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From Me'am Lo'ez:
The darkness was not like the darkness of night, but was something
palpable. Our sages state that it could be felt, just like a coin.
(Tanchuma; Shemot Rabbah. The measure of the "thickness of a coin
[dinar]" is that which is considered to have substance; see Chulin
55b. Rashash on Shemot Rabbah writes that the darkness was like ...
4
Excerpted from an article by R' Maury Grebenau:
The Seforno (Shemos 12:13) assumes that it was in fact Hashem who carried out the plague. The "maschis" that is referred to is just a reference to the destruction that Hashem will create. It isn't referring to an angel.
The Ohr Hachayim (there) understands that it was a two part system. Hashem was the ...
3
As others have answered, technically the establishment of the calendar is a prerequisite for observing the Jewish holidays. This commandment is in fact the first mitzva given to the Jewish people as a nation. (The few mitzvot recorded in Bereishit were given to individuals before we became a nation.)
The Seforno explains that setting the Jewish calendar ...
3
The Ibn Ezra (ad loc.) writes that without the commandment to set the months, we would observe the holidays by season (e.g. shamor es chodesh ha'aviv, v'chag hakatzir bikkurei ma'asecha, etc.). However, setting the halachic calendar is an intrinsic part of the holidays, as mentioned by DoubleAA, so the commandment of "hachodesh hazeh" is appropriately placed ...
3
The Kli Yekar explains that Nissan is the month when the sun is in the constellation Aries, a sheep. We know the Egyptians worshiped sheep (Genesis 46:34 and Exodus 8:22). By slaughtering a sheep in the month of the sheep, God was showing the Egyptians his power over their gods. This connection also helps us understand how counting Nissan (the month of the ...
3
The Zohar (vol. 2 34a) explains (translation from chabad.org):
Rabbi Simeon [bar Yochai] continued: It is now fitting to reveal
mysteries connected with that which is above and that which is below.
Why is it written, "Come in to Pharaoh"? Ought it not rather to have
said, "Go to Pharaoh"? It is to indicate that G-d brought Moses into a
chamber ...
1
In the Maharal From Prague's Hagada, he goes into detail regarding the 4 sons – why there are 4 sons; the reason each son's question is what it is – and then he explains the reason for the answers of each son. (Including, why the naïve's question and answer are the same as in the Torah.)
Since I couldn't find The Maharl's Hagada on the web, I typed up the ...
1
The Gr"a answers (Divrey Eliyahu) that, as stated in the Haggada, it was Hashem himself who carried out the Death of the Firstborn. The idea of the "mashchis" that could not harm the Jews was that there were some people whose time had come to pass away that night, and had Hashem allowed the Angel of Death to take them as planned, the Egyptians would claim ...
1
R' Samson Raphael Hirsch construes the commandments of both Rosh Chodesh and the Passover offering as means toward fulfilling God's promise/commandment in Exodus 6:7:
... וְלָקַחְתִּי אֶתְכֶם לִי לְעָם, וְהָיִיתִי לָכֶם לֵאלֹהִים
and I will take you to Me for a people, and I will be to you a God ...
According to R' Hirsch (in his commentary on 6:7 ...
1
I've no time to check amongst the Acharonim, but so far as the Rishonim are concerned it would appear that the only person to even question the language here is the Baal haTurim (even the Rosh doesn't mention it, and it's not asked by Daat Zkeinim). He merely suggests that telling Moses to "come" is what God does when Moses is supposed to confront the ...
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