Dedicated to the hostages as a prayer for their release after 100 days in captivity. May Hashem bring them home and may we find a path to peace until Moshiach arrives, bimheira b’yameinu.
In Jewish tradition ,the number seven has a great deal of significance. It is, as you probably know, the number that symbolizes nature and wholeness. Nature is one of the most awesome demonstrations of Hashem’s magnificence in the world. The awe that nature inspires can be inspirational, or it can be terrifying. And there are few demonstrations of nature that have the potential to be more beautiful or more frightening than the weather…which is, in truth, why it is actually rather fascinating that it is only at the 7th makka that Hashem involves weather.
Without question the first six makkos were terrifying in their own rights. However, the people of Mitzrayim were able to explain those makkos. After all, the chartumim (magicians) were able to turn water into blood – although to a lesser extent – and could even call up frogs. And lice, insect swarms, dying livestock, and excessively contagious skin diseases were, on some level relatable. As devastating as they were, each plague subsided within a week, and human nature has an uncanny ability to minimize and recategorize events. We know this all too well in our own time…how easily Covid recessed from our minds.
One could say that weather events are the same…naturally disastrous events that we expect to occur on a regular basis. (Didn’t all us Montrealers – and our guests – survive the Pesach ice storm!). The plague of barad, hail, was an altogether different situation. In a land where rain is rare, they saw fire and ice coming down from the sky. This was nature coming undone, and this was the seventh plague.
When the Torah describes the plague of hail in parshas Va’era, there is an interesting phrase used in Hashem’s instructions on what Moshe should say to Pharaoh: “Because this time, I am sending all My plagues into your heart and into your servants and into your people, in order that you know that there is none like Me in the entire earth” (9:14).
This pasuk is worth exploring for its particular wording. What can it mean that Hashem is sending ALL of His plagues when there are three yet to come and there have already been six, and why will these go into the heart?
Perhaps, and yes this is me going out on my own line of thought, one can see in this a connection to the elements: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. Earth and Air are constants in the Egyptian world, Fire seems controlled by man, and Water – particularly in a culture dedicated to praying for the Nile water – is divine. When Fire and Water come from the Air and smash into the Land causing utter destruction, nature has been uprooted. Suddenly, it becomes unquestionable that all of the plagues are beyond nature.
Most of us think of Egypt being struck were the English term “Ten Plagues,” but in Hebrew we usually refer to the plagues as makkos, which means strikes. In this pasuk, however, when Hashem says “all of His plagues,” the word used is magefati. Magefah, a more literal plague, is connected to the word goof, or body. It is interesting that Hashem is telling Moshe to use this word right after the sixth plague, which was boils. The first five plagues were external attacks. The sixth was the most like an actual physical plague or illness. This wording was a striking reminder to Pharaoh that Hashem has control over everything, not just the physical world, not just the elements.
And what about the heart? Just before Hashem begins speaking to Moshe, the Torah tells us in 9:12: “But the Lord strengthened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not hearken to them, as the Lord spoke to Moshe.”
Following the sixth plague, the Torah tells us that Hashem strengthened Pharaoh’s resolve. It is inferred that Pharaoh was, perhaps, about to relent. But he was willing to do so because “And the magicians could not stand before Moshe because of the boils, for the boils were upon the magicians and upon all Egypt” (9:11). Pharaoh was finally beginning to understand that he was dealing with a power far beyond what he could even hope to control…but he still did not recognize the ultimate power of Hashem.
Hashem has strengthened Pharaoh’s heart and now Hashem is declaring that He will send all of the plagues into Pharaoh’s heart. There is no escape. There is no rationalizing and scientific theory. There is no accounting for that which has happened and that which is about to happen except for God, and Hashem is declaring through Moshe that now Pharaoh will be forced to come to terms with that.
The seventh plague is a transition. The whole of nature has been overturned. Even the elements have turned against Mitzrayim. It is also the first time that Pharaoh acknowledges the true awe he should have before Hashem: “I have sinned this time. The Lord is the righteous One, and I and my people are the guilty ones” (9:27).
It is human nature to try to explain the world, to try to find scientific explanations for that which we see and experience. Right now, most of us – in our minds, at least – are trying to find logical, rational, explanations for vicious monsters being hailed as hapless victims. The answer, we must remind ourselves constantly, is that Hashem runs the world. That nature and science and logic are all part of the goof’s need to put order to the world. From Shemos 9, however, we have a distinct reminder that the Grand Scheme, from devastating earthquakes to obtuse accusations, are beyond human control.
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