Parashat Vaera

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This week’s parashah, וארא, Vaera, begs the question: Why would God bring 10 plagues on Egypt? A closer examination of the plagues and their contexts helps illuminate the answer. Let’s begin with the first plague, מכת דם (blood). The Nile River, the source of fresh water and the basis for agricultural life in Egypt, was central to their society. In fact, the Nile was revered as a goddess, Hapi. Importantly, working as fishermen was among Bnai Yisrael’s forced labor. What was the purpose of this plague? First, to show both the Egyptians and, importantly, the Israelites, that the Nile was not divine. Second, to punish the Egyptians for the forced servitude. And perhaps three, as a punishment for Pharaoh’s command to throw the baby boys into the canal. The element that was meant to be the downfall of the Jewish people was turned against the Egyptians, marking the beginning of their downfall.

Each plague, in turn, showed the Egyptians that deity X was to no avail, and strengthened the Israelites’ resolve that God, the One God, was there to help and reigns supreme. The second plague, צפרדע (frogs) similarly dealt a death blow to the cult of an Egyptian deity, Heqt, often depicted with a frog’s head, who was believed to hold power over fertility. The late Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks z”l explained:

The plagues were not merely intended to punish Pharaoh and his

people for their mistreatment of the Israelites, but also to show them

the powerlessness of the gods in which they believed (“I will perform

acts of judgement against all the gods of Egypt: I am God” Exodus 12:12).

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As Rabbi Sacks explained, the plagues served multiple purposes, including providing an opportunity for Bnai Yisrael to feel protected by God’s power and care. It is worth asking whether some of the Israelites believed in the Egyptian gods and goddesses, which were so central to Egyptian society in which they lived for hundreds of years. If so, perhaps the plagues also came to teach Bnai Yisrael that these “forces of nature” personified in deities of various shapes, sizes, and animal forms, were not THE truth, that their worship was for naught, and that there was only One, which was not only counter-cultural, but also dangerous.

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The last of the plagues,  מכת בכורות (the death of the firstborn), similarly served multiple purposes. We know that Pharaoh viewed himself as a deity, worthy of worship. Prior to the plague’s arrival, God commands Bnai Yisrael to prepare in the following way:

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“דברו אל כל עדת ישראל לאמר בעשור לחודש הזה
ויקחו להם איש שה לבית אבות שה לבית…
שה תמים זכר בן שנה יהיה לכם מן הכבשים ומן העזים תיקחו…
ושחטו אותו כל קהל עדת ישראל בין הערבים ולקחו מן הדם ונתנו על שתי המזזות
ועל המשקוף על הבתים אשר יאכלו אותו בהם
ואכלו את הבשר בלילה הזה צלי אש ומצות על מרורים יאכלוהו”

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“Speak to the entire community of Israel and say to them: ‘On the 10th of this month,
let each person take a lamb for their household, a lamb per house…
an unblemished male lamb, one year old, from the lamb and the sheep they should be taken…
the entire community of Israel must slaughter it during the night.
They should then take the blood of the lamb and place it on the doorposts and on the lintel,
on the houses in which they shall eat it. They must eat the meat that evening,
roasted over the fire, with matzahs and bitter herbs; they shall eat it.’”

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Imagine the scene, thousands of enslaved Israelites, raised in a culture that had supreme deference to the Egyptian overlords and taskmasters, being told to roast hundreds of sheep out in the open, and then to publicly paint their houses with the blood of the sheep. Now, keep in mind that the lamb was worshipped as a deity. Khnum was the Egyptian deity who was believed to have crafted humanity and the life force itself. Khnum was depicted with the head of a sheep. Amun, the Egyptian deity believed to be the protector of Egypt, was similarly depicted as being half sheep/ram. Multiple times, the Torah states that sacrificing a sheep would be a תועבה, an abomination to the Egyptians, totally unacceptable.

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A powerful Midrash (from Midrash Rabbah) relates the unfolding drama that God’s demand caused.

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When God told Moses to slay the pesach lamb, Moses said:
“Master of theUniverse! How can I possibly do this thing?
Don’t You know the lamb is the Egyptian god?
If we sacrifice the god of Egyptians, they will kill us!'”

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Said God: “I swear to you that Israel will not depart from here
before they slaughter the Egyptian gods before their very eyes,
that I may teach them that their gods are really nothing at all.”

בשעה שאמר הקב”ה למשה לשחוט הפסח אמר לו משה:
“ריבון העולם הדבר הזה היאך אני יכול לעשות! אי אתה יודע שהצאן אלוהיהן של מצרים הן,

שנאמר ‘הן נזבח תועבת מצרים לעיניהם ולא יסקלונו’,
אמר לו הקב”ה חייך שאין ישראל יוצאין מכאן עד שישחטו אלוהי העכו”ם לעיניהם,
ואודיע להם שאין אלוהי העכו”ם כלום.

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This midrash shows that one of the purposes of the plagues, in addition to showing Bnai Yisrael and the Egyptians that these deities were “nothing at all,” was to embolden and boost the Israelites’ self-perception. Their freedom and very lives were dependent on their chutzpah.

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May we all have the chutzpah necessary to do what’s right, even when it’s overwhelming and scary, as life often is.

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Shabbat Shalom.