Pyramids in Egypt
Pyramids in EgyptFlash90

Did you ever wonder why there were ten separate plagues that struck Pharaoh and the Egyptians during the process of the Jewish exodus from Egypt?

Wouldn’t it have been more efficient for Hashem to send one intense plague, and when it didn’t end, Pharaoh would have begged for mercy, allowing the Jews to serve Hashem in the wilderness and ending Pharaoh's suffering once and for all? Instead, each plague was a partial blow to Pharaoh allowing the process to be gradual. What was the purpose of the plagues being drawn out in such a way?

Rav Shamshon Rafael Hirsch (1808-1888) asks this question in his commentary on this week’s parsha. His insight not only deepened my understanding of the depth and meaning of the makos (plagues), but it also left me with an unexpected sense of hope and calm for the current rather tenuous state of affairs for the Jewish people in Israel and around the world at this moment.

While we feel a deep sense of relief and immense joy with each released hostage, it has been hard to watch a brazen Hamas, still making demands and calling the shots to some degree, after 15 months of sacrifice. The many unknowns linger like a heavy cloud over the Jewish people as we watch our enemies receive many of their terrorists freed in exchange for a few of our hostages.

First, let’s explore what Rav Hirsch explains was the purpose of the plagues, and from there, the reasoning behind needing all ten plagues will become clear.

Rav Hirsch teaches that the purpose of the plagues, makot, was to establish that Hashem has complete dominion over the natural world. At a time when it was commonplace to believe in various gods (akin to how some people today view the “forces of nature”), each controlling specific parts of the natural world, the plagues demonstrated that Pharaoh had no protection unless determined by Hashem. The key point, and this was new to me, was not that Hashem was capable of sending forth immense forces of nature—something one could attribute to the heathen gods. Rather, Rav Hirsch highlights, it was that each plague stopped suddenly. This is something that heathen gods or the forces of nature cannot do.

To illustrate this, think of the forest fires in California. While huge fires starting and spreading is possibly a fact of nature, making the fires stop in an instant is a miraculous act, something only Hashem, the master and constant director of nature, can accomplish. A fictional example would be Elsa from the Disney movie Frozen. After turning Arendelle into snow and ice in a moment of anger, Anna tells her, “It’s okay, you can just unfreeze it!” Elsa responds, “No, I can't—I don’t know how.”

Rav Hirsch explains that the magicians creating more frogs were actually attempting to reverse the plague of frogs. They tried to make the frogs disappear by mimicking Moshe and Aaron, but they were unsuccessful, and instead, they brought forth more frogs. The magicians were able to initiate a force of nature but couldn’t stop it.

Each plague stopped, and Hashem’s control over that part of the natural world was established. Temporarily, Hashem revealed His power in ways we don’t normally witness, so that it would be known to us who Hashem is in relation to the world.

Additionally, Rav Hirsch points out that with each plague, Pharaoh clung to the parts of his life where he still believed he had control. For example, Pharaoh observed that Hashem could control what happened to the Nile but thought that Hashem couldn’t control his property—only to be proven wrong in the next plague when frogs invaded his palace. Each plague followed the next, leaving no doubt about who was truly running the world. The gradual increase in intensity demonstrated that Pharaoh had no control over anything in the natural world. Finally, Pharaoh, as a firstborn, feared for his own life. By the time all ten plagues had passed, Hashem had revealed His complete power over the world for then and for all time.

In summary, Hashem setting the plagues into motion and then suddenly stopping them demonstrated His dominion over all the gods/forces of nature. This, along with the gradual succession of plagues, revealed the awesomeness of the one, true G-d who created and sustains the world.

Now, imagine being a Hebrew slave in Egypt, watching the plagues start and stop before your eyes. We look back in retrospect at the makot as a single event, but in reality, there were lulls between the plagues that may have given the appearance of respite to the Egyptians. Rav Hirsch notes that during the lapses between the makot, Pharaoh was “emboldened” and reverted to oppressing the Jews.

It may have been horribly depressing to watch how Hashem seemed to be saving them, only for Pharaoh to be spared from his anguish, temporarily putting the hope of redemption on hold. In reality, it was the opposite as each break between the plagues paved the way for the grand and awesome exodus from Egypt.

This got me thinking that the situation we are facing today, in January 2025, feels eerily similar to the one in Egypt so many years ago. Perhaps the restoration of some of Hamas’s power is a temporary part of the process of their ultimate downfall and the restoration of lasting peace for Israel and the entire world. May it come speedily in our days.