The Last Three Plagues

There are two tiers of growth in our spiritual lives. We begin with lessons that touch us on the surface and have a limited impact. These temporary measures must be followed by more powerful influences that are all pervasive. We must see to it that the message of liberation consumes us, penetrates to the very core of our existence and that it reveals that part of our soul that is immortal and everlasting.

Two Categories of Plagues

The Ten Plagues are divided into two categories. The first seven were discussed in last week’s parsha, while the remaining three (locust, darkness and the death of the first-born) are reserved for this week’s parsha.

When we read about these ten plagues, and more specifically the last three, two questions come to mind:

First, why were the last three plagues not discussed together with the first seven? Why did they have to be separated into two sections?

Second, why was the plague of darkness next to the last plague? From all accounts it appears that the plagues were progressively devastating. We can easily comprehend how the death of the first-born was the last of the plagues. We can even understand why the plague of locusts followed the six previous ones. By consuming all their food, people would starve to death. But to live in darkness for a few days was just a nuisance and can hardly be compared to many of the earlier plagues.

The answer to these questions is that the three plagues that appear in this week’s parsha are of an entirely different order.

While the first seven plagues were spectacular, destructive and painful, they were of a temporary duration. After the week of blood, the water returned to normal. The same is true for the frogs, lice, mixture of wild animals, the pestilence, boils and hail.

Human beings are extremely resilient creatures, Even when dealt a powerful blow, we have the ability to regain our strength to continue on with life and not be touched or significantly affected by the pain of the past. Even the pain at the loss of a loved one is gradually eased with the passage of time.

All Pervasive

The second set of plagues that are introduced in this week’s parsha are of an entirely different order.

The plague of locust was all pervasive. It extended from one end of Egypt to the other. Moreover, it did not only impact their lives during the week of the plague itself, but it also affected the future of the Egyptian people. Without their crops that year, famine and death would be widespread throughout the land.

In short, the plague of Locust was enduring and allencompassing.

No Comfort

But even when one is afflicted with horrible suffering, the human condition enables them to find some measure of comfort and solace in the security of their home. Some people can withdraw into themselves and become impervious to the pain that touches their bodies.

The plague of darkness was so pervasive that it entered into their homes. The terror and paralysis that this darkness caused penetrated to the very core of their being. As our Sages tell us that one who was sitting at the onset of this plague could not stand and one who was standing could not sit. This means that the fear and terror was so profound that it left no “inner space” from which one can draw some measure of solace and enjoy some degree of respite.

If the plague of locust pervaded all of their outer space – “It will obscure the view of the earth” – the plague of darkness, in an unprecedented fashion, penetrated and permeated their “inner space.”

No Immortality

And finally the plague of the first born came and extended the character of G-d’s punishment of the Egyptians to a new depth.

The human being wants immortality, and we have it through our progeny.

This is why a parent will sacrifice everything – life and limb – for his or her child. The child represents the essence of the parent.

We can achieve this degree of immortality, more specifically, when our children follow in our footsteps and carry on the legacy we leave them. It is the most fervent wish of a person for his or her progeny to follow in their footsteps.

In ancient cultures, the first born was expected to assume the role of the father in the next generation. They were the priests and the leaders. With the death of the first-born Egyptians, they were not only dealt a devastating blow because the loss of one of their children, but it went even further. With this plague, that part of their being that is immortal was destroyed. There could not have been a greater blow to them than through this plague.

Two Tiers of our Education

As we mentioned in many of our essays, the plagues must also serve as educational tools for our own moral and spiritual development. The plagues can also be viewed as ways of energizing ourselves with spiritual power.

And since the Ten Plagues led to the Exodus from Egypt, it follows that by implementing the positive lessons from these plagues we are better prepared for the final Redemption through Moshiach. More specifically, since the plagues are divided into two phases, the lesson we are to derive from them must also be divided into two parts.

Upon reflection we will see that there are two tiers of growth in our spiritual lives.

We begin with lessons that touch us on the surface and have a limited impact.

These temporary measures must be followed by more powerful influences that are all pervasive; measures that parallel the qualitatively more dramatic last three plagues.

The Lesson of the Plague of Locusts: Breadth

When we attempt to extricate ourselves from the negative forces associated with Galus-exile, it does not suffice to pay mere lip service to the idea of Redemption. By remembering and mentioning the Exodus every day we set the stage for internalization of the message of Redemption, which must affect every facet of our lives. In every aspect of our life—in all of our actions, speech and even thought—we must instill the message of Moshiach and Geulah/Redemption.

Every Mitzvah we do has to connect to the idea that I brings us a step closer to the Redemption and is what actually makes it happen. Even our mundane activities have to be inspired by our belief in the imminent coming of Moshiach.

In short, the entire view of the earth—i.e., our external personality expressed through our thought, speech and action, the way we see and know it now—will be obscured and overwhelmed by the force of Moshiach.

The Lesson of the Plague of Darkness: Depth

If the lesson of the plague of Locusts is that we must allow the message of Geulah spread through the breadth of our experience, the plague of darkness teaches us that we must allow the message of Geulah penetrate into the depth of our consciousness.

The message of liberation must penetrate beneath the surface, to the very core of our existence (corresponding to the plague of darkness), This means that the desire for and preoccupation with Geulah goes beyond the external faculties of thought, speech and action. It actually permeates our thought processes and emotions; the inner components of our personality. Our desire for Moshiach is heartfelt and deep because it expresses our most primal and essential feelings, just as the plague of darkness touched the very core of Egyptian society.

The Lesson of the Plague of the First-Born: Length

If the two preceding messages represent allowing the ideal of Redemption to pervade the breadth and depth of our experience, or the surface and subterranean levels of our personalities, the third message that we can derive from the last plague—the plague of the First Born—represents taking the message of Redemption and extending it “lengthwise” to the next generation.

This means that we cannot be content with making the message of Redemption resonate within our own psyche; we must also extend its message to the next generation.

However, there are two ways that we can view the transmission of our deals to the next generation. In can be by way of education, or it can by way of inheritance, whereby the child—particularly, the first born—actually takes the place of the parent. Inheritance according to the Torah does not involve the transfer of goods from one person to another; it is the one person becoming the other.

In this inheritance mode, the next generation derives from the essence of the preceding one. The child—and his child, ad infinitum—are all subsumed withn the soul of the father. And although the child might not inherit any of the father’s faculties, he or she nevertheless inherits the very essence of their father’s being.

Thus, the obsession with liberation on the third and higher level reveals that part of our soul that is immortal and everlasting (corresponding to the plague of the First-Born).

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob: A Study in Parallels

And just as the genesis of the Jewish people involved the three stages of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, so too, the final stage of the Jewish people’s existence at the end of exile involves these three stages represented by the three plagues.

The parallel is even more striking:

Abraham spread the knowledge of one G-d to the widest possible audience—breadth.

Isaac dug wells—penetrating the surface of the earth— enabling the message of Abraham to penetrate into the inner consciousness of society—depth.

Jacob—who became the father of the eternal Jewish peple—represents taking the ideals of Judaism and extending them to the end of time-length.

The Bottom Line

We must see to it that the message of liberation consumes us (corresponding to the plague of locusts) and penetrates to the very core of our existence (corresponding to the plague of darkness) and that it reveals that part of our soul that is immortal and everlasting (corresponding to the plague of the First-Born).

And while Judaism does not underestimate the power of even one Mitzvah, the Messianic Age is when we are capable of increasing our commitment, quantitatively as well as qualitatively.

From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Bo by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.