When my wife and I first sat down to watch our wedding video, we were amazed. There was so much we had missed! Several people were there that I hadn’t seen, someone took the mic and sang during the dancing…incredible…we didn’t realize everything that went on! We each experienced our wedding from our own vantage point, but there was so much more going on.
When learning the parshios that discuss the Ten Makkos (Plagues), sometimes I think, “I wish I had been there and had seen all those miracles. I would be a bigger believer in Hashem.” In truth, Rabbi Matisyahu Solomon explains that we grow much more by learning what the Torah records than by actually experiencing the event. If we had been there, we would have only seen our own slice of the puzzle. We wouldn’t have known what was happening outside of our immediate surroundings. Moreover, we wouldn’t have noticed the many details of the great wonders and miracles that had occurred. Hashem recorded it all for us so we could develop our emunah in Hashem directly from the miracles recorded. It’s like watching your wedding video.
Further, if we had experienced the Ten Makkos personally, we might have been swayed by the many naysayers, scientists and experts who would give “logical” explanations of the occurrences and events at the time. For example, they would say that the plague of blood was a result of climate change combined with a volcanic eruption which dumped red lava into the Nile; the frogs emerged from the Nile as a mutation that occurred from an affliction of the Nile River, and the lice were a result of the decay of the piles of dead frogs. The list goes on.
Last year on Parshas Vaera, my twin grandsons came to our house for Shabbos. They brought along cupcakes from a local bakery, with the frosting on top of the cupcakes looking like frogs. As I watched my 4-year-old grandson eat one, I thought to myself, “This is a real fulfillment of the plague of frogs.” The pasuk says that the frogs went into the Egyptians’ homes, bedrooms, ovens and utensils.” Rashi quotes the midrash that they even went into people’s stomachs!
Rav Salomon notes that we can learn a tremendous lesson regarding the absolute truth of the Torah from the plagues of frogs and locusts. There’s a phenomenon that has been documented historically that locust plagues (common in Africa) never once entered Egypt after the Ten Plagues. This is because the pasuk states, “There did not remain even one locust in all the borders of Mitzrayim.” This created a “protection” from locusts throughout the millennia. Not so with the frogs. The pasuk says, “The frogs shall be removed from you, your homes, servants and nation; they will only remain in the Nile.” Ibn Ezra quotes commentaries who say that the tzefardea was not a frog at all, but rather something similar to a crocodile, a fierce vicious reptile, which remains in the Nile to this day! This demonstrates the absolute authenticity of the Torah.
Another miracle occurred during the plague of the frogs. The Torah says that the frogs will first enter the palace of Pharaoh, then into all its rooms, and from there they will spread out to the entire land. This is an incredible occurrence, as the frogs didn’t just jump all over the place, but rather they marched in a specific intended order to a specific destination and from there to the next destination and from there to the next one.
Moshe asked Pharaoh when he should pray that Hashem should remove the frogs. Pharaoh responded, “Tomorrow.” Moshe responded, “So it shall be, in order to demonstrate there is nothing like Hashem Our God.” Rav Matisyahu Salomon notes this description of Hashem is used to show that Hashem accepts the prayers of the Jewish nation. As stated in Parshas Vaeschanan, “Who is so close to the Jewish Nation who answers them whenever they call out to Him?”
The miracles of the makkos give us great encouragement that in whatever situation we might find ourselves, when we call out to Hashem, He listens and He will answer.
May all our sincere prayers to Hashem be answered positively!
Rabbi Baruch Bodenheim is the Rosh Yeshiva of Passaic Torah Institute (PTI)/Yeshiva Ner Boruch. Rabbi Bodenheim can be reached at [email protected]. For more info about PTI and its Torah classes, visit www.pti.shulcloud.com