## Divrei Negidim on Pesach Haggadah, Magid, First Fruits Declaration

###### Divrei Negidim on Pesach Haggadah, Magid, First Fruits Declaration 20:1
[Divrei Negidim on Pesach Haggadah, Magid, First Fruits Declaration 20:1](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Divrei%20Negidim%20on%20Pesach%20Haggadah/s/Magid,_First%20Fruits%20Declaration/r/20:1)

ביד חזקה זו הדבר ובזרוע נטויה זו החרב ובמורא גדול זו גלוי שכינה ובאותות זה המטה וכו׳ ובמופתים זה הדם וכו׳. הנה במאמר הזה יש לתמוה מאד עליו איך חבר הכתוב הדברים האלו יחד הדבר והחרב וגלוי שכינה והמטה והדם. ועוד למה מזכיר הדבר מכל שאר המכות. וכן מכת הדם. וכן מה שאמר ובזרוע נטויה זו החרב. איזה חרב היה במכת מצרים. אם הוא מכת בכורות קשיא למה זכר המכה הזאת אחר מכת הדבר ולפני מכת הדם. וכן מה שאמר ובאותות זה המטה. אע״ג שהמטה היה עושה בו האותות. למה יחשב לדבר בפני עצמו בשביל שהביא עליהם המכה. דע כי המאמר הזה הוא ענין גדול מאד מאד בחכמה שדרשו הכתוב הזה ויוציאנו ה׳ ממצרים ביד חזקה ובזרוע נטויה ובמורא גדול ובאותות ובמפתים על החמשה מיני מכות שבאו עליהם. שיש מכה שבאה בלא פעולה במקבל רק שהש״י מסלק עצמו מן הנמצא ועי״ז הנמצא נעדר. כי כל הנמצאים קיומם בו יתברך וכאשר הוא מסתיר פניו מהם אז יקבלו העדר ואינם נמצאים. ולפיכך הדבר הוא בא מחמת סלוק העילה מן הנמצאים ובזה הם נעדרים. וזה שאמר על הדבר ביד חזקה. כי קיום הנמצאים בהשגחתו ית׳ נקרא כח חזקת היד. כמו גבור גדול שידו חזקה להחזיק ולתמוך בה בנין גדול הנוטה לנפול. ובהסרת ידו אך רגע נופל הכל. ויש מכה שהוא כח פועל לגמרי במקבל. וזה שאמר ובזרוע נטויה זו החרב. כי חרב הוא כח פועל במקבל המכה וזה נקרא חרב. אבל גלוי שכינה הוא דבר ממוצע שאינו כמו החרב שהוא כח פועל במקבל ואינו כמו הדבר שאינו כח פעל במקבל כלל. כי גלוי שכינה שהוא המורא לא היה ע״י שהיה פועל בהם. שלא היתה השכינה פועלת היראה בהם רק שמצד גלוי שכינה בלבד התחדש ממילא מורא למקבל. ומ״מ יש כאן פועל שמגיע ממנו יראה אל המקבל. ואין זה פועל גמור בעצם. כי לא היה פועל היראה. וזה כמו ממוצע בין הדבר ובין החרב. דומה מצד מה שיש כאן פועל ומצד מה שאין כאן פועל. משל למלך גדול שבא למקום א׳ ובני אדם אשר שם מקבלים המורא. נחשב המורא שקבלו ואשר התפעלו שלא היה זה מן המלך רק כאלו מעצמו היה. שהרי הוא לא היה פועל המורא בעצם אלא שהם התפעלו בבואו לשם. ומ״מ מצד מה נחשב שהמלך פועל המורא. כי כאשר נגלה לשם באה מאתו המורא. ומה שאז״ל ביד חזקה זו הדבר. אין הפי׳ יד החזקה הוא הדבר בלבד אלא הדבר וכל אשר ממינו. וזרוע נטויה זו החרב וכל אשר ממינו. ובמורא גדול זו גלוי שכינה וכל אשר ממינו. והכוונה בזה שכל המכות שבאו על המצרים היו בענין אלו הג׳ דברים. או שהגיע להם הפחד מצד כי הש״י סלק עצמו מהם והיו לאפס מיד. או על ידי שהיה פועל בכחו בהם. או ע״י דבר ממוצע בין שניהם שהיו ממילא מקבלים הפעולה מן הש״י. וזהו כמו גילוי שכינה שהיו מתפעלים ממילא מגלוי השכינה. ועדיין אין כאן זכר אות או מופת כי אפשר ויכול להיות הכל בדרך הטבע כי אין הדבר והחרב וגלוי השכינה יציאה מן הטבע כלל:

**Rabbi Mark Greenspan:**
**The Types of Plagues**
**“With a mighty hand – this is a reference to pestilence. / With an outstretched arm – this refers to the sword. / With great terror - this refers to the revelation of the divine presence. / With sign – a reference to the staff. / And wonders – this refers to the blood.”**(Deut. 26:8) There are many questions regarding this passage. How does the *Haggadah*connect all these things together: pestilence, sword, revelation of the divine presence, the staff and the plague of blood? Why does it single out pestilence and blood from the plagues? What is the connection between an outstretched arm and the sword? To which sword is the *Haggadah*referring? If “sword” is a reference to the death of the first born, why does it appear after the reference to pestilence and before blood? ¹ Even if the staff was used to perform the other plagues, why single it out with the plagues? There is great wisdom to be derived from this passage as we shall see!
The verse, “God took us out of Egypt with a mighty hand, an outstretched arm, with great terror, with signs and wonders,” suggests that there were five types of plagues which were brought upon Egypt.
Some plagues take place because of God’s absence. All of creation is ordered through God’s protective presence so that when God’s presence is hidden, creation become susceptible to chaos. The plague of pestilence took because the authored of creation was removed. This aspect of God is referred to as, “A strong hand.” The world is maintained through God’s providential presence, called the power of “God’s strong hand.” It is like a mighty person who supports a building and keeps it from falling. As soon as he removes himself for even a second the entire structure collapses.
There are some plagues that are only take place through God's active intervention against the recipient. This is reference to as “the outstretched arm.” For these plague to take place God must act, just as someone must take hold of the sword and strike with it.
"The revelation of the divine presence" is in between these two types of plagues; it is not carried out by God directly, like the death of the firstborn, nor is it completely out of God's control, like pestilence. The Divine Presence which is referred to as *mora gadol*, great terror,¹(great terror) to the appearance of the Divine Presence? The word *mareh*means appearance and the word *Mora*(or *yirah)*means terror or fear. In true Midrashic fashion, the *Haggadah*plays on the similarity of these two words in Hebrew. Terror and awe result from the revelation of God through the plagues. does not come about because of an act performed against people. Rather the Divine Presence only causes terror to the extent that it inspires fear in the one who witnesses it. Still, one could say that without the Divine Presence there would not be *yira’ah*, fear of God, either. That is why it is in between the sword and pestilence. It can be compared to a king who visits a certain place and the people come to show reverence to the ruler. It is not the king himself who causes people to express reverence; it is the people's response to His presence. Yet it if king’s presence was not there they would not feel reverence for him, so, in a sense, he is responsible for it. It only occurs when the king appears in the place.
• A strong hand refers to pestilence and all those plagues that happen when God’s presence is removed.
• An outstretched arm refers to the sword and the plagues when God strikes the other party.
•And with great terribleness refers to the appearance of the Divine Presence and all the plagues like it. ¹
All the plagues that occurred in Egypt fell into these three categories: either they occurred when God removed the divine presence from them or God acted against the Egyptians with great might, or in some fashion acted in a way between these two.¹
Another way of thinking about the plagues is as signs and wonders. Some plagues happened through purely natural occurrences and not through a supernatural divine act. Pestilence, the sword and the appearance of the Divine Presence did not occur through natural phenomena.
Generally, in the *Midrash*, sign (*ot)*is associated with the heavens while wonders (*moftim*) are associated with the earth. Thus, we read, “Behold I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if the dew is on the fleece only and it is dry on all the ground elsewhere then shall I know that you will save Israel by my hand as you have said.” (Jud. 6:37) Yet in the *Haggadah*the staff is associated with “signs” and these signs are not in heaven! ¹
Rather *otot,*signs, refers to natural occurrences which are apparent in the world while *moftim*, wonders, refers to occurrences are not natural. Thus, with the heavens we see the occurrence but not necessarily see the outcome while with the earth we see the outcome but we don’t necessarily see the events that led to the occurrence.¹vs. wonders, *Mitpaalim v’ein poalim*. Think of it this way: no one sees the flower blossom – one day it is there and the next it is a beautiful flower. That is a wonder. On the other hand, we can actually watch the occurrence an eclipse in the sky even though the outcome does not affect us directly. When something occurs in the heavens telling us that such and such will occur, it is considered a “sign.” Similarly, the staff was a sign that the plagues would occur (and not the agent of the plagues). But when the event actually occurs and it is something completely new, outside the norms of nature, then it becomes a wonder.
There was no wonder like the plague of blood; it was completely outside of nature. The rest of the plagues could be explained as natural occurrences. It is natural for frogs to come out of the river or lice to rise up from the land. Wild animals are found in the land – it was just a matter of them finding their way to Egypt. The same can be said of pestilence, boils, hail and locusts. Even darkness was not unnatural, it was an absence of light. So there was nothing unnatural about these plagues. Similarly, the death of the first born was not outside of nature – something had to cause the natural death of the firstborn. 
These were the two means of causing the plagues: natural and supernatural. Only the first plague was supernatural and outside nature. It would not have been fitting for the staff to be the cause of the plagues. The staff was simply a sign of the plagues. The staff was a sign of natural events. We see, then, that the *Haggadah*tells us that the plagues occurred in three different manners and that each category of plagues can be divided into two categories: signs and wonder.

footnotes:
¹ The plagues should have appeared in their proper order: first blood, then pestilence and finally the death of first born (the sword).
¹ How do we get from mora gadol
¹ Three types of plagues occur:1. Some plagues result from God’s withdrawal from the land.2. Some result from God’s active intervention in Egypt.3. Some result from the sense of the immediacy of God’s presence.The Maharal doesn’t tell us which plagues fall into each of these three categories. How would you categorize the plagues?
¹ We see, then, that there are five categories of plagues. If signs refers to naturally occurring plagues and wonders to supernaturally occurring plagues then we have the following1. Natural - strong hand2. Supernatural -strong hand3. Appearance of divine presence4. Natural “outstretched arm”5. Supernatural “outstretched arm”The Maharal does not appear to designate the various plagues into these categories – I leave to the reader to figure out how the plague would be divided up!
¹ The wet fleece appears to be a sign from God – since it occurs from the dew, it is taken as a sign from the heavens. But the Maharal now wonders if “signs” are heavenly, what is the connection to the plagues and the staff?
¹ The expression here is signs poalim v’ein mitpa’alim