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“Moshe cried out” - really?

For this plague, the posuk says Moshe left and "cried out" (tzoak) to God that the plague should stop. Why did this plague affect the Jews? It at least got to Moshe Rabeinu as this is the only time that it is mentioned that Mosh was tzoak for a plague to stop.

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  • there is another part of this question that is not a duplicate. Did the plague of frogs affect the jews? If so, why?
    – Menachem
    Jan 20, 2012 at 2:07

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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 by his promise that they would be. S'forno explains (again if I understand him correctly) that Hashem does not give in half measures, but Moshe wanted the animals removed from most places but retained in the Nile, so needed to cry out for that.

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  • @YDK, If there's something you want to clarify about terminology, please do so explicitly, rather than simply replacing an English word with a Hebrew one.
    – Isaac Moses ♦
    Dec 30, 2010 at 17:20
  • The seforno explains tsfardi'im (seemingly) as crocodiles, but I didn't want to distract from the question, so just changed it to the generic Hebrew term.
    – YDK
    Dec 30, 2010 at 17:25
  • I think a comment works better for that (done, thanks). That's what comments are good for, like footnotes. The question and the answer are both fully in English, with Hebrew terms translated, so throwing in a Hebrew term without translation is incongruous. One way to go could be to replace the last instance of 'frogs' with '"frogs," (actually crocodiles according to the S'forno)'. But anyway, the exact species isn't that relevant to the question or answer, to I come back to advocating a comment in this situtation.
    – Isaac Moses ♦
    Dec 30, 2010 at 18:03
  • Hm, thanks for the correction, R'YDK: I didn't know (or, more likely, forgot) that that was the S'forno's translation. I'll fix the answer.
    – msh210 ♦
    Dec 30, 2010 at 22:02

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