B"H

Tuesday, Shevat 2, 5780 / January 28, 2020

Between last week’s Parsha, Va’eira, and this week’s Parsha, Bo, the Torah describes the ten plagues with which G-d punished the Egyptians for enslaving the Jewish people.

Q.  G-d punishes measure for measure.  How do the Ten Plagues “measure up,” measure for measure, for what the Egyptians did to the Jewish people?

A.1. “Blood” - The waters of Egypt turned to blood in punishment for Pharaoh's decree, "Every male born shall be thrown into the river." 

2. “Frogs”- This served a lesson to Pharaoh for saying, "Who is the L-rd thatI shall listen to His voice to let Israel go? By sending the frogs, who came from the cold waters of the river, into the hot ovens to fulfill G-d's command, G-d proved to Pharaoh that He is the L-rd and all of creation must listen to His commands.

3. “Lice”- When the Egyptians enslaved the Jews, they caused them to suffer from lice, as a result of their constant sweat.  The Egyptians were now punished measure-for-measure, to suffer a similar fate.

4. “Wild beasts”- Yaakov, in his blessings to his children before his passing, compares their qualities to those of various animals. G-d punished the Egyptians measure-for-measure, with wild beasts.

5. “Pestilence”- This plague killed the animals in the fields and the shepherds attending to them.  When Yaakov and his family came to Egypt, they told Pharaoh: "Your servants are shepherds, both we and our ancestors."  Pestilence was a punishment for taking them away from attending to their flock.

6. “Boils” - Pharaoh's excuse for enslaving the Israelites was because, "The children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly and multiplied and the land was filled with them."  Pharaoh wanted to restrict their "multiplying and being fruitful".  The plague of Boils on their bodies prevented the Egyptians from marital relations and prevented them from having children.

7. “Hail”- The Torah describes this plague, "And the L-rd sent thunder and hail and there was fire flashing amidst the hail."  The unbearable noise of the mighty thundering and hail was a punishment, measure-for-measure, for Pharaoh's claiming, "Who is the L-rd that I shall listen to His voice." 

8. “Locust” – In Hebrew is “Arbeh” which also means to “multiply.”  This plague was also a punishment for preventing the people of Israel from multiplying.

9. “Darkness” – Due to Pharaoh’s decree that the Jewish males be killed, the mothers would have to hide their babies after giving birth.  Many of them were hidden in the ground where they survived miraculously. Thus, the plague of darkness was measure for measure for the darkness they caused the Jewish children.

10. “Death of the first born” – G-d told Moshe to go to Pharaoh and say to him, “Israel is My first-born son… and you refused to let him go, behold I will slay your first born son.”   The plague of the first-born was measure for measure for enslaving the Jewish people who are called, G-d’s first-born son.”

HAVE A VERY GOOD, HAPPY, HEALTHY AND SUCCESSFUL DAY