Why did Moshe Rabbeinu need to stretch out his hand?

Question

At the start of the plague of darkness, G-d tells Moshe Rabbeinu to stretch out his hand towards Heaven, that there may be darkness of the land of Mitzrayim:

And the L-rd said to Moshe, Stretch out thy hand towards heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Miżrayim, darkness which may be felt.

I saw that most of the mefarshim discuss the concept of חֹֽשֶׁךְ (darkness). However, I was not able to find explanations on why Moshe Rabbeinu needed to stretch out his hand, specifically towards Heaven.

Are there any mefarshim that discusses this idea? Please share any "pearls" on this subject.

Answer 1

Sforno explains (in parshas Chukas, when Moses is ordered to speak to the rock "and it shall give its waters") that most Biblical miracles bend the laws of nature, and thus require some physical action to get them started.

The only one that successfully suspended the laws of nature entirely was Joshua stopping the sun, which used speech instead (just as God used speech to create the world).

When Moses was ordered to hit the rock at the beginning of his time in the desert, that was a "typical" miracle -- a physical action bent the laws of nature, and a spring appeared nearby.

At the end of the time in the desert, he was supposed to transform the rock itself into water -- a suspension of laws of nature -- and was ordered to use speech to do so. For whatever reason he didn't do that, and instead hit the rock as before, producing a "garden-variety" miracle instead.

Answer 2

The Rabbinu Bahya address this question here:

All miracles are essentially manifestations of a power above or beyond the natural forces operating in the universe...
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.

It would seem from this that it was Moshe’s doing which caused the plagues to come. If you look at this page (only sources): https://alhatorah.org/The_Plagues_%E2%80%93_Natural_or_Supernatural/2 there is a large debate about what caused the miracles and plagues to come.

Answer 3

Great question Shmuel!

I think Moshe lifting up his hands resembled bringing down this darkness on Bnei Yisrael, and this darkness was that of Gehinnom (Shemot Rabah 14:2) which is located above, as the Midrash Hanelam says, גיהנם למעלה, דכתיב ואת נפש אויביך יקלענה בתוך כף הקלע. This also fits in well with the Rabbeinu Bachaye that miracles are a manifestation of power from above. The Yismach Moshe (Bo 5:1) based off the אהבת דודים דף מ"ג ע"ב, says that if this darkness wouldn't have came Bnei Yisrael wouldn't have been redeemed because in Shemot Rabah 14:3 that it was dafka darkness that needed to come to kill all the sinners of Bnei Yisrael so that the Egyptians would not see Hashem killing the Jews. (Look at the Or HaChaim hakadosh on Shemot 10:22 for why dafka Moshe uses his hands and not his staff).