Parshat Vaera: The Dual Objectives of the 10 Plagues/Makkot

so this week's par is important in as much as it's a bridge between Mosa's appointment which was in and between mosha now beginning to act as the Redeemer if that's the word that we can use but on the other hand There's No Redemption which means the Redemption is not going to take place until someplace you can decide exactly when it takes place if it's takes place in uh in BO or it takes place in in bashak but that that's further down the line so therefore we have filler so what is our filler and our right the answer is the filler is our plagues so now so now the question then really becomes is why do we need the plagues and like we we've discussed this before what is the purpose of the plagues and why not an immediate and sudden Redemption why I mean it's God so you can write anything you want in the script so why why is there a necessity so I want to point at two things to take into consideration one is a verse which is current which is God is going to judge the gods with a small G of Egypt and on the other hand something which goes way back in the past and that is by the Brit which essentially creates The Rules of Engagement for the Jewish people moving forward and that is the Covenant that God made with Abraham which included the slavery the servitude and also said that he's going to take us out of at some point and I'm going to judge the people that did this now of course you can enter into kind of philosophical questions if this is part of God's script then why then why the judgment is necessary and you could answer in two different ways one who said that you had to be the one to to do the enslavement on the other hand it could be that God is going to judge and say did you do your minimum you do the maximum I would assume that in uh that in many situations you can have somebody who let's say somebody shoots somebody and then there's an investigation did you have to use that kind of that kind of force could you could you have disarmed the others with less Force could you have enslaved them without and I'll I'll just give a theoretical but it's not a theoretical did you have to throw the babies into into the water so so at that point say oh I'm going to judge them because that was not in the in the brochure I mean we're going down to Egypt that was not there I mean to be enslaved is one thing but who said anything about uh about about about killing it all about killing babies and and so on and so forth so the judging could be you know how in investigation how much and then perhaps there's punish but the difference between right if you want now want to get yeshivish when you tell this over on Friday night if you want to be yeshivish then you'll say so what's the Naina that's the term what's the Naina which really means in English but what's the Practical difference between these two different approaches and the answer would be is that one is in the realm of the judicial Dan I'm going to judge and the other which is in the even though it's lot means to do a judgment as well but the other is when you're judging other gods to imaginary belief so it's at that point it's much more the realm of theology so what I'm not going to do is what some people like to do a lot and that is especially in this section it's interesting especially in this section you have lots of commentaries who go for the big Theory The Theory of Everything right they want they want all of the 10 plagues to fit into some type of a of a pattern and rabih Huda dividing it helps that as well and and they and I'm not saying a pattern isn't there there there there may very well be a pattern I'm I'm saying something else it doesn't concern me which means that that that would actually be an indication of something which is deeper and I'm looking today for something which is much more obvious and much and and is so obvious actually my question then is has have people missed it if we wanted to be more academic than we could uh we can accuse me today of doing something which I would call a more literary approach if on the other hand we want to be again more yeshivish then we'll say we're very interested today inot what does it say what does it actually say and therefore then what does that give me so just to go back one step I think that there are those who will take this theological battle and then overstate this or state it or see it and everything this whole thing is about God's using God's strength and proving God's dominion over everything and then look for the god element in in it all which is interesting and again not taking any away anything away from God but I've already pointed out that we have at least three and maybe four different audiences that we're interested in one audience is okay is Egypt the other you know power Egypt we conclude them together other is from God's perspective which we can't really imagine and the other is is going to be from our perspective if you want to continue the hour it's our and the people that are there at the time and then it's hour in the future and and let's admit something because that's actually where where it gets a little weaker hour in the future or all the commentaries on the hagada which very often are very you know imaginative and have nothing to do with what really actually happened at the time but what they're trying to do is something which is very good let let me make the Torah meaningful for me let me make it real for me let me make it something which has an application going out throughout the the generations I've years and years ago I I can't even tell you how many years ago I gave a class trying to show the evolving face in the various art of in in the hag of the of the wicked son and to and to show and to show how the wicked son is updated to mean different things in in different Generations but that and the wicked Son by the way to what extent is that actually in the text or to what extent is the wicked son something which is forced in this in the text I mean I I don't think he's there I don't think he's there in theot in uh in the Kish and it's uh it's actually very interesting why he does get placed there but there is something which is evolving and we do want to make it relevant and therefore there is going to be interpretation coming from our perspective and you know I don't have to talk about Torah now this is true in any time that we get involved in in any kind of art and I'll include Torah as an art it's an art it's a literature it's Theology and anytime there's art there is the original attention the artist and then there is how does it move me how does it move the person who's looking at it which is which is subjective you can we can get to postmodern when we say who cares what the person had in mind and it's only going to be my perspective and uh and they didn't know what they were talking about in the first place and and but but I said that doesn't interest me today what interests me today is not my modern perspective what interests me today is not necessarily any allinclusive approach cuz I think that I think that really in the text it does suggest that there are multiple ways of looking at this and I'm very comfortable with looking in multiple ways and and when possible I I'll even point out my my hesitation and now the only question is where we are actually supposed to begin see if I aish maybe I would consider even looking inside the the the the the the first the first thing that would interest me even though it's not what I have over here is the First Source the the first thing that interest me is let's then go back to when mosha arrives at the palace so Moshe does two things when he arrives one thing is the staff of Aon gets turned into a tanin and the tanin is interesting because the tanin is not necessarily what it was turned into when they were by the burning bush at the burning bush there it says Nash Rashi works with our favorite theory of conservation of of animals reptiles oh of reptiles theory of conservation of reptiles by essentially saying okay don't read the don't read the text carefully a Nash is a is a reptile and tanin is a reptile or or although there is a very big difference between the two now in a share that I gave in uh three years ago I I I noted then that the Nash doesn't leave that cuz that doesn't bother me I I don't believe it can really literally be Nash which so frightens Moshe Moshe is somebody who works all day as out in the field with his flock I am he sees serpents all the time he smacks them with the stick I I don't believe that that would be something on the other hand you're talking about a serpent which represents sin in the Garden of Eden that to me is much more uh is much more frightening and that would explain moshe's response much more that's mosha mosha staff turned into a nahash again that's back in chapter 3 now now in chapter 7 what we have is Aon in front of in front of parro turning his staff and it comes a tanin now now tanin is is is obviously very interesting especially later on when we find the verse inesco which should have been completely predictable When God says I'm on to you parro king of MIM right theim right the great crocodile who slithers around his River and says that the river is mine and I create and I created it which means that verse there later on now indicates something which is theological which means we just now easily went into the realm of Theology and the other thing which is interesting and and it's almost too obvious somebody could have insisted well why is that not a plague so now Define plague so you would say well plague how many people have to suffer in a plague which means what what how bad is something to parro could not have felt that good about and and then he his people do it but then Aron's staff by the way it doesn't say his ten his staff swallows them theologically that's absolutely devastating for parro parro who identifies as the as the crocodile and it can all boother bother Michael afterwards in terms of his knowledge of egyptology and to what extent crocodiles were included within the mythology which they self-identified with so again look what we just did for us the crocodiles today don't meet all that much unless we're talking about what what in Florida it would have been an alligator so again that that all means less to us but that's a Powerful Beast it's an and it's a mean animal as far as I can tell I'm sure as far as I can tell it's very mean I'm I know someone's gonna someone's going to write me now and say what are you talking about they're misunderstood you don't worry you don't get the you don't get the fan mail what they fulfill their biological nich they do what they were cre to do that's right nonetheless parro is identifying with this not nice animal which is really quite powerful and swallows things so to have aon's stick be turned into one and then the others turn into now by the way that itself to me is completely mystifying that we have to come back to obviously how do they how are they able to do this is this real is this light of hand is this D copper failed is this black magic I mean what what exactly is going on actually I I had dinner whatever a couple years ago with somebody who I know for a while and he mentioned in P oh yeah David Cal is my cousin like you imagine him coming to the Seder the guy's going to steal the ayoma he's going to make it disappear right turn the aicom into a pigeon and okay but the text actually then suggests that Aon sta then swallows the other crocodile which means our power you know this old Jew that's what Aon is he's an old Jew he's an old Jew he's walking with the staff and his staff can swallow the symbolism of all of Egypt that's something which is devastating for those who are watching this now one of the things that occupies us all along the way and again I I don't want to get lost on this but it does occupy us all the way and that is God's involvement but but I I don't talk about God's involvement in terms of the Cardiology and hardening his heart but but hold on that for a second safe for mode as a whole is about God being involved in history a god being involved in humanity a God who creates the world and then for the most part again you're going to tell me the couple of episodes in braet but for the most part then God backs away and lets the world run on almost automatic pilot yes I know I'm I'm I'm aware of a talking Serpent and I'm aware of this I'm aware of the flood and I'm aware of stone and Amora being overturned but I'll say it again for the most part god is working behind the scenes in the various events one thing that he does do constantly again this is something we've noticed constantly I don't know to what extent it bothered you and that is that God God actually heart I don't the word Harden isn't used or everyone would have gotten it already God manipulates various people's thought processes or he gets involved and gives people warnings along the way and that happens constantly with people who are of power who want to do things which are bad and God says uh you know fall in line right this is not going to work out for you very well and now you can choose you know which obviously in the text he does it to aiel and he does it and he does it to Lavan saying that's that's obvious because it says it it says in the text personally I believe that he does it to asov as well I think why that's why ASV is so nice now the question is if we keep going how many other times did that really happened that we didn't know notice did he did did ysep really give better advice than everybody else did maybe we like to think that right he's a nice Jewish boy so of course he was smarter than everybody else or does God say okay this is the one you're going to love what he says I mean and I'm just saying is there a manipulation because this is the way that the story has to take place so therefore whenever there's there is something that has to happen again you don't want to say that so did God cause him to get angry at those particular people and throw them into prison in order that is able to help them I'm I'm saying that that God if he is God is involved in bit but he's involved behind the scenes but behind the scenes includes perhaps manipulating a couple people along the way so now so now we're going to get to parro and we're suddenly get very very troubled by this and say oh how can he right and we're going to get to philosophical problems how in the world could uh God could God Harden his heart and can we limit the question for a second because it really is limited the question is the problem of Free Will first of all free will is completely over overrated right you don't have as much free will as you think you do okay you're born in certain environments there's certain genetic things you certain socioeconomic and we can continue essentially you you're dealt a hand now how you going to play the hand that you're dealt you don't get to choose the cards so let's let let's be let's be very very honest about that that it's much more limited than sometimes we think the issue of free will is an issue of reward and Punishment which means the with the with the cards that I was dealt now the question is to what extent will I be ethical or unethical what will my responses be good bad helpful not helpful and and it's all about reward and Punishment so here's the thing we don't want to think about could it be that at certain times that God suspends our free will because we're Pawn in somebody else's story in order for something else to happen so what's the big difference then the big difference is that I don't necessarily get rewarded or punishment for that particular thing because I may not really have been in complete control to make that kind of a decision because there was something which was larger or different that had to take place at that time so I'm going to say it again the whole issue of Free Will is not that we have this total right to Free Will in every situation to do anything that we want that's a complete exaggeration rather the issue of free will is that situations that we're placed in if there's going to be reward or punishment then we had to to a certain extent be able to make choices in terms of what it is that we're going to do so the problem of God's hardening parro's heart is not a problem in terms of God manipulating history because God has every right to manipulate history God can do that whenever God chooses and sometimes we'll notice it and sometimes perhaps won't notice it but the issue is then going to be one of reward or punishment so with that whole Preamble it's some of the people I don't want to name any names now I'll get into trouble some of the people who discussed this confused every one because essentially they set up a problem hold it how can power will be punished when God hardens his heart and the reality is the other is is completely the other way around and right and I've said this so many times the reality is the other way around what does parro want what does he really want or if he was a Spice Girl what does he really really want right what what does parro want and the answer is he wants to how do you know that even the the the the answer is that he wants to hold on to his slaves he wants the Free Labor he wants the feeling of power so now what is taking that away from him answer the plagues the plagues are making him feel weak he's going to have a hard time sleeping at night he doesn't feel as confident as he did before so therefore when God hardens his heart did he take away his free will or did he give him back his free will the answer is obvious he gives him back the free will to allow him to do that which he really does so how could meaning the other it should have been the other way around if power would have freed the slaves after God does plague number 1 2 3 4 and 5 then what reward should he get he's just been completely intimidated by something which is far more powerful than him should we all applaud parro look what a wonderful ethical person he is by releasing his slaves or essentially he was brought to his knees and he can't fight anymore and he's about to give up and do something he doesn't want to do that's the important part so therefore to try to create the Harding of the heart and that's the philosophical problem that's just not the case which means when God gets involved in history and that's the larger issue which takes place in schmoe is suddenly God gets involved in history so miraculous things that were set up in the six days of creation start working very very differently which means what the plagues are are a change with the nature and maybe and maybe the best plague is going to be barad because not only are you going to have the hell coming but but it's hail and fire together it's ice and fire together complete opposites and how do they coexist and how does this actually happen so again maybe someone's going to find some scientific explanation for it but I'm just saying looking at the rules of nature changing that is something which parro is watching and and and there how do you deal with this so I'll say it again it's the plagues which take away the Free Will it's seeing the miraculous which takes away the free will when God hardens his heart he lets him do again what he really wants to do and therefore this whole Phil this whole imagined philosophical problem doesn't really seem to exist you know you you're going to agree with me right I was just ask question okay so when the last plue happens is he now intimidated that he finally agrees because all these first born died or what what exactly happens in his psychological and his psyche at that point presumably his psychologist has uh has professional responsibilities and is not able to really share that with us right or you want you want me to answer a little I don't know I don't I don't I don't know what he's experiencing again of course he's intimidated again of course the hardening is not hard enough well well well it's going to pick up some when he's going to chase them down afterwards yeah so he's he's going to recover now you're going to ask me is he taking that medication is he like what come on I'm I'm not allow to answer some of these questions asent privacy it's not right it's not right it's not right so but again we've noticed a number of things now we've noticed that and and again I I've been talking much more from the theological perspective again meeting then nature and that that's really what's interesting because God's ability to k nature so therefore is God now should I be totally focusing on on what's on what's taking place is God is judging the gods again the pagan gods control everything I mean for the most part you have things divided you know you have a God of this and a god of that and a God of this and and so on and and let just move over to this to the second thing that happens then which again that is considered a plague while the first one isn't considered a plague which is completely fascinating what's the what's the second thing that happens is is blood is blood so then when all the waters turn into blood so so now I want to be careful because I can easily go in two different ways so which way should we go first should we go first in terms of judgment or should we go first in terms of theology well we started theology let's contined theology going back on the same verse that I quoted in ycal that he is the god of the Nile and he created the Nile the Nile turning to blood is something which should have been completely completely if you're pyro how do you take this it's devastating it's absolutely devastating to see to see that somebody else has control not only somebody else has control of the of the Nile that in their mind to a certain extent this the the Nile is alive and amen the Nile is alive right it's alive body body of of water w w which climbs up and then goes and and irrigates and so on and and and because it looks like it's alive is why they're able then to see it as something which is animated and for the Nile and therefore all of the water which is coming at it turning into blood that's something which is completely devastating and again I'm contining on that theological level that the gods of Egypt are being judged but I can just as easily now move in the other direction how can I how how can I move and now again I'm saying I I just I'm giving you two level I don't want to say two levels of shot I'm I would be tempted to say two alternative understandings of shot but I'm not even going to say that they're Alternatives because I think that they coexist can you have can you have two levels of of Shad what is not coting I'm not following cuz I say the second one yeah once when Weinstein was teaching something and he mentioned that shirim I believe it was shirim works on two levels ofat and he says like Spencer's fairy queen okay I never read the fairy queen and uh I Spencer yeah he goes oh Spencer's very Cen it's good you're well read now also now now now you have home Lang literature is that that's the librarian or that's the teacher talking no that's when I went to college a long time a long time you didn't go to school in medieval right okay okay but uh no I remember that that was his response and every everyone don't don't feel bad everyone's just looking at him like like Spencer's very quick he the the The Legend is that at one time he was on a deis with rad and he mention that according to the rambam you can look at it this way and then he said but according to the Raj can this way but according to Doki you can read it like this and R comes over yes sorry oh God I I'll I'll see if I have it here someplace go and talk to parro the king of Egypt get in his face actually like it's very strong and say to him right the the power who slithers around the river like like like a crocodile who says the river is mine and I created it so that I'm say it's such a strong verse so yes so I'm using that to come back so but one second but I started to say that perhaps there two different levels of shot one level of shot would be that it's this war against the so-called gods of Egypt but what would the other level of shot be the other level would be so think a second the Nile gets turned to blood why should the Nile get turned to blood can we go backward to last week There's this scene that I think we misread because because we're decent and probably after October 7th we should not be decent we should not be decent the scene that I'm talking about is when the daughter of power goes down to bathe in the Nile do you realize how sick that is to bathe in the Nile they've been throwing all the babies in the Nile so therefore the Nile gets full of of and and by the way and there are crocodiles there so that's a wonderful combination between the crocodiles and and the babies and what a wonderful place to go on your uh on your vacation and or or to go to relax for the day let's have a day in the sun let's go down and uh I'm saying it it's a it's the Killing Fields right it's a killing water it's a place of it's this place of how do you pronounce it infanticide it it's it's this place of death and this aspect of death this aspect of killing Israel that goes back to my first point right God says I'm going to I'm going to judge the people and that was never supposed to be part of it who gave you the right to kill murder who gave you the right to murder babies so therefore for you've taken the Nile and you've turned this into a place that you're killing and then the Nile gets turned into blood essentially is again I I would call this again I'm ignoring now the the aspect of the Nile which is considered to be a God and I'm focusing on the aspect of the Nile which represents the heinous crimes of the Egyptians of parro so now the Nile turning to blood is God is essentially saying so you want blood in the Nile we can make as much blood in the Nile as you want but that's a very different approach so now I'm going to say so which correct and Moshe has this other interesting but but it's because of the problem that he that he is saved by by the Nile and the fact that the daughter of parro saves she becomes a she becomes a character who we're very sympathetic with because she ends up saving mosha and if you don't remember in she ends up marrying one of the Jews and leaves Egypt together and she joins the Jewish people she becomes she becomes a convert she she but my question is so who was the woman who went down and yes I you don't have to tell me I know the kazal that says that she went down cuz she wanted to immerse in the water in order to convert that was the that was going to be the Mikvah but but but that's really interesting is that really the right place I just want to say it again and and more important and more importantly is that really the shot of what is going on in that uh in in that particular in that particular verse but but what what I am now saying is that both of the suggestions that I suggested I think that they're both but they're coming from two different Vantage points about what's taking place and I'm going to say it again there are those who are going to try to read the theological all the way through and I think you can but I think you just may be missing something when you do that because judgment theolog the fact that the fact that God gets involved in history the fact that we have at least this moment in history where the bad guys gets punished and the good guys are saved is absolutely theolog logical but it's also judgment meaning it's also judgment in the sense that God is showing judgment again we believe that God is a fair judge but God's Fair judgment doesn't always Place take place on this world which is exactly the issue that that God is going to show well no sometimes the story is going to end the right way sometimes you're going to be able to see it that that that itself that that itself is part of redemption that itself is part of redemption there there there's um the villon makes a comment about this when he uh when he talks about drinking on purm I know you're thinking to yourselves why am I thinking now about drinking on P but the Von when it talks about that he starts to drink what he comments is is that you drank he doesn't say you get drunk out of your mind he's still a lak he's not a and he says that you drink and then you contemplate that philosophical question what really is the important thing in life is to see is the important thing is that the wicked get punished or is it or is it bar that God will end up blessing the the righteous which means to to see God's judgment in history to see that that actually the bad guys suffer at some point then that the good guys get rewarded or the bad guys get punished at some point and the good guys get rewarded that's something which is part of of a Redemption and that's part of what takes place over here and again let's be honest it does not always take in history and we're not always able to uh to see that or to witness so so I yes I agree with you that the very fact that God is involved in judging once you put God in a sentence you can then say Oh that must be theological but my point when I was trying to draw the distinction before it's very different if the Nile is turning into blood because parro imagines that he's the god of the Nile that I'm calling completely theological or is it judicial because they tortured the Jews by throwing the Bab babies into the Nile and therefore the Nile is going to turn to blood as and that I'm quing judicial either way you can you can say oh theological no that that's why I'm going to and essentially what I what I was doing was going into the two different verses are we being motivated by the verse that I'm going to judge the gods of Egypt or is it a motivated us that the nation that did this I am going to judge them so what do are we dealing with punishment for them or we dealing with their their their way of looking at the world and way of looking at uh at God so so I I hope all of that work worked a little bit as an introduction to what I want you to to to to cuz because because I didn't get up to the First Source yet B 12:00 but but no but I was trying to help those who don't have the sources so therefore that we can talk in a much more uh General sense when when we get to what I have as the First Source and and it's we we we skipped a little bit we were down the line and uh but I'm going to come back to some so we're getting to this thing called a ro a ro we generally called wild animals so this is so something is introduced over here which I also want to address and that is that the land of Goan is not going to be impacted by this so now if I were to ask you off the top of your heads completely unfair but it's fair because we have a collective I think 700 star room that you've been to over the years right how many of the plagues does it state that distinction between the Jews does it state it between the Jews and between the Egyptians and how many of them don't or maybe maybe I missed a question maybe I missed a step did all 10 plagues did they only were only the Egyptians punished by this or did the Israel Israelites also suffer so for example when the Nile turns into into water did the Jews have did the Jews have water to drink or no the Jewish can I can I now rephr can I rephrase my question now because that that was like the introduction to the question of the 10 plagues how many of them does the text Clearly say that it was only the Egyptians who suffered to not the Jews or is it really old 10 it's okay to say I don't know is a good answer good it says but but but that's good because now we're like up to nine already so so so we have one or two before then so so so again my question is did it does it say it by all 10 or does it not so that that's a yes or no so the answer is it doesn't say it by all 10 so now so which one does it say so that now now that's another that's a better question now I could just leave it like this and say so you do what I do and go look it up and and and read it actually three times to make sure you didn't miss anything there along the way and don't trust anybody right that's the first thing don't trust anybody because uh because once you go to the midrashim for example you'll get to some interesting things again the the best and maybe the most famous midrash is is is the one that at least again I I don't I I don't want to make everybody feel bad but it's the one at least some of us learned as kids and that is that when they were that if a Jew or an Israelite and an Egyptian were drinking with two straws coming out of the same glass and one was water one was blood and I think all of us saw visuals of this in some ha right I don't know which I I'm sorry my I focus on wickedness and when I look do that in our s you do that in the S red jell on the bottom and then we pour red some we pour and some are clear one year my one of my grandsons cried so hard we had a St got the red where did this where did this come from from what's the matter with you what's what's the matter with you people I I just have one question for you did this come from New Mexico or did this come from Vegas this is definely Vegas this was Veg it's the show it was the show was D coer failed out this yeah but how do you do but how did yellow was in that little bit yellow the bottom red when you pour yellow is white I hope that I have I hope that I have I hope that I have insurance Mal practice insurance by any shock that any poor child going to experience and the therapy that they're going to need afterwards because of the irresponsible people in this room um it's in it's in Raba I I'll I'll read to you a second you don't have in front of you so it says that if they would drink water from a Jews water but that itself is interesting because it never said that that it was only by the Jews but there's actually a problem that needs to be uh addressed so should we stay with the we'll stay with the D we'll stay with the D for a second so let let me actually read read the verses the dam if I can in in per Zion y z Rashi comments which say so essentially saying if you hit the Nile you then by extension have hit everything else cu the Nile does come up and causes all the water now technically I don't know again I'm not questioning rash I just don't know what really goes on in all water sources and so on and in Egypt they they worship the nus the the N the therefore God struck their God what they believed inam means what they believed in they had for what they uh worshiped so this rash is interesting for a whole bunch of reasons one is that Rashi just provided us with a reason and which direction did he go the direction that he went was the was the more theological one they worshiped the N means Rashi knows that aware of that he moves in that he goes in that direction I'm I'm sorry for going back and forth and I don't want to confuse more than necessary but when we get to the arov which is where I started and there it did say okay let's just I I want to read so it says it's going to happen here but it's not going to happen in go and there will therefore be a distinction between the two peoples comes and attacks everything so Rashi here writes by the way the rash says it was mainly wolves wild wolves but Rashi says all kinds of animals andash says by the way if you look at the M now this I was very tempted to give you all these MIM that they give reasons for each one why now one of the reasons you can't trust what you read is there's a whole cottage industry of commentaries on rashi rashi wrote A Commentary and then you have all kinds of people who wrote super commentaries if you will that who wrote commentaries on Rashi one of the more famous ones is the Mah in the the Mahal here writes on that phrase he didn't ask why they you didn't ask well it's true he doesn't use that phrase why did but he did ask Rashi just said why you came so I I don't know how the maharal missed Rashi again I'm I'm a little mystified how he can possibly write this and then he goes into a whole explanation between the difference between Dam Anda versus uh versus arov arov the animals are far away and over here these things are are nearby and and and I'll say it again anybody who wants to go go look at this maharal and try to defend what he's doing over here I'd be very happy but it's very strange because we just now saw Rashi does ask the question why is the Nile being turned to blood and he gives us an answer he goes this is what was a God for them so therefore that whole theological approach is is introduced now before I go back to the blood for a second I I did skip over over frogs and and we should never skipped over frogs it was you were green today I say in in in honor of the frogs and that's you know a lot of soldiers wearing green today in uh in honor of the frogs and uh and we completely respect that but but I I I want to not something in Source number six which is per when it describes the frogs coming out it says and how do you want to translate the word you yeah you like that swarm I don't know if I knew I wouldn't have asked I don't know the shat exactly exactly so so okay so so hold on hold on for a second second um what exactly are frogs these are um these are these are very these are these are reptiles now by the way there some commentaries will go back to that the that they weren't there they they were spontaneous generated in the water the gave birth to and that's again that's this much more theological approach look what God's power is God can spontaneously create these things on the other hand I I do want you to think about goal for a second and uh I don't normally say that and and uh and and and and think about propaganda against the Jews they made movies and they tried to explain again what did they do against the Jews it wasn't murder and it wasn't killing in their minds what was it no no even extermination extermination so what do you exterminate you you exterminate bugs so it's so the word vat over here is is one of of these things just coming all over the place which is much more in the word sheret right as well is much more in uh yeah infestation is much more in in that direction and I would have been tempted to have compared that to Source number seven which is right in the beginning of the is it became so multi so so numerous and that's exactly where Power is coming from oh we got a Jewish problem there are so many of them there's a population right these people and and by the way and then in the defense afterwards you got to kill them and and what's the defense the defense is oh the Jewish women are you remember word word they use kot so I would be so tempted now to read these two plagues in terms of the frogs we haveu and then the wild animals that are coming in terms of a response to parro's whole beginning of his attack against the Jews for being numerous now look what I just now did what what I did is I much more tried to stay within theat to read the words to read the verses and to say okay again I'm deliberately moving away from oh well look at God's power of course it's all about God's power I me I'm saying but and I'm also willing to say that it's the two of them coming together again I don't have to make that choice but what I am saying is don't miss the linguistic or the literary connections which are taking place because I think that there is a lot to be gained by simply reading what the words say as opposed to Moving Straight to a theological argument which kind of ignores what thead actually says I mean that that that's really what I wanted to get to but I want to do one more level of that which goes back to our problem with the the water and and ultimately by extension it goes back to this problem of uh who is it or who are the people who are suffering by this is it only the Egyptians are also the Jews and now we know that there are some that say it and some don't say say but we see if you'll take that midash and just you know extrapolate from that midash that means already it was important by the first one by D to already say Oh look The Jew the Jews had water the Jews had water and there and therefore I can then say by all of them some it says it and some it doesn't say it but didn't have I didn't need that I didn't need that because now I realize that God is coming again to judge the Egyptians so why should the Jews suffer meaning this is not the kind of thing that there should be any kind of Al damage which means essentially that would be the approach if all of this is God judging this nation that does something which is wrong so there it makes no sense at all that we should suffer and I think that that is the midrashic mindset and by the way I Googled that last night to see uh to see what people say about this it was very intrigued what what people say about this and I found that in a lot of Christian sources as well websites they're going back and forth arguing what wh shot in the in the PC is did did they suffer did they not suffer suffer and and so on and here it says it here it doesn't say it so so I noted that this thing that this thing absolutely has captured the imagination of many people where it does stated by three of them right clearly now the question is how many more of them is this the case but but I want to go back because there's another issue about the water and after and I always find this a little bit amusing but I'm not sure exactly if that's the the right word to use when when the Nile is turned into blood then we once again have parro's henchmen who are around who also do something but what water do they have which means if all the water is already turned into blood so what w do they have where they're now doing something which is similar now I can say the whole thing is light of hand I could say that the whole thing is is um it's it's not real it's that it looks like water again if I'm dealing with magicians so now I go back to what I said before is it slide of hand they don't really have water or it's not really blood and they they found your powder or they found your Jell-O or they found whatever uh whatever things you were doing but it's not but it's not real it's not blood could scare some people but it's not it's not blood or do they actually have water but if they did have water what do they have water from so again what always amused me is that if they did have some more water left and they turned that into blood as well so now theyve of obviously nothing doing but where did the W to come from so that's a question which actually bothers lots of uh lots of commentaries Rashi avoided I think this for the most part that midash that I quoted to you could have been used to say oh look the Jews had Ward and they don't and and that would have been the end of the of the discussion the mid again you don't have this in front of you this was black magic so we saying yeah so again God somehow allows them to do black magic that's really interesting because now I have to go back to what I'd said from the no towards the beginning I'm going back that now God is doing what he's hardening their hearts how's he hardening their hearts by giving them the ability to ignore what they just now saw right meaning I I don't think any of you imagine that this no this is itself hardening the heart because when you see something miraculous you should have lost your free will at that point but when your henchmen can now use black magic and do the same thing okay so they're also doing black magic and that gives you more Resolve so right am I correct about this that you never thought about that in in within those particular terms and say okay but that's I'm just extending what the midad says and once again a little Poetic Justice here midad is a midash that was found in the G in Cairo so therefore I find it appropriate to use an Egyptian an an Egyptian midash in order to explain what took place in Egypt I just as I said it's Poetic Justice right so it's saying that that that these things are all kinds of magical things which are taking place the iban Ezra asked the question where do they find water from now I hope you realize that's a really fair question if I'm assuming that all the water became which means they left him the possibility to go and dig oh you want some water good go and dig you'll find some order and they made it look like it turned to blood so again they had to work really hard again the timeline of this is also interesting because he turns all the water they have to go start digging for water that that's sometimes takes a little bit of time is it easy to dig in uh in Egypt [Music] no right second so essentially they're saying again they went down to to the river and and and moson turns this whole moving body of water into so whatever keeps on coming his old blood and they took a little cup and they did something in a little cup which the benzar is claiming is not as impressive now there are a number of Balia tovot and if you don't know this I'll say it again we generally don't really learn tovot on Kish as much as we should there's a whole bunch of them a whole bunch in manuscripts a whole bunch have been published and they just didn't make it to the mro for the most part there is sometimes to the rush B is in some places not in all places but they very much just like to on the gamar tend to all ask the same questions and then very often give the same approaches that they've they're coming from one tradition and I'll read to you two of them one is he writes same question Izar asks and by the way Izar when he travels to Spain he ends up meeting the B when he comes to France and he is influenced to some extent so therefore I I can't ask did he he have this question before did he hear about this question but I'm leaving that for the moment and how do they have blood that go was never impacted by any of the plagues so there you have that broad across the L but now that's interesting because it's very interesting actually now the question is how much damage did they do in Goan I I can read it from the right and and he quotes another one of the more famous and so on he goes I also found a little evidence of this in as well now I don't know how far to push this but I want to go a little a bit further and at least raise a possibility that we're dealing with black magic I I I don't know that much about black magic and apparently God allows such things to happen what if mosha and Aon and maybe more importantly AR over here turn the Nile into blood and now and and that's devastating for Egypt and and that's plague number one and that's a punishment now you can go either way as I told you there's two different ways of reading it one the punishment against the gods of Egypt and the other punishment against you God's belief system and so on and the other punishment for them for the actions of what they've done and now what if now they turn water and that's that's what's troubling which water so now so if it's the water and Goan how wide was this how broad was this how much water did they do did they just now turn all the water of Goan into blood and now I know you don't want to say this but I want you to think about that for a second if what's taking place over here as God is smacking but then he's going to lift them up a little bit give them ability because they're going to return the free will let power move on let power will have returned his free will after seeing something which is devastating and yes we talked about power of psychologist before we talked about his cardiologist and his psychologist and maybe a psychiatrist I mean pyro is not having a good day pyro has to go see all kinds of Specialists and you know sometimes take I guess if you're P you don't have to wait a line or anything but Pap power is not having a good day so now is God going to prop him up to get ready for the next plague which is part of the Judgment that's going to take place in order to prop him up and know how wide does it have to be so it always troubled me that Aon could turn the whole Nile which keeps him flowing into blood and he could take a little cup and say oh look you know I got some Jello-O on the bottom and uh okay now we're even or did God allow through black magic for this to take place in a much broader sense so that's why I find it interesting I'm not saying that anybody went as far as I just now went but that's what I find really interesting that they saying oh where was the water from how did they turn water well in Goan there's water so no and they turn they turn the water of Goan into blood okay how much was it one cup one house the whole place now if it's everything now you understand how parro has the resolve and the ability to go further because essentially God God knocks him down lifts him up why because he's got a couple more things coming to him why because he's done some really bad things and as I said this also is a a problem which emerges fromat what's theot how do they turn water into blood two levels of the problem what water do they have and how do they do it so that God allowed them to do black magic great that God what water well maybe the W and Goan God allowed to now how how widespread was this how profound was this how many how much water was affected by it so now we just look at the larger story which is taking place over here and that's what and that's what I'm insisting is that giving them the ability of doing certain things is perhaps the same thing that we hear as we're moving forward that God gotten hardens his heart gives him resolve gives him the ability in order to go further why because a very long time ago God said to Abraham and I'm going to judge this nation and when I judge them they're going to be deserving of if they're deserving of punishment they're going to be getting their punishment and they've done certain things here along the way and and that's what really what I've tried to do today not to talk about the way that some do how each one of these leg shows God's power over a different kind of Realm God's power I think is quite manifest and quite understanding to us and we understand what God is doing over here and that's why I prefer to look at theot hints I don't even want to call it a remes or hint that things that emerge from reading the descriptions back and earlier what the Egyptians did you look one of these is going to be so clear and that's the that's going to be the final plague when When God Says to mosha go to parro and tell him that Israel is my firstborn if you kill my firstborn I'm going to kill your firstborn which means yes that's the way that we should be reading this look what they did this is the Dan Ani I'm going to be judging you and the things that you've done are going to come back to you so that therefore it's interesting oh you you called the Jews insects right that they were like sherids so now the frogs suddenly come all over sh you call them animals suddenly the animals come so so again what what I'm pointing at over here is I prefer to read these as judgments and again I'm not getting through all of them I'm giving direction this is what I think that needs to be done you can go back and your homework is to go and take a look which which one of the plagues actually says it which one it doesn't say it but uh the problem of where the W comes from Still Still Remains so I think that this was uh at least one way of resolving it