Hot answers tagged plagues-makkos
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Your question really comes earlier, for in the plague immediately after the pestilence, we find:
וַיְהִי, שְׁחִין אֲבַעְבֻּעֹת, פֹּרֵחַ, בָּאָדָם וּבַבְּהֵמָה
"and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man and upon beast."
which implies that the Egyptians had animals on which boils "broke forth".
Abarbanel, in his description of the ...
6
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch in his Commentary explains that God did not “harden Pharaoh’s heart” so much as “allow Pharaoh’s heart to be hardened”. This was achieved allowing Pharaoh to (incorrectly) perceive limits to God’s power in bringing the plagues.
For example, Hirsch translates Exodus 9:30–32 as a single quote, something like (adapting the JPS ...
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The explanation I always give is as follows:
God never takes away a person's free will.
If God wants to influence a person's choice, He does just that - influences it. He does not force it. He will manipulate external factors so that the decision will be influenced in a certain direction.
Let me give an example: Bill is buying a new car. He has free will ...
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Abarbanel discusses this and gives two reasons why the parshiyos were split this way (which, incidentally, are the reasons @LarryK and @GershonGold have offered).
The plague of arbeh was chosen to begin Parshas Bo with because it begins the makkos for which Pharaoh began to fear the plagues and negotiate with Moshe before the plague started.
All the last ...
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R' Moshe Cordovero (Ramak), in his commentary Tefillah Lemoshe on the siddur, lists the following:
For each of the Ten Plagues - the respective manifestations of "af," "evrah," "zaam," "tzarah," and "mishlachas mal'achei ra'im" that were evident in each one - totaling fifty (as per R' Akiva).
The fifty plagues at the Sea. For some of them he lists ...
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The דרכי משה ( in אורח חיים ס' תעד ס'ק יח ) brings the custom based on the מהרי'ל and the custom of the מהר'ש. He also states that the מהר'ש based it on the ספר אבי'ה - presumably the ראבי'ה. There are two things being symbolized. The use of the finger symbolizes the 'finger of G-d' and the number of times has a gematria of 16. The דרכי משה explains ...
5
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 ...
5
To summarize the Chabad.org link that Hacham Gabriel provided:
Shemos Rabba (11:3) brings a disagreement between R' Yehudah and R' Nechemia.
R' Yehudah maintains that it was a swarm of different wild animals. R' Nechemia says it was a swarm of insects.
The Midrash and most commentators (Rashi, ibn Ezra, Targum Yonatan, et al) hold like R' Yehudah.
However ...
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This Haggadah (citing Yesod Hatorah) says that in fact R' Yehudah, with his acronym, is implicitly disagreeing with the other Sages.
A Midrash (cited in Tosafos to Shabbos 87b, ד"ה ואותו) tells how when the Egyptian firstborn heard from the Jews (on Shabbos Hagadol) that they were marked for death, they rioted to try to force Pharaoh to free the Jews so ...
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Alongside Alex's answer, I would posit that they never had in mind specific identified plagues, and might even look at you strangely for trying to identify them. it strikes me more along the lines of 'kol ha-marbeh lesaper bitzias mitzrayim, harei zeh meshubach'; as well as what immediately follows these deductions in the haggadah, kamma maalos tovos laMakom ...
5
Exodus 9:3 (emphasis mine):
behold, the hand of the Lord will be upon your livestock that is in the field, upon the horses, upon the donkeys, upon the camels, upon the cattle, and upon the sheep, a very severe pestilence.
This limits the scope of the plague to the animals in the field. Hence, any animal brought inside was not afflicted. So when Verse ...
4
The Lubavitcher Rebbe brings down in his Haggadah, quoting the Rambam's Pirush Hamishnayos Avot Chapter 5 Mishnah 4, that while tradition tells us that there were many more plagues by the sea than in Egypt, there were only 10 types of plagues. They were all the same types of plagues which happened in Egypt, and at the Sea they split into numerous parts (how ...
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I am surprised that no one has mentioned the Rambam's opinion. He addresses this question in Hilchos Teshuva (6:3), and says quite simply that yes, sometimes freewill is withheld from someone. The reason it was not unfair to punish Pharaoh after his heart had been hardened and he'd lost his freewill is because he deserved it. Rambam explains that since he ...
4
The seventh, Hail, marks a turning point. So it is also a good place to divide the parshiot.
The plague is a turning point since it is the first one whereby Moses/Gd gives Pharoh three choices:
Let B'nei Israel leave
Fully suffer the plague
Partially suffer the plague: save your fieldworkers and animals by bringing them indoors away from the hail (Ex ...
4
Rav Hirsch suggests an alternate explanation of the magicians’ behavior according to your suggestion: that they were attempting to undo the effects of the plague with no success—or in the case of the frogs, more frogs came when they attempted to banish them. After their third failure, they acknowledged that it was “God’s Finger” at work.
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I think it seems clear from the narrative (8:4–9) (but I have no further source) that his prayer for the plague to cease was for it to cease from the Egyptians, and was pursuant to Pharaoh's request. As to why he cried out (rather than merely praying): Ibn Ezra explains (if I understand him correctly) that he really wanted the frogs gone, lest he be shamed ...
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Most of the commentators understand ערוב as being derived from the word for "mixture", the animals being a "mixture" of a certain type. What type is subject to speculation. Shemos Rabbah (11:3) brings a difference of opinion between R' Nechemia and R' Yehuda as to what type of animals were involved: either insects or what we would think of as wild animals ...
4
@Menachem's answer addresses your question regarding sources that suggest that some of the plagues affected the Jews as well as the Egyptians. However, regarding your question of why the distinction is "spelled out" only prior to the fourth plague, arov, I will offer the explanation of Abarbanel (who, by the way, believes that the Jews were not affected by ...
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 ...
4
Rivivos Efraim Orach Chaim 2 - 137 attributes this Minhag to the Baal Kneses HaGedola 261 with the following two reasons. One is not to drink wine that the name of the Makos were mentioned on. Also since it is disgusting since he dipped his finger into it.
Sefer Mekorei Minhagim - 44 mentions this in the name of the Arizal.
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From the Baal Hatanya's Haggadah:
ויכוון, שהכוס הוא סוד המלכות, ושופך מהיין שבתוכו סוד האף והזעם
שבה על ידי כח הבינה לתוך כלי שבור סוד הקליפה שנקראת ארור
One should have in mind that the cup represents sod hamalchut (the secret of sovereignty), and the wine that is being poured into the broken vessel represents the secret of anger and ...
4
Ad 1: Torah T'mima says that were he not afraid to differ from all previous commentaries, he'd say the plague of darkness was something on the Egyptians' eyes (he probably means cataracts). He uses this to explain what it means when it says that the darkness was "thick" (specifically, "thick as a coin" as the midrash puts it).
3
The Medrash Lekach Tov says that Moshe spread his hand onto the heavens and that brought upon the Egyptians darkness. It was such a darkness that even if they lit a candle it would not remain lit.
The Kli Yakar says that Hashem transferred the darkness of night from the Jewish areas into the Egyptian areas and thus the Egyptians had double darkness.
3
The Ibn Ezra (7:24) says that Jews were affected by the first three plagues (Blood, Frogs, and Lice), since:
That's the story the verses tell
They weren't that bad (i.e. only an inconvenience, I guess. - he says that the Jews also dug for water)
They were spared from Wild Animals because it was a harsh plague. They were also spared from Pestilence and ...
3
Torah Temimah has an interesting comment on a different point: why does Pharaoh ask for the removal "only of this death"?
He answers based on an episode in the Gemara (Taanis 8b), when a community was threatened by two dangers, plague and famine. People were unsure which one to focus on in their prayers (as is the proper thing to do, as the Gemara goes on ...
3
Imagine there was a magician claiming to have a super-natural ability to turn water into blood, and you want to discredit him and prove that it's just a trick. You would need to perform the exact illusion that the magician was performing, turn water into blood. Doing the reverse would not discredit the initial "miracle" that the magician performed.
...
2
All the Makkoth could be called "Makkath _". It could just as easily be called "Bechoroth" as "Makkath Bechoroth". The ב fits as well as all the others. The fact that it is referred to in the Haggadah may just be a reflection of the common way it is referred to in the literature and by the general public. That, in turn, could be a reflection of people's ...
2
Before answering your question, I will strengthen it. Rashi is channeling midrash, as he so often does. And by other makkos, the Midrash Rabba does give a reason, in the same form. Thus, immediately preceding is arbeh, locusts. And we read there in the midrash:
ויאמר ה' אל משה נטה את ידך
ארבה למה הביא עליהן?
מפני ששמו את ישראל זורעי חטים ושעורים, ...
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
I remember hearing that the 3 last Makos all had to do with darkness. Arbeh - grasshoppers covered the entire ground as it says וכסה את עין הארץ ולא יוכל לראות את הארץ, then you had Choshech - darkness where the Posuk says they were literally able to touch the darkness וימש חושך, and then Makas Bechoros which happened at midnight ויהי בחצי הלילה וה' הכה כל ...
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