The Story of Passover Part 2: The Ten Plagues - Rabbi Lazer Brody

[music] [music and singing] >> Greetings from the south of Israel. This is Laser Brody with Emunah Hour. Tonight, we're part two of our story of Passover series. And these Emunah Hour lessons, they aim to deepen our understanding and appreciation of the Passover holiday, make it much more meaningful for us. So, the more we learn the story, the more we internalize it, the more it comes alive in our hearts. And that's our observance of the holiday, the say that the Pesach Haggadah when we say it, we live it. So, we put ourselves worth living. I have to preface with a small apology that during the course of the lesson, you might hear bells, buzzers, ringers, sirens, just all these crazy things. Well, we hope last night was really, really crazy. But today's decent. But let's hope that we'll be able to get through this lesson without outside uh in- interference. Okay, so when Moses delivered Hashem's message of let my people go to Pharaoh the Egyptian king, Pharaoh, he retorted, "Who is Hashem that I should listen to him?" Well, that cost him a big price because with that was unprecedented arrogance. And Pharaoh is going to pay for it as we see tonight. We're talking about the 10 the 10 plagues. Tonight's lesson is the 10 plagues. So, we finished last week with our introduction to Moses. And we talked about the circumstance of his birth, his childhood in the palace, as Pharaoh's stepson, and slavery in Egypt. And after he killed the Egyptian at the age of 20 or 21, he was wandering in the desert for many years. Some sources say that he became king of Ethiopia for 40 years. As one Midrash says, Moses became the king of the Ethiopia. Well, after he arrived in Midian, he had to leave Ethiopia because the there the idolatry was rampant. He couldn't handle that. So, the area of the northern Red Sea it includes parts of Saudi Arabia, southern Israel, and Jordan, and the eastern Sinai Peninsula that borders the Red Sea. So, there Moses meets Jethro, Yitro in Hebrew, and he marries Zipporah, Jethro's daughter. Now, Jethro had also fled Egypt. He was one of the the advisors to Pharaoh along with Job and Balaam. And he was These were the three of Pharaoh's main advisors. Now, he left What did Jethro leave? When Balaam advised Pharaoh to enslave and kill the Jews. This was the advice that he took from Balaam. Balaam's idea was to enslave the Jews and to kill them all. So, once he used to be the master of the world's master of idolatry, Jethro abandoned that path and he became a monotheist. And as a result, his family was shunned by all society because all the society were pantheists. They were idol worshipers. So, the other shepherds they wouldn't let Jethro's daughters didn't have any sons. They wouldn't let his daughter At that time, he wasn't blessed with sons. He just had daughters. And the other shepherds wouldn't let the daughters reach the well. And it was difficult for them to give their flocks to drink. So, Moses when he arrived in Midian after Moses was tremendous and Moses was strong. Rambo would be a flea compared to Moses. He arrived in Midian and he chased them all away. And Moses was a mighty warrior. His bravery in battle in ancient Ethiopia, the Midrash talks about that. He was so brave in battle that the people crowned him to be king. That's how he became king. Because we have this period between the time that Moses is 21 and the time is 80. At time he's 80 years old when the divine presence is revealed to him in the burning bush in Sinai. And so he asks, "What happened in between?" And between he was the king of both Ethiopia. He was wars and all types of adventures down there. But since it doesn't have bearing on the future people on the future of the Jewish people, the Torah doesn't talk about it. Only Torah talks about things that are important for posterity. We know this in Moses' background from our stories of our sages. And this is what we say in the Midrash, the homiletic version of the oral Torah. And this is what we know. So, we try to fill in the blanks. But Moses, he left Ethiopia because once again, they worshiped idols. And throughout all these years, Moshe never compromised his personal holiness, never bowed down to an idol, never countenanced it. He was very loyal. He I remember Moshe was one of the Levites. Moses was one of the Levites. And as we see later in the Torah that the the Levites, they didn't participate in the golden calf. So, now that Moses was Jethro's son-in-law, he was happy to attend sheep. And he was happy to spend time in the wilderness. All our sages, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, King David, Moses, they were all shepherds. Why do they like to be shepherds? Shepherds, they would be out in the wilderness. They sojourn with Hashem. They could talk to Hashem all day long. Nobody would bother them. They wouldn't have the to to wouldn't have the urge to to gossip or to speak illegal speeches. Only the speech was just contemplating with Hashem. And they attained fantastic spiritual levels, lofty spiritual levels in their cognizance of Hashem, their knowledge of Hashem. So, exactly 1 year before Passover night and the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, Moses he's in in on Mount Horeb, which is subsequently Mount Sinai. It's another name for Mount Sinai. But Mount Horeb, and all of a sudden he encounters this burning bush. And this was a simple shrub called a rotim. It's called a rotim in Hebrew. It burns very brightly, but it's not consumed. He's Look at this bush. This dry desert bush and it's burning and burning and burning and it's not consumed, not burning itself out. So, this is At this point, this is where Hashem reveals himself to Moses for the first time. Now, Moses has proven himself to be a trustworthy shepherd. So, Hashem has chosen him to send his flocks, we call them tzon kodshim, which are the Israelites. That's Hashem calls them his flocks, the children of Israel. So, by this point the children of Israel have been in slavery at this time when Hashem reveals himself to Moses in the burning bush, they've been slaves for 115 years. And each successive year becomes more difficult than the previous year. So, Hashem told Moses that he has heard the cries of the children of of Israel in distress. That's very interesting when Hashem tells Moses. Hashem says to Moses, "I have also heard." Why does the Torah say that I've also heard? It says also heard. It's Hashem but you you've heard. What that the word also that the Torah mentions, it seems it seems superfluous. But our sages tell us that when the Jews were slaves in Egypt, this is something very special about them. That if somebody finished his quota for the day, and as difficult as backbreaking the work was, he wouldn't go home and go to sleep. He would look at his comrade, at his brother, and see if his brother wasn't finished. He would go help his brother. He would take on more hard labor to help his brother. So, one Israelite heard the anguish of his brother, his fellow Israelite. So, Hashem says, "They hear one another, then I'm going to listen to them." So, now this is things that after that they have proven themselves that they're listening to one another, Hashem says, "I'm also." So, now Hashem intervenes. And we see this in the action starting. The slavery is going to be stopped very soon with the of the the 10 plagues. Okay, so as mighty and as brilliant as Moses was, Moses born and brilliant and strong and how spiritual, but that's how modest he was, how humble he was. He was so humble. And Hashem wanted to send Moses. He said, "You be my emissary and go tell Pharaoh, 'Let my people go.'" Moses He said, "I I'm Who am I to do that?" He couldn't And he feared that he wasn't worthy or he wasn't capable of such a difficult task. Hashem assured him, "Don't worry." He said Hashem told him that he'll be with him. But this is still Moses refusing. And this is this argument argument debate discussion that they're having back and forth at the burning bush. So, Moses still refused. He refused Hashem like twice, three times, four times. And he begged Hashem. Hashem Hashem, relieve me of this duty. He He said, "My brother's better than I am." His brother his older brother Aaron. He Moses was 80. Aaron was 3 years older. He was 83. And he argued that the children of Israel wouldn't accept his authority to speak as a leader. So, Hashem told him, "No, you tell them that I sent you. My name He said, "How they going to believe me?" So, Hashem told Moses, he gave a way to identify himself to the children of Israel. "You tell them that you were sent by the God of their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And I've come who has come to redeem you from slavery and lead them to the land he promised their forefathers." Well, again, Moses continues debating with Hashem. And this debate took an entire week. Moses debating with Hashem on the occasion of the burning bush for an entire week. It looks like you read the Torah, it looks like maybe 10 minutes. This was an entire week. And this coincided with the seven days of Passover. This was exactly 1 year before Passover, the seven days that Moses sent spent with Hashem in the golden on Mount Horeb with the burning bush. This corresponds to the seven days of Passover, which is exactly 1 year later. So, we see the plagues happening one after another, one after another. This looks like staccato things one after another, but all the course of a year. Like a lawyer in court, uh Moses, he had two arguments. He says, "Look, Hashem, how can I go back to Egypt? I'm a fugitive to Egypt. I'm wanted for murder, and I've got a death sentence hanging over my head." It's a good argument. And the second argument, he says, "Hashem." He says, "I stuttered. I stuttered." Excuse the interruption. Missile incoming up north. He says, "Hashem, I stutter. How can I speak to to Pharaoh? I I I can't." So, this is I've got I've got a heavy tongue. How did Moses stutter? When Moses was a little boy, they tested his loyalty. We spoke made sure this last week. They tested his loyalty, and they gave him a bowl of gold coins and a bowl of hot coals. And Pharaoh's advisor says, "If he goes for the hot coals, that means that he's loyal to you, but if he goes for the gold, that means he's going to overthrow you." So, Moses was a little child, and he wanted to touch the wanted to grab the gold coins, but Hashem sent an angel Gabriel and moved Moses' hand, picked up a a hot coal on a tongue and touched his tongue with it, and that's for ever since he stuttered. So, Hashem still insists on sending Moses to Egypt. So, Moses once again was 80 years old. Aaron was 83 when they entered the palace of Pharaoh. Moses told the Hashem told Moses, "Don't worry. Aaron will be your your spokesman, and I'll speak to I'll speak to you, and you tell Aaron what to say." So, undaunted, here they go. They walk into the Pharaoh's palace. Can you imagine that you take the two head rabbis of Israel, and they walk in the middle of Tehran, and with their wearing wearing an Israeli flag insignia, they walk in the Iranian Republican Guard headquarters, walk right through to the commander. This is if you think that's absurd, it's even more absurd that the miracle of Moses and Aaron walking right in undaunted to Pharaoh's palace. This shows you something that we know right now, we're living this right now, that Hashem wins wars. Armies don't win wars. Armaments don't win wars. We can see even there's declarations by the Israeli government, declarations by Trump, "We've destroyed Iran. We destroyed their air force." Well, okay. You heard it now live. We've got just what it's probably there's been three missile attacks right now in the north of Israel while we're speaking. So, if they're so destroyed, where do they get the power to to send these missiles? You could see, they're still still going because you have to understand one thing. The same thing that happened in Egypt is happening now in Iran. The Egyptians were idolaters, but they were very strong in their idolatrous beliefs. They had grade 97 out of 100 belief in idolatry. The Iranians the same thing. have dark side emunah. The Shiites have this dark side emunah, and they're very strong in that. 97. In order to defeat them, we have to have it's not no arms, no F-35s, and no smart bombs, and no laser bombs and are going to beat them. But the only thing will beat them with 98 emunah. Grade 98. If we had that grade 98 light side emunah from the holy side, that'll beat the 97 dark side. And this was exactly how Jacob overcame Esau's angel. So, what we're really dealing with right now is Esau's angel who sits his angel. He lives all all on all the time, and all we're battling him until we make teshuvah, until we strengthen our emunah. And that's what we're doing here, trying to strengthen our emunah. So, we could see this right here. Moses and Aaron, they walk right into Pharaoh's chambers. Nobody The the soldiers, the guards, they're frozen. They can't do anything. And it's as if people that they they saw right there as if they were transparent. And so, Pharaoh Pharaoh, he presented himself as a deity, and he claimed that he and the Nile were the gods of Egypt. And Pharaoh wouldn't let anyone know that he had to relieve himself like a human. Very for 4:00 in the morning, he'd go to the Nile and relieve himself. And he was uh he would act like he doesn't doesn't it doesn't need to to use the facilities. Doesn't need to pass water. Another thing, Pharaoh would has big inferiority complex. And you see a big inferiority complex, they become big tyrants. Tyrants have inferiority complexes. Pharaoh was a dwarf. Pharaoh was a dwarf. Not only that, he sold himself as a deity. As Pharaoh was a dwarf, so that Pharaoh had to show that he was greater than anybody else. He was a deity. And this is they call it I think the psychologist called it the Napoleonic syndrome because Napoleon was also very short, very small. So, Pharaoh he was amazed and frightened with all his guards and levels of guards, the outer guards, the middle guards, the inner guards. And here Moses and Aaron walk right into the palace, and they say go right up to him, and they say, "Thus spoke Hashem, let my people go." So, Pharaoh he refused. He says, "Who is Hashem that I should listen to him?" And he claimed he never heard of Hashem, God of the Israelites, and his name was not listed among the gods of all the nations. Pharaoh, as an idolater, he had the name of every nation the the phone book of the nations and their gods. And he said that he accused Moses and Aaron of conspiring against the government and interfering with the work of the Hebrew slaves. So, in retaliation, Pharaoh wanted to show that he's the strong man, and he ordered his supervisors to increase the demands on the children of Israel and to make their burden even heavier. If it wasn't heavy enough, make it heavier. But now they had to gather their own raw material for blocks and continue to to send them out. Pharaoh uh Egypt is not Iowa. Egypt doesn't have a lot of straw and a lot of forage. And you need straw to make the to make the cement. The the ancient didn't make bricks, but they had to So, the Israelites go all over Egypt to to collect to collect straw before they would bring it to them. Now, they were physically unable to handle such an impossible task, and they suffered even more than before. So, in desperation, uh the children of Israel blamed Moses and Aaron for making the situation even worse and helping them. So, Moses was really disappointed, and he was hurt because Moses wanted to help his brethren. He Since he was a young man, he he gave up he he could have grown up to be the prince. He could have been the heir to throne. He was Pharaoh's stepson. But he came and he sacrificed his entire a status to go out to save an Israelite slave that an Egyptian taskmaster was beating him. Moses one shot, and then it was finished. And that's it was murder. The one major says it was one shot it was one word that he said one of Hashem's holy names, and then the Egyptian soldiers left him. But I did both say there's the physical and the spiritual explanation. But now Moses, if you back then for years he he loved his brethren, wanted to help them. And now they're accusing him, making life difficult. Due to the fact that you went and you stirred up trouble, and now life is even more difficult. So, Moses went and he cried out his eyes to Hashem. He says, "Hashem, why is making more life more difficult?" We see this this prayer is at the end of parsha Shemot, and carries us to the beginning Hashem answers him in the beginning of parsha Va'eira. And this Hashem assured him. He said, "Listen, this your mission is going to succeed." And then Hashem began a series of 10 plagues. He says, "Hold on, Moses. You're now not only is life going to be not more difficult, very soon you're not going to be working at all. In a matter of days, you're going to be working all, and you're going to relax. And the Egyptians going to be suffering is going to go all to the Egyptians." So, the children of Israel now saw the glory of Hashem and the power of Hashem that of the one true God and what the one true God is capable of doing. So, now it brings us to the 10 plagues. Moses delivered the message and a king we have to this chutzpah that what it what brought on when Pharaoh answered, "Who was Hashem that I should listen to him? And besides, I never heard of Hashem before." And you see that Exodus chapter 5 verse 2. And this was the unprecedented history's most unprecedented arrogance. And now Pharaoh is just given a golden invitation for it to be punished. So, unfortunately, many Jews were influenced by Pharaoh's attitude. The ones that were there were there was political correctness back then. And many adopted Egyptian outlooks. They thought if they be able to show that outlook, that they Egyptians, that their lives would be easier. But uh what happened? They thought that their lives were in Pharaoh's hands. They were influenced by the idolatry. Not all. They but they they but many of them were. And heaven forbid. And Hashem therefore sent the plagues not only as a punishment for Egypt, but as an education and benefit for Israel that they should learn emunah. So, as we see in the plagues, they were designed to teach three major lessons to engrave in the people's minds and the hearts all over the world. Now, what are the three lessons? The three big lessons that the that they that the plagues teach us. Number one, that Hashem is creator of the world. Number two, that Hashem directs the world in a manner of precision defined direction. And down to the tiniest detail. We'll see this in the plagues. We'll see this exactly in why Hashem made certain plagues and why and how they manifested themselves. The third thing we learn is ain od milvado. There's no one but Hashem. There's no one can protest what Hashem does. No one can stop Hashem from doing whatever Hashem wants, and Hashem does whatever he wishes, whenever he wishes. So, Pharaoh, the king of idolatry, who fashioned himself as a deity, he denied these three points, and the 10 plagues are going to show us who's right, Hashem or Pharaoh? And we're going to see Hashem is not wrong. So, along with a brief description of each plague, we'll see the divine justice, and we'll see the theme of measure for measure in each plague. So, here they are with the learning the 10 plagues in order of their occurrence. The plague number one is what's called in Hebrew dam, it's the blood. Moses and Aaron, they walked down to the Nile riverbank. Aaron raised his staff, his walking stick, and he struck the water, and he converted them into streams of blood. Then, all the waters of Egypt turned into blood. And Pharaoh and all the people of Egypt, they saw this miracle, and they saw the fish die as the blood flowed over the land, and they turned with disgust from this offensive smell. Their Nile Nile their god, now all of a sudden the Nile had a stench to it. It was disgusting. So, it was impossible for them to drink the water of the Nile, and the Nile was the waters of the Nile are famous for their delicious taste, what they were before there was pollution in the world, and they tried to dig deep into the ground to get water for because the Nile, it had the it had what the surface water if you're close to the riverbank, you didn't have to dig deep with the called the water table, and you get to the water. So, they were digging in the sand, they tried to get to the water, but if they got to the water table, it was blood. And so, unfortunately for the Egypt for the Egyptians, not only the flood waters of the Nile, but all the waters of Egypt, wherever they were, they all turned to blood. And the fish died in the rivers and the lakes, and for a whole week, the Egyptians and their animals suffered horrible thirst, yet Pharaoh would not give in. Pharaoh would not give in. He said he's not going to give up. So, what's the measure for measure in the blood here? This is this is amazing. The Egyptians, they spilled the blood of so many Jewish babies into the Nile, that now became a river of blood in their loving memory. I have to understand, Pharaoh said throw all the babies into the Nile, all the male babies, and slaughter them, and there was rivers of blood. Now, it's right back at him. The Egyptians spilled Jewish blood like water, so now their water became blood. That's the second measure for measure. The third measure for measure, as part of the forced slavery, was the Jews had to be water carriers for the Egyptians. Well, this was the first relief of slavery that they no longer do that. This is the first relief of slavery the Jews no longer have to get water cuz there's no water care for the Egyptians. Even if an Israelite would have water, and give it to an Egyptian, as soon as the Egyptian came into his domain, it would turn to blood. The fourth is the Egyptians tried to prevent Jewish women from ritual immersion, because without ritual immersion, then they're not going to have children. So, now the Egyptians could not bathe. Ah, you prevented an Israelite woman from going to mikveh, you're not going to bathe at all. Okay, so you can imagine in the heat of Egypt, what that was like. Okay, and five, Pharaoh claimed that he and the Nile were co-gods of Egypt, and he claimed that the Nile was his, and he created it. So, Hashem slaughtered both the Nile and Pharaoh's claim. As I said, symbolic of the blood, Hashem slaughtered the Nile. That's plague number one. Plague number two was the frogs. In Hebrew, it's called sfardea. Pharaoh remained obstinate in his refusal to capitulate to Hashem. So, after ignoring the warning, the second plague came. Now, it's the second plague. Aaron stretched forth his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the waters streamed forth. Now, why did Aaron in the blood and in the frog, it's Aaron that stretched forth his arm with his staff over the waters of of Egypt? Because Moses couldn't do that. Moses had such gratitude Moses had even gratitude to the inanimate level of creation, what we call the the minimal level creation. The waters protected Moses when he was a baby. The waters did not protect the Moses baby. So, Moses could not do harm to the waters of Egypt. So, you can imagine, if this was this is what we learn from Moses, that we need to be beholden, we need to be have have gratitude to the most basic to to a tree or a rock, and it put to a plant, the animals, certainly to a fellow human being. Okay, so the frogs came up from the Nile, and they covered every inch of land. They entered the houses, the bedrooms, the ovens. When an Egyptian would try to bake bake bread, bake his pita, they'd come out and they'd have frogs embedded in everything. And wherever Egyptian turned, wherever he turned, he found their slimy bodies of frogs, and the croaking of the frogs, ribbit ribbit, this was making them crazy, driving them crazy, and it brought brought the Egyptians to the brink of insanity. They couldn't stand it. Well, there was nowhere to escape from the frogs. They were everywhere. The Gemara says that the frogs were so dedicated that they plunged into the ovens. So much so that if you an Egyptian tries to bake bread, comes out they would you would bake frog. And this is a precedent. This is a precedent that Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, these were the three Jewish heroes at the time of Daniel, that they defied the order that defied the order of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar to bow down to a statue. And even though they be thrown in the fiery furnace, they said, "If you don't bow down to the statue, you're going to be thrown in a fiery furnace." They said, "If a frog had the courage to do Hashem's will, and jump in the fiery furnace in Egypt, in the sanctification of Hashem's name, then we certainly must." And they learned from frogs, and then they came out. This is a big miracle that Hashem saved them. Sent said the angel of Gabriel down Gabriel down, they they cooled down the fire, and they walked unscathed unscathed. They came out, and then Nebuchadnezzar's advisers, they fell into the fire instead. So, the Gemara said that they derived their courage. The Gemara tells us, and they you could see the story in in Book of Daniel, the third chapter. The Gemara says that Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah attained their inner strength from the example of the frogs. So, the frogs, they terrified Pharaoh. He begged Moses and Aaron to pray to Hashem to remove this nuisance, and he promised that he would liberate the people Jewish people soon as the frog get rid of frogs. But as soon as the frogs disappeared, he broke his promise, and refused to let the children of Israel go, and that leads to plague number three. Before we go on to plague number three, what's the measure of measure for measure in the frogs? Well, the Egyptians forced the Jews to bring them all types of snakes, frogs, lizards, and the like to fight the fact that the Jews have repulsion from these ritually impure and non-kosher creatures. The Egyptians would eat them. Therefore, Hashem brought you want you want frogs? You want snakes? Get all you want, all you want. This was measure for measure for what they did to the Jews. Second, the Egyptians robbed the Israelite slaves of their sleep. They made them get out of bed, work in the middle of the night. So, the croaking of the frogs robbed the Egyptians of their sleep. They couldn't sleep. Three, the Egyptians threw screaming Jewish babies into the Nile. Measure for measure, zillions of screaming frogs emerged from the Nile. And you see, this is the spiritual impression, but there's a deep spiritual impression that came back to haunt them. There's a fourth measure for measure also, that the Egyptians tried everything to prevent the Jews from multiplying. Well, the frogs did the same thing to the Egyptians, that the frogs filled their beds, and the frogs bit their genitals, and wouldn't let them multiply. This brings us to plague number three. Plague number three is lice, what we call kinim, lice. Hashem ordered Aaron to strike the dust of the earth with his staff. Why Aaron and not Moses again? Because the dust of the earth, it once helped Moses hide the body of the dead Egyptian slave driver, gave Moses time to escape Egypt after he killed the slave driver. So, this is Moses did the dust of Egypt, it did Moses a favor. So, Hashem didn't want to put Moses in the situation where he would have to hit the dust of Egypt. Again, it was Aaron. So, lice, once he hit the with the staff, he hit the the dust of Egypt, lice swarmed forth from all the dust all over Egypt. It blanketed the entire land, and Pharaoh and the animals suffered untold misery from this terrible plague. Lice, it's really terrible. Pharaoh's aides point out that the Pharaoh's his aides, his his advisers, they said, "This is this is the this is the hand of God. This is the finger of God." Because the lice, the one tiny little lice, it's it's smaller than a a grain of barley, and they're smaller than a lentil, and anything smaller than a lentil, we have no control they have no control over, and bring our people safe. They have no control, and this they no control of lice. The Pharaoh's soothsayers and his witchcraft, they they they couldn't get rid of the lice. They couldn't do anything. So, the prophet the province of Goshen, where the Israelites lived, there was no lice. And the children of Israel were immune from this, as well as all the other plagues. All the other plagues, none of the plagues occurred occurred in Goshen, where the Jews lived, they lived together. >> [bell] >> active evening. Pharaoh promised to let the Hebrews go out of the desert as condition they would not go far. He said, "Only if Moses would get rid of the lice." Okay, but as soon as they're gone, Moses got rid of the lice, and Pharaoh withdrew his promise, and Moses the man. You can see here now I feel you can see, with Hashem, the activists You think you think about outside of Ribbons and Panina. And the Loifer family should be safe. The neighborhood with Hashem. This is the reality that we're living here in Israel. Okay, the plague So, the plague of lice, it came directly from Hashem, and there was no intervention from Moses or Aaron. It only included wild uh uh It only included Hold on 1 second. 1 second. The plague of light that came from Hashem. We now go on to uh the measure for measure in the third plague, which was lice. That the Egyptians did everything to expose the Jews to lice, that they sweep filth, and to work in dirty and dust-ridden conditions. And so, Hashem gave it back to them measure for measure. This is what they The conditions they gave the the Israelites, gave it right back. The second is Egyptians prevented the Jews from doing Hashem's mitzvot. And the lice prevented the Egyptians from fulfilling their daily task, measure for measure. You could see after you consider this is something we learn intrinsically in the plagues. It's a negative lesson, but it take it to attention. That the way we act toward the world, the way we act toward other people, this it brings down uh a spiritual influence that comes right back at us, whether it is good, hopefully, uh God forbid the opposite. Okay, so, we got to stop and think of that we pray to Hashem. Hashem We should be able to bring good to the world. Our next plague is plague number four. That's the a row of the wild animals. Okay, this Now, this is the plague. The first three plagues were instigated by by Aaron, by act of Aaron. This The wild animals, the arov, was nothing This was came from straight from Hashem, and it tormented the Egyptians with hordes of these wild animals roving all over destroying everything in their path. And this was the If you could see that in Egyptian in Egypt, they found big skeletons of dinosaurs and just from the arov. But talk about this prehistoric uh so many millions of years that stuff wrong. The world is 5,786 years old. And they said, "Well, carbon-14 is otherwise, but Hashem created them as a big size." So, this was this was the arov that he sent down already mature and big all the dinosaurs and these tremendously scary animals. And only once again, the prophets of Goshen, no wild animals, no wild animals, no dinosaurs. So, Hashem sent down this plague to to plague Pharaoh. Pharaoh again begged Moses. He said, "Moses, I got to get rid of this thing. This is terrible. They did with these animals were devouring the Egyptians and were spreading terror wherever they went, and it was really scary." So, Moses answered Pharaoh's request that he prayed to Hashem that the wild animals should disappear. But once again, as soon as Pharaoh could breathe easy, he withdrew his promise. He withdrew his promise and refused Moses' demand. Well, once again, this plague came directly from Hashem with no intervention from Moses or Aaron, and included wild Not only wild animals, but these killer birds. You ever seen these pictures of the flying dragons? This is These are killer birds, snakes, and these tremendous scorpions. But this is Do you know, these are the type of animals that were in the plagues. What was the measure for measure in the plague of arov, the wild animals? The Egyptians treated the Israelites with the cruelty of fierce wild animals. And with the arov, with the wild animals, Hashem gave it right back to them with fierce cruelty. And second is the Egyptians hunted Israelite babies. And by like manner, the wild animals, the arov, they hunted the Egyptians. Third, the Egyptian slave drivers intruded into the homes of the Israelites like fierce lions and wolves without inviting. And these fierce killer animals did the same thing to the homes of the Egyptian. Fourth, the Egyptians enveloped the Israelites in fear and cruelty. And the arov, they enveloped the Egyptians in utter fear and cruelty. They had nowhere to escape. This brings us to plague number five. Plague number five is dever, that is the killer cattle disease. Today, they we identify as anthrax. Anthrax or what in Germany call it rinderpest. Rinderpest is that like anthrax. And the wild animals, they disappeared, and Pharaoh, he was relieved that the for for 3 weeks, Moses warned him that don't don't be so comfortable because your own animals are going to about to be afflicted. So, many of the animals that cattle and sheep, they were considered deities like from the Egyptians, just like many of the Hindus that they can't slaughter a cow in India In India, they view a cow as a deity. Well, the sheep and cows were deities in in Egypt. And as we see the Passover lamb, Hashem commanded to slaughter Passover lamb. We'll talk about that next week. That [snorts] this was the deity of of Egypt. And when this is done, this is done for in the peace of the month of the the lamb. This is the month of Nissan, which tonight is Rosh Chodesh. So, wonderful good Chodesh to everyone. Okay, so, Pharaoh again continues to refuse, and he continues to refuse to let the people go, to let the Israelites go. So, Hashem sent this fatal pestilence that killed most of the domestic animals of the Egyptians. And once again, we think that this is By the description, it sounds like after anthrax. And Egyptians witnessed the death of their gods, their cattle and their sheep, their most prized possessions. Uh and if that's the end, what's the most prized possession of of Egypt? Their horses. Egypt is world-famous for their horses. And their horses died also. So, while all this happened, this is it The Egyptian, this is their most prized possession. They have that their gods were getting killed, their the the sheep, and their prized possession, their horses. This is their Lamborghinis and their Mercedes that they're getting killed also. So, Hashem showed this mind-boggling divine precision, a divine direction, and to the extent where the killer bacteria were given the the ability to differentiate between the cattle of Egypt and cattle of Israel. The this the The anthrax bacteria or the bacteria of the plague of dever, it knew how to recognize an Egyptian animal or an Israelite animal. So, Pharaoh still no problem and he still hardened his heart. He would not let the Israelites go. Even though he said the animals dying right and left, but didn't affect him. It didn't affect him, but it was his his assets, but it wasn't enough for him. Now, we come on this plague, we'll see that the Pharaoh had plenty of chance of free choice. And now the Torah says that Hashem hardened his heart. So, you say, "That's not fair. Hashem is taking away Pharaoh's free choice." Hashem has already given Pharaoh multiple opportunities to let the Israelites go. Pharaoh shows that he doesn't want to. He shows what his desire is. Hashem says, "I'm going to use Hashem uses Pharaoh's desire to sanctify his name." We see even the evil sanctify Hashem's name. Hashem uses their negative choices to sanctify his name. So, what's the measure for measure here in the dever and with the with the anthrax? That the Egyptians forced the Israelites to tend their flocks, and Hashem freed his chosen people from the task by killing the Egyptian herds of flocks. Now, no more flocks to tend. Okay, they're free to that. Didn't have to haul water for the Egyptians, they didn't have to tend their flocks. And the the plague one by one, one by one, the forced laborers falling by the wayside together with the plagues. The second measure for measure is that they took Israel away from their traditional vocation of shepherds, as we spoke. They've been shepherds out in the field, and made them slaves. So, Hashem took their animals away from them. And the third that they forced the Hebrews to work as beasts of burden, pulling wagons and plows, and to spare their own animals. So, Hashem killed the very animals that they wanted to spare. And that's what King Solomon tells us in 8:7 of negative Hashem, that there is no wisdom or cunning against Hashem. That you cannot smart Hashem. Brings us to the sixth plague. The sixth plague is the boils, the shchin, the boils in the skin. The sixth plague, it was horrific beyond description. Pharaoh and the Egyptians, they had, as we mentioned, 3 weeks of respite after the fifth plague, but they ignored the warnings of Moses and Aaron. Aaron and Moses once again appeared in Pharaoh's inner court, and nobody had the power to stop them. And when Pharaoh once repeatedly refused to to free the the Israelites, Moses and Aaron took a handful of black oven soot, and in front of Pharaoh's eyes, they threw the soot up in the sky. The soot miraculously ascended to the heavens and descended as a cloud that covered all of Egypt. It's a million square miles, a thousand square miles. One direction a thousand miles. A million square miles, and with a cloud of black dust that turned into boils on anything that dust touched. If that dust would touch an animal or human, it would turn into boils. And they would killed any of the animals that were left over from the previous plague. The Midrash tells us that there were 24 types of boils. This is a dermatologist would have a field day there. The Egyptians, they couldn't heal themselves because any medication or herb that was beneficial for one type uh would make the other type of boils worse. Maybe for that it would help one type, but the other 23 types would become even worse. With these they left them with open and infected wounds all over their bodies and they festered, they were repulsive beyond description. And these wounds included every type of skin disease including leprosy. That's a very the professors of dermatology dermatology 404. This was the punishment for the Hartumim, the Egyptian priests and their the Egyptian idolatry priests that according to their beliefs they could not perform idolatry in such condition. One thing that they had in their laws an Egyptian priest had to have a clear skin. If he had a boil on his skin or or some type of uh uh [snorts] with something simple simple skin disease that they they couldn't they couldn't perform his his his priestly duties. So none of them were cured until the day they died. They were finished. That's finished for all the priests of idolatry. So even though the Hartumim recognized Hashem's hand already in the third plague, here we are in the sixth plague, the boils, uh they couldn't even show their faces. They were so embarrassed because this was an anathema for an Egyptian priest to be so full of of of these lesions and and cuts and boils and blisters and festering blisters. They were embarrassed to show themselves in front of Moses and Aaron. So with the boils Hashem proved that he alone did, does, and will do everything. Our first principle of Emunah as Hashem is teaching them and that no one has any power against Hashem. So from here on like we mentioned, Hashem took away Pharaoh's free choice. Pharaoh, the game is sold. That's finished. You've got no more free choice because Hashem is going to program you and Hashem is going to just give you one hit after the other to and this will be for posterity. This will be a Pirsum Hashem. This will be an advertisement of Hashem's name so all of the world can see Hashem. Okay. So Hashem took away Pharaoh's free choice, hardened the heart of Pharaoh's heart so that he and Egypt he and and Egypt would be afflicted with another four plagues. We've got this was just number six. We've got four more to go. And all designed to sanctify Hashem's name. So what's the measure for measure? The measure for measure on the boils is that each day the first each day Israel the Israelites would come home from the dusty and backbreaking work with cracked, bleeding, and painful skin in the hot sun and the the sand. But now all of Egypt suffered from the same but much worse. Second, the Egyptian slave drivers, they whipped the Israelites until the skin was all inflamed an excruciatingly painful mess of bleeding wounds. Okay, now all of Egypt suffering the same wounds even worse. The third is that Egyptians treated the Israelites like lepers. So now all of Egypt suffered leprosy and much worse. We come to plague number seven which is hail, barad. We call it barad. With this plague Hashem now defies nature. Hashem takes this plague up one step, going up a level, and defying nature. Now this what happened by defying nature that hailstones were ice and inside was a ball of fire. And it would fall would be like a firebomb. Balls of ice came fire. So what did Hashem do? Hashem made peace between fire and water, between ice and fire for this plague. So Moses declared to Pharaoh that a hail storm of unprecedented fury was about to sweep the land of Egypt. And these were no regular hailstones but rocks of ice that are supernaturally filled with fire. And the ice that came together, ice and the fire, they came together to do all the creator. See every every creature on earth every creation on earth does it it comes together. There's no such thing as nature. Nature and and Hebrew gematria is 86 and it's Elokim. It's all Hashem. It's all Hashem. Everything is up to Hashem and everything comes from Hashem. So this is the power of Emunah. Emunah is above nature and when we're above nature, that's natural. That's natural. So no living thing no tree, no animal, no plant could escape the fury of the hail and it destroyed everything. The only shelter was in the houses. So the Egyptians that had enough sense to have fear to to fear Hashem and they brought their animals indoors. This was their bomb shelter. That they saved their own lives and saved their animals. But there were many reckless and still stubborn Egyptians that ignored Moses' warning and they left their cattle and their servants in the field. So when Moses stretched forth his staff this time, Moses and Moses brought forth the the hail. The hail came down with violence and deafening thunder all over the earth and lightning all over the heavens simultaneously igniting fire on the ground. It was like a a bombardment. But the hail did its work of destruction and any human or or animal that was exposed to the rage died on the spot. Couldn't couldn't last. And the herbs were scattered in the wind and the trees lay shattered on the ground. And what wasn't broken was burned. Again, the land of Goshen where the Israelites dwelled was untouched by the ravages of the storm. The land of Goshen the the flower gardens they they bloomed they bloomed right in the middle of the general devastation. So now this time Pharaoh calls Moses. And Pharaoh confesses his sins. This is for the Pharaoh makes a confession. Looks like Pharaoh's making teshuvah. And Hashem we're up to chapter nine of of Exodus. And he says I've sinned this time. Hashem is righteous and my people and I are the guilty ones. Beg Hashem to stop his thunder and hail and I'll let you and people go. >> [bell] >> So this is what another big bombardment of earth now. And Hashem protect them. Learning together protect everyone that no one gets hurt. Okay. So Moses told Hashem. He says when I leave the city, I'll spread my hands to Hashem, the thunder will cease, there will be no more hail in order that you should know that the land belongs to Hashem. Just as Moses said the storm ceased, but Pharaoh's hardened heart refused to yield. So what's the measure for measure here in the hail and hail storm? First, the Egyptians threw rocks at the Israelites constantly. They were working they did throw a rock at them they whipped them threw rocks at them. So the hail were these terrible stones of ice and fire that hit them. Second, that the Egyptians forced the Israelites to sleep in the outdoors with the flocks that they tended. The Egyptians therefore had to sleep indoors with their animals. Okay, so it's much better to sleep outdoors with the animals than it is indoor with the animals. Third, they denied the Israelites the slightest respite in the shade of a tree and the hail left them with no trees. No more trees in Egypt. Fourth, Pharaoh said who is Hashem that I should listen to his voice? Okay, don't listen to Hashem's voice. So he now had he and the Egyptians had to hear the deafening voice of hail and thunder. Okay, that's number seven. Number eight is the plague of the locusts. It's called the arbeh. So the next time Moses and Aaron appeared before Pharaoh he seemed again seemed penitent. He asked them who was to participate in the worship. The Israeli Israelites wanted to hold in the desert. They said let us go three days in the in the desert serve Hashem. And they told him that everybody without exception, one and young and old and men and women and animals, Pharaoh refused. He agreed that only the men should go but that the women and children as well as their possessions should remain collateral in Egypt. Well Moses and Aaron denied this offer. No, no, Hashem wants everything. So ranting, Pharaoh ordered them to leave the palace. But before leaving Moses warned him of new you're going to have brand new suffering and Pharaoh remained adamant even though his advisers they they told him not to be so entranced. They told him to give in. But as soon as Moses left the palace, he raised his arms toward heaven and the east wind brought swarms of locusts into Egypt covering the sun. In the middle of the day in Egypt with no clouds in the sky it became dark. And devouring everything anything that that did something small and green that the hailstones didn't didn't didn't destroy that the lice finished it off. And never in the history of mankind has there been such a devastating plague of locusts as this one. It brought complete ruin upon Egypt. There was nothing green left in Egypt which already ravaged by the previous catastrophes. So once more obstinate Pharaoh, he sends for Moses and Aaron and he implores them. Implores them to pray to Hashem to get rid of this pestilence to get rid of this plague. Moses complied and he sent Hashem and Moses answered Hashem answered Moses' prayers and he sent a strong west wind that drove every last one of the lice out into the Mediterranean Sea. So when relief came, Pharaoh becomes obstinate again. He doesn't learn and he refused to free the people of Egypt. So what's the measure for measure here in forced forced labor? The Israelites had to plant, cultivate, and harvest Egypt's crops. Then the locusts devoured everything. No more no more crops to harvest. No no more green. No nothing. So Egyptians they stole the bit of grain and vegetables that the Israelites grew for themselves and the locust stole from the Egyptians. Okay. So the third is that the Egyptians did everything to prevent the Israelites from multiplying and rid them from the face of the earth. So the locust multiplied beyond any limits and covered the face of the earth. That brings us to plague number nine, the plague of darkness. Apparently plague of darkness looks like the easiest of plagues. It doesn't hurt. It doesn't No sickness. But it mental. It had a mental a profound mental effect on the Egyptians. That in fact it was so mental anguish and torment. It was the worst plague until now. The Egyptians they suffered tremendous used to bright bright sun bright light bright sky and here they are at black totally everything black. So everywhere an Israelite went it was light. Where an Egyptian went there was a deep abyss of pitch black darkness darkness so thick that they they couldn't they could they couldn't see anything. It was like they were in inside a concrete wall. And this paralyzed them. It paralyzed them they couldn't move. The Egyptians were gripped with fear from this they remained glued to whatever places they stood or sat they they stood or sat when the plague of darkness [clears throat] came in. So even though there was light in Goshen 80% of the Jews 80% of the Jews died in the days of darkness. Okay, this is estimated between 12 and 15 million Jews there. So it means that uh much more than 6 million. There are maybe 8 to 12 million died in the darkness. 80%? So we ask ourselves wait a second. Why darkness in Egypt? That all these Israelites died millions and millions of Israelites. Why we celebrate Passover night? Why is it not Holocaust night? Well these who are the ones that died in the darkness? The ones that died in the darkness are the ones that denied in Hashem's power to redeem them from Egypt. They are the ones that lack the emunah. And they said we're we're doing for slavery forever. And they didn't listen to Moses. They they they denied it. Okay, so to save them from embarrassment they were killed in the darkness with Egyptians so that the Egyptians would not see the non-believers being killed. This is something something. So we say what do we have in the Passover night? We say so we sing we're happy we're glad this is our freedom. And so why not one of my brothers? We learn something profound from this. That we don't have pity on someone who denies Hashem someone denies the redemption redemption and Messiah that's our 12th principle of faith. So what they're doing is they're denying all the principles of a faith act like an Egyptian. Okay, you want to act like an Egyptian then your faith is going to be like an Egyptian. And people don't realize this. People think that they can live a non-Torah secular life a life without emunah. It's not like that. And we see now we'll see there's going to be big surprises. I don't want to get into political politics and I don't want to be dragged into uh interpretation of what the war but as we see as the war goes on we see it. Iran and they you you've heard these and life there's still all all this bombing all this here doesn't look like they're getting any weaker. And it probably this is this we think is the war of Geulah. And we can't cling to anything but Hashem. That's our only hope is Hashem. This is exact same thing that's happening that was in Egypt. So people say oh how can you write they they say that the the believers in Egypt are only 20% of the population. And here that's what we're talking more more bombardment. Does it sound like that that they the Iranians and the Hezbollah are weakened? It doesn't seem like that. Okay, but so all we have to do is this is this is Passover. Passover is right now. And that's why we say in the Haggadah that any generation that if if we if Hashem did not take us out of Egypt then we and our children are and our all our we would still be slaves in Egypt. See it's still happening right now. We have to hold on to emunah. This is what we have to do this is what we strengthen our emunah. The time this is one of the greatest preparations for Passover to strengthen emunah. So those who denied Hashem and those who denied the redemption they all died. And these are the people that didn't want to leave Egypt. They wanted to stay in Egypt and they were politically correct Egyptians even though they were slaves but they thought they'd have a better life. Like a one life. There's only one life. One life is with Hashem. One life with Hashem Hashem runs the world. A person cannot have maybe be a person can have a temporary thrill temporary fun but as you see Pharaoh become an ultimate the end pay the price. So Pharaoh tried to bargain with Moses and Aaron and he bid them to depart from their people and leave the flocks and herds behind as a pledge. He wanted to leave against collateral that they could take the people to desert and serve Hashem. Moses and Aaron informed him that he would accept nothing less than complete freedom. No, it's not a vacation. It's not a fight. Complete freedom for men women children all their possessions take their belongings with them. So now Pharaoh he's angry at Moses and Aaron for disrespecting him for disagreeing with him. So they warned them never return. And he warned them if they would come back before they would die. Moses said okay, it's not going to be necessary for you to see us again. It's not going to be necessary for us to see you again. Instead Hashem is going to send one more plague on Egypt after Excuse me this is okay a local uh All right, Hashem would send one more plague upon Egypt. And then they would get total permission. So exactly midnight Moses continued Hashem would pass over all of Egypt. Moses giving Hashem for Egypt for warning that the now is going to be the firstborn. And there's going to be a bitter cry that's going to sweep all over Egypt. So Pharaoh in his pajamas in the middle of the night he the leaders they but he begged them to leave Egypt after late. So master Moses warned them about what's going to be that they left Pharaoh and Pharaoh was seething with rage. And this will bring us up to the Pascal sacrifice before we talk about that plague we'll talk about the 10th plague and leading up to Pascal sacrifice that will be next week in our final lesson in the story of Passover which God willing will be next Wednesday night so stay tuned. You can find lesson one posted up on laserbeams.com and emunahbeams.com. Hope tonight we'll have lesson two. You can review that and look forward to lesson three. I'm very sorry for the interruption but we're having it's like a double bombardment from Hezbollah and and Iran to see at the live. This is what is in Israel that's crazy today. Okay, but but this is all before the full redemption of our people. Hashem should bless us all with a wonderful new month of Nissan the best Passover we ever had and all our hearts wishes for the very best together with the full redemption of our people Messiah and rebuild of our holy temple. >> [music] [music]