In Parshas Bo, the final three plagues are brought upon the Egyptians: locusts, darkness, and death of the firstborn. Pharaoh finally cracks and sends the Jewish people running. What is the message of the ten plagues for us today? Let us examine the ninth plague, the plague of Darkness.
There were three days of “thick darkness.” According to the Midrash, the Egyptians could not see, or even move. However, for the Jewish people it was different: They had light wherever they lived.
The Sages discuss this idea. Does it mean that the darkness did not affect the specific area where the Jewish people dwelt, the Land of Goshen? Or does it mean, more mysteriously, that for a Jew, even in the Egyptian areas, there was light in the darkness?
As explained by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, of blessed memory, these two opinions relate to our view of the world. One view is that there is a deep separation between the holy (the Jewish area) and the unholy (the idols of Egypt). In the holy realm it was light; in the unholy realm it was dark.
The second view is that the Jew in Egypt had the power to bring light to the realm of the unholy. Even in the Egyptian areas, where there was frighteningly thick darkness, the Jew could see. Ultimately the Jewish light within the darkness was visible to all.
This relates to our role in the world today. The Jew enters a realm of spiritual darkness, yet he or she has the power to bring light into that darkness, to illuminate the homes of the “Egyptians,” of the apparently secular and materialistic world. This freedom is not just for ourselves. We have the power of light in the darkness of Egypt so that we can bring the light of goodness and kindness, the light of peace and spirituality to the entire world.
In “light” of the recent tragedies in France, Israel, and the new wave of antisemitism being felt around the globe, we need to do all we can to “enlighten” our surroundings, and may it be God’s will that he redeem his people from their final exile, speedily in our days.
By Rabbi Mendy Kasowitz Chabad of West Orange
