioned species as sacrificial animals we must understand this comment as similar to the Talmud Avodah Zarah 24 interpreting Samuel I 15,15 to mean that when King Saul referred to certain types of animals saved by the people for sacrifices, the proceeds of the sale of certain animals were also included. The expression: "we will take from them to sacrifice" does not have to mean that the actual animals mentioned have to serve as offerings. The words ממנו נקח have to be translated as "from their proceeds we will take, etc." When Moses added "and we do not know what we shall serve," this means that he did not know what part of the value of the animals would be required in order to meet G'd's requirements and what part of the herds could safely remain behind....

But Hashem strengthened the heart of Pharaoh, and he was not willing to send them forth.

"And He hardened" — in the manner of: "for Hashem your God hardened his spirit and strengthened his heart" (Deut. 2:30).

ויחזק ה׳ ..ולא אבה, G'd hardened Pharaoh's heart and he did not want to dismiss, etc. The Torah testifies that on this occasion Pharaoh decided not to let the Israelites go, period. He no longer weighed the pros and cons but decided to hang tough even if this should cost him his life. This is why the Torah attributes this decision to him with the words לא אבה. Alternatively, he tried to outsmart G'd and Moses by analysing the pattern of the plagues to-date. There had always been two plagues which he was warned about followed by a plague without warning. The last plague, darkness, had not been preceded by a warning. Pharaoh realised that if there were to be another plague, G'd would first warn him. By denying Moses access to the palace he hoped to prevent Moses from issuing the warning which he thought had to precede the next plague. Since Moses was aware that there was only one plague to follow and that G'd would not need to harden the heart of Pharaoh again in order to have an excuse to inflict further plagues upon him, he was able to respond immediately: כן דברת לא אוסיף עוד ראות פניך, "you are quite right; I am not going to see you again, ever." I have already commented on Moses' response in connection with Exodus 7,3 ואני אקשה. On a more subtle level, Moses may have taught Pharaoh a different lesson when he said כן דברת. Pharaoh had threatened to have Moses killed if he dared to appear before him again. Moses answered him in a sarcastic manner, i.e. "indeed you have spoken." He meant that all Pharaoh was able to do was to issue empty threats; there was no clout behind this paper tiger. He was not able to kill Moses or to have him killed. Moses may also have referred to a previous occasion in Exodus 2,15 when Pharaoh had given orders to execute him but had been unable to have these orders carried out. This could have been because of miraculous intervention by G'd such as suggested by Shemot Rabbah 1,31, according to which an angel had assumed the appearance of Moses and while the angel was arrested Moses had escaped to Midian. It could also have been due to what we are told in Yalkut Shimoni 175 that Moses outwrestled all his captors. At any rate, Moses challenged Pharaoh to make good on his boast. As far as Pharaoh's not wanting to see Moses again, Moses told him that the feeling was mutual, that he would not see him again.

And Pharaoh said to him: Go away from me; take heed for yourself — do not add to see my face again, for on the day you see my face you shall die.

"You will die" — you will be liable to death for rebelling against the kingship.

And Pharoh said to him, Go from me. Beware that thou add not to see my face to speak before me one of these words that are so hard: for in the day that thou seest my face, my anger will grow strong against thee, and I will deliver thee into the hands of the men who seek thy life to take it.

And Moses said: You have spoken rightly; I will not see your face again.

כן דברת signifies RIGHTLY HAST THOU SPOKEN, and in its proper time hast thou spoken; for it is true that I will not see thy face again (Mekhilta; Exodus Rabbah 18:1; cf. also Onkelos).

AND MOSES SAID: THOU HAST SPOKEN WELL; I WILL NOT SEE THY FACE AGAIN ANY MORE. That is, “I will not see you again after I leave you.” After the plague of the firstborn, Moses did not see Pharaoh. The meaning of the verse, And he called for Moses and Aaron, is [not that he called them to come to see him, but instead] that he himself went to the entrance of their home and shouted in the darkness, Rise up, get you forth from among my people. Perhaps he sent the message to them by Egyptians, of whom it is said, And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people to send them out of the land in haste. It is possible that the verse, I will not see thy face again any more, means “in your palace,” namely, “I will not come to you any more.” And so the Rabbis have said in Eileh Shemoth Rabbah: “You have spoken well in saying, See my face no more. I will not come to you again; you will come to me.”.

"You have spoken well" — like "so [have spoken] the daughters of Zelophehad" (Num. 27:7). "I will not see your face again" — I will never come to you again.

“לא אוסיף עוד ראות פניך, will not ever see you again;” Moses meant that if there were to be any additional meeting between them, Pharaoh would seek him out instead of his being the supplicant. This is confirmed by the Torah when we read in 14,13: אשר ראיתם את מצרים, “as when you see Egypt.”

לא אוסיף עוד ראות פניך, “I will not again see your face.” Shemot Rabbah 18,1 understands these words as “I will not again come to you but you will trouble yourself to come to see me.” This is the meaning of (11,8) “all these your servants will come down to me.” He should really have said: “you yourself will come down to me.” However, even at this stage, Moses still preserved the diplomatic niceties by phrasing what he said to Pharaoh in as inoffensive a manner as was possible. He therefore made it appear as if this “climb down” would be initiated by Pharaoh’s servants. The fact is, however, that when the Torah describes what happened (12, 30-31) it is clear that the initiative was Pharaoh’s, “Pharaoh arose during the night, he and all his servants..and he said: ‘rise and leave from the midst of my people, etc., etc.’” Seeing Pharaoh had forbidden Moses to return to the palace, when Moses announces (11,1) “one more plague I will bring upon Pharaoh,” this must have been related to Moses by means of a divine vision inside Pharaoh’s palace. Seeing that G’d did not want to make a liar out of Moses who had announced that he would not come back to see Pharaoh G’d had to inform him (Moses) of the forthcoming death of the firstborn already at this time, before he had a chance to leave the palace. This is also the meaning of Shemot Rabbah 18,1 that “G’d jumped upon him.” G’d “entered” Pharaoh’s palace on account of Moses who had said: “I will not see your face again.” You may search the entire text and you will find that this is the only time G’d spoke to Moses in Pharaoh’s palace. Every other time Moses made statements such as: “when I leave town I will pray to G’d,” implying that he had difficulty communicating with G’d in an impure environment such as Pharaoh’ palace.

לא אוסיף עוד לראות פניך, “I shall never see your face again.” If, in apparent contradiction to this statement, the Torah described Pharaoh as calling Moses and Aaron (12,31), on that occasion Moses may have stopped short of entering Pharaoh’s palace, or, what he meant here was that instead of Moses coming to see Pharaoh, as had been the case lately, the next time Pharaoh would have to come to see Moses.