With a mighty hand: the cattle plague…With an outstretched arm: the sword…with great terror: the revelation of the divine presence…with signs: the rod…with wonders the blood: The commentators struggled to understand why only two plagues were singled out from all the wonders that took place in Egypt. The first fruit passage is an expression of gratitude; it is expressed not by mentioning the bad things that happened to others but by mentioning those places where God singled out Israel from Egypt. This only took place in those cases where the Egyptians and the Israelites were together in the same place and God singled out the Egyptians for punishment and spared the Israelites. One place where the Torah explicitly tells us that this happened is the cattle plague. The Torah states, “The Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of the Israelites and the livestock of the Egyptians so that nothing shall die of all that belongs to the Israelites.” (Exodus 9:4) Even though the livestock of the Egyptians and the Israelites were in the same place, the livestock of the Egyptians died but not that of the Israelites. The same is true in the case of the tenth plague: God singled out the homes of the Israelites from those of the Egyptians. In all the other cases the Torah is not explicit in saying that the Israelites and the Egyptians were in close proximity. Having mentioned these plagues, the Haggadah now speaks about the other ways in which God showed the Israelites favor: He did so by revealing His presence, through the wonder of Moses' rod, and through "the blood." Each of these was a wonder that God told Moses to show the Israelites so that they would be convinced of God‟s power. By turning his staff into a snake, making his arm become leprous and then turning some water from the Nile into blood in the presence of the Israelites, they would become convinced of God‟s power. In the end Moses did not perform the wonder of the leprous arm since this was meant to be a warning to Moses not to slander against the people of Israel. The reference to blood is not a reference to the plague of blood but the suggestion by God to turn some water into blood for the people of Israel.

How We Count the Plagues Mighty hand: two plagues; outstretched arm: two plagues, etc… It makes no sense to suggest that each expression in this verse refers to two plagues just because each one is made up of two words. First, we already know that there were ten plagues so what does this add to our understanding of the plagues; and second, the words in each of these expressions make no sense by themselves. They cannot separate from one another, so how can we say that each word refers to a different plague? The word yad, hand, and the word hazakah, mighty, are interconnected. Rather, each of the five expressions in this verse - mighty hand, outstretched arm, great terror, signs, and wonders - refers to a pair of plagues that have something in common with one another: The first two plagues were performed by a Mighty Hand: Blood and frogs were both performed when Aaron raised his hand. In the case of blood, God told Aaron to raise his hand over the river and to smite it, and, in the case of frogs, he stretched his arm over the land and smote it. An outstretched arm refers to the plagues of hail and darkness. Each of these two plagues took place when an arm was outstretched toward heaven. See Exodus 9:22, and 10:21; in each of these verses the Torah uses the expression “Hold out your hand toward heaven.”

Great terror refers to the plagues of locust and the death of the first born. In the case of these two plagues, Pharaoh summons Moses because he is so terrified by these plagues. They were a great terror to him.

Signs refers to the plagues of mixed wild animals and the cattle disease. Both of these plagues were a sign because God distinguished between the Israelites and the Egyptians, so that it was a sign of God's great power. In the case of the mixture, the Torah says, “But on that day I will set apart the region of Goshen …and I will make a distinction…tomorrow this sign shall come to pass.” Since the cattle disease also involved a distinction, it was also a sign.

Wonders refers to those plagues which the Egyptians could not perform: the plague of lice and the plague of boils. There is another way of interpreting this passage. The plagues served a double purpose: first they were meant to publicize the greatness of God, and second they were meant to punish the Egyptians for their oppression of the Israelites. The plagues should be paired up. One was for the sake of God and the other for the sake of the Israelites.