## Naftali Seva Ratzon on Pesach Haggadah, Magid, The Ten Plagues

###### Naftali Seva Ratzon on Pesach Haggadah, Magid, The Ten Plagues 17:1
[Naftali Seva Ratzon on Pesach Haggadah, Magid, The Ten Plagues 17:1](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Naftali%20Seva%20Ratzon%20on%20Pesach%20Haggadah/s/Magid,_The%20Ten%20Plagues/r/17:1)

**רבי יהודה הי׳ נותן בהם סימנים דצ״ך עד״ש באח״ב. רבי יוסי הגלילי אומר מניין שלקו המצרים במצרים עשר מכות ועל הים לקו חמשים שנא' וירא ישראל את היד כו׳ ובמצרים לקו באצבע שנא׳ אצבע אלהים כמה לקו באצבע עשרה מכות ועל הים לקו ביד שהוא חמשים מכות. ר״א אומר מניין שכל מכה ומכה שהביא הקב״ה על המצרים במצרים היתה של ארבעה מכות שנא׳ ישלח בהם**

**Rabbi Mark Greenspan:**
***D’tzakh, Adash, Ba’acha*v**: Beginning with the abbreviation for the plagues, we have a series of mathematical interpretations of the number of plagues: first, Rabbi Yossi HaGallili who said there were ten plagues in Egypt and fifty at the sea; then, Rabbi Eliezer who said there forty plagues in Egypt and two hundred at the sea; and finally, Rabbi Akiva who claimed there were fifty plagues in Egypt and two hundred fifty at the sea. If God struck Egypt during the plagues with “a finger” and at the sea it was the “hand of God” then the plagues at the sea were five times more than the plagues in Egypt. But what purpose do these mathematical calculations serve?
To understand the significance of the number of plagues, we must look back at a discussion in the *Midrash* and the *Talmud*between Rabbi Yehudah and Rabbi Meir. The *Torah* tells us that there were seventy descendents of Jacob who went down to Egypt, but when we actually count the number we find there were only sixty nine! Rabbi Meir suggests that Yocheved, the mother of Moses, was born on the way into Egypt and that she was the seventieth descendent. Rabbi Yehudah argues that Dan had two, and not one, descendant, making the number that went down to Egypt seventy in the first place.¹⁰⁸ actually says the *Torah* text of Rabbi Meir was not the same as the *Torah* text of Rabbi Yehudah. Rabbi Yehudah’s text, like ours, says *b’nai Dan Hushim,* the sons of Dan *Hushim,*while Rabbi Meir’s text says *ben Dan Hushim*, the son of Dan, is *Hushim*. The name *Hushim* looks like a plural noun supporting the idea that this is a plural statement. On the other hand, this would be the only statement in this passage in which a descendant is listed not by his actual name but by his group. Rabbi Yehudah, then, takes the plural as proof that Dan had two sons, while Rabbi Meir reads the text as singular and says that there really are only 69 who went down to Egypt until Yocheved was born *bayn hachomot,*between the walls of the city (in other words on the way into the city). The *Midrash* makes the argument a little differently - since the child of Dan had a large family, he was considered to be like two descendents.
There are many places in our literature in which a difference of one is ignored, both in the Bible and in later rabbinic literature. For instance we are told to count fifty days in the *Omer*, and yet we really only count forty nine days. The *R’ash* (1270-ca 1340), a respected *Torah* authority, suggests that this is a common practice in the Bible. When the Bible says seventy people went down to Egypt, it simply ignores the missing seventieth. Similarly, we are told that when a person is flogged for breaking a negative commandment, he receives thirty nine lashes in stead of the forty which the *Torah* seems to prescribe.
Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yehudah, however, disagree on this last matter, Rabbi Yehudah insisting on forty lashes and Rabbi Meir suggesting consistent with his earlier opinion that we only administer thirty nine lashes, similar to the perspective that the *R’ash* presented. According to Rabbi Meir, the number must be thirty nine since the number of lashes must be divisible by three since they were administered in three equal groupings, while Rabbi Yehudah says we administer three groupings of plagues and one extra lashing in the middle his back.¹⁰⁹ 22a- 23a for a more complete discussion of this topic.
We can now return to the subject of the plagues in Egypt. The plagues were similar to lashings, and the same disagreement regarding the counting of the plagues can be found here as we saw with Rabbi Yehudah and Rabbi Meir. According to Rabbi Yehudah, each plague was like four plagues, thus making forty plagues similar to the number of lashes – and, like Rabbi Yehudah’s opinion, it is not necessary to divide them into thirds so the number forty stands. It is for this reason that Rabbi Yehudah divides the plagues up into three groupings - *d’tzakh, adash, ba’achav -*that are not equal in number¹¹⁰ – they simply represent the forty ‘lashes’ that the Egyptians received in Egypt.
But what is the reason that the plagues at the sea were so much greater than the number of plagues that the Egyptians experienced in Egypt? This is based on a rule in Jewish law: if an Israelite is sold as a slave and his value increased in the course of his servitude, and then he was sold to a non-Jew, his Jewish master must reimburse him for the increase in his value.¹¹¹ when he was first bought but the master now sells him for five hundred *manna*, he would get the additional four hundred *manna*. Similarly, the Israelites were few in number at the time of their descent into Egypt and they increased so greatly in the course of their sojourn. The Egyptians were only entitled to enslave the number of people who would have been born by natural increase and not the full population increase. The *Midrash*tells us that every woman gave birth to sextuplets. The five times that the Egyptians were punished at the sea was meant to make up for the extra five children born in to every woman!!¹¹²
Rabbinic and *Kabbalistic* literature speaks of three types of lashes. First, there are the lashes of an earthly court, which are thirty nine. This number is based on the fact that the lashes could not be given to an individual until he reached the age of 13 – and since the lashes were divided into three groups they were three times 13 or thirty nine. The second type of lashes was lashes of fire, or *pulsa dinura.*¹¹³, in tractate *Hagigah* 15a. In an *Aggadic* section concerning the heresies of Elisha ben Abuya, an account is given of Elisha’s encounter with the angel Metatron and the subsequent erroneous course of action taken by him. The seeming mistake of Metatron established him as being liable to receive a sentence of 60 *Pulsei* (pl. of *‘Pulsa’) D'nura*: The Talmud says, “They took out Metatron and lashed him with 60 pulses of fire." The heavenly court only gave this punishment to an individual when he reached the age of 20 – three sets of 20 equal 60 lashes. And finally, the third type of lashes is called the lashes of Samael. Samael, the demonic being, was punished with fifty lashes for trying to make himself like God. These were the type of lashes that were meted out to Pharaoh and the Egyptians. They received this punishment for acting as if Samael was a divine being. Each form of lashes was for a different transgression, and, in the case of the different numbers of plagues, the mathematics suggests that each had a different opinion why the Egyptians were punished.
Rabbi Yossi HaGallili suggests that the punishment of the Egyptians was *pulsa dinura*. When we put together the plagues in Egypt and the plagues at the sea the equal sixty, just like the lashes of fire describe by the *Kabbalists*.
Rabbi Eliezer was of the opinion that the Egyptians were punished for transgressing the negative commandment, “You shall not work your firstling oxen.¹¹⁴ God said: “I have written in my *Tora*h, do not enslave my firstling; Israel is my firstling. Therefore I will charge you with breaking this negative commandment and will punish you with lashes that come in the form of plagues.” First, Egypt was punished with forty plagues in Egypt. But the number forty is not divisible by three. When we add the two hundred plagues that Egypt experienced at the sea to this number, together they equal 240, so that the Egyptians were punished with three groups of eighty plagues each!
Finally, we have the opinion of Rabbi Akiva who believed that Pharaoh and Egypt were punished for making themselves like gods with fifty plagues – this is the lashes of Samael. Pharaoh and his country received fifty plagues in Egypt just as Samael was punished with fifty plagues. While fifty is not divisible by three, we can add these fifty plagues with the two hundred and fifty plagues at the sea, they equal three hundred plagues. This number is divisible by three as well.

footnotes:
¹⁰⁸ The Midrash
¹⁰⁹ See Talmud Makot
¹¹⁰ Since the last grouping consists of four instead of three plagues.
¹¹¹ In other words if he was worth 100 manna
¹¹² Ha!! That is great math!
¹¹³ Literally, lashes of fire. The origin of this phrase seems to come from the Babylonian Talmud
¹¹⁴ Deuteronomy 15:19