Audio Summaries of the daily Chumash portions In loving memory of Ousher Zelig ben Myer HaLevi Z”L

To sponsor an episode please visit: https://itistaught.com/support-this-project/To get the daily chumash summaries in your email click here https://substack.com/profile/182692001-sarede-rachel-switzer?utm_source=profile-page.Subscribe on SpotifySubscribe on Apple PodcastsPlease consider leaving a review on the platform of your choice!For comments and inquiries, email [email protected]

The First Two Plagues

G-d tells Moshe and Aaron that when they approach Pharaoh and Pharaoh asks them to do some kind of wondrous act, Moshe should tell Aaron to hit his staff on the ground and the staff will become a snake.

And so it happens that Moshe and Aaron approach Pharaoh and Aaron hits his staff on ground and it turns into a snake.

Pharaoh summons his wise men and magicians and they replicate this trick using incantations.

Aaron's snake reverts back to a staff and then (as a staff) swallows up all of Pharaoh's magicians' snakes.

As G-d predicted, Pharaoh's heart hardens and he refuses to listen to Moshe and Aaron. G-d tells Moshe that this is what is happening.

Pharaoh pretended that he was a deity and as such was above regular bodily needs like going to the bathroom. So he would regularly wake up very early (so as to remain unseen) and relieve himself in the Nile river.

G-d tells Moshe to approach Pharaoh during this time, at the Nile river and bring the staff that had turned into a snake with him. He tells Moshe to tell Pharaoh that G-d sent Moshe to ask Pharaoh to let the Israelites out of his land so they can worship G-d in the wilderness. Moshe is to then say that Pharaoh has not yet listened and possibly will not listen until after the plague of the firstborn.

G-d continues to instruct Moshe to then warn Pharaoh that Moshe will take the staff and strike the Nile* and the water in the Nile will turn to blood. Moshe should continue, saying that the fish in the Nile will die and the Egyptians will become weary from trying to find a remedy to transform their water back to how it was.

*Side note: Egypt was a very barren country and the only source of water was from the Nile which extended out to feed all the other waters in the country. For this reason, the Egyptians worshipped the Nile. Due to this deification, G-d chose to strike the Nile first, before the Egyptian people themselves.

Since as a baby, Moshe was saved by water (Yocheved, his mother hid him in a basket in the water), G-d decided that Aaron, rather than Moshe should be the one who struck the water. From here we learn that one should never harm a thing which once helped them.

So G-d instructs Moshe to tell Aaron to take his staff and stretch his arm out over all the waters of Egypt: the rivers, canals and ponds, and any other place that water was gathered, and all of the water in Egypt would turn to blood. Even the bath water and the water in the vessels in people's private homes.

So Moshe and Aaron obey G-d's commands and in front of Pharaoh and his servants, Aaron stretches out his staff as such and all of the water in Egypt turns to blood. The fish die and the Egyptians cannot drink the water which was now blood.

Pharaoh's necromancers successfully replicate this "trick" as well, using their incantations. Pharaoh's heart hardens and he likens Moshe and Aaron to people who bring straw into the city of Ofryaim which is already abundant with straw. So too, G-d says, are Moshe and Aaron bringing in magic into a land (Egypt) which is already abundant with magicians. Pharaoh was not impressed and went to his house.

The Egyptians dig around the river to get drinkable water. This plague lasts for seven days.

G-d instructs Moshe to once again approach Pharaoh and request that he let the Israelites out so that they can serve G-d, saying that if Pharaoh refuses to do so, G-d will attack the entire border of Egypt with frogs. The frogs will rise up from out of the river and invade Pharaoh's* bedroom and bed, the homes of his servants and of his people, the ovens and kneading bowls. The frogs would infest the Egyptians bodies and enter into their intestines and croak from within there.

*Side note, since Pharaoh was the one who initiated the suffering against the Israelites, he will be struck first.

G-d instructs Moshe to command Aaron to stretch out his staff over the rivers, canals and reservoirs and summon the frogs to rise up. Aaron does so, and a "frog" rises up. This singular frog can either be a single frog who after coming out from the river, was hit, only to have a multiplicity of frogs emerge from him as a result. Alternatively, many frogs emerged from the water at the same time, however like a swarm, they appeared as one unit.

Pharaoh's sorcerers managed to replicate this trick as well.

Pharaoh summons Moshe and Aaron and pleads that they ask G-d to get rid of the frogs, after which time Pharaoh will release the Israelites.

Moshe tells Pharaoh to humble himself before Moshe and that Moshe will demonstrate that whenever Pharaoh requests that the frogs be gone, so it shall be. So Pharaoh says he wants the frogs to be gone the following day. So Moshe prays to G-d that day for the frogs to disappear the next day.

Get full access to Sarede’s Substack at sarede.substack.com/subscribe