Choshekh– Darkness: There were seven days of darkness: three days during which a person who was standing could still sit down and vice versa, and three days when the darkness was so great the people could not move from their place. The seventh day of darkness took place at the shore of the Red Sea as the people fled from Egypt.²²⁹ This is the meaning of the verse: “He sent darkness” – in Egypt; “it was very dark” – at the sea.²³⁰ Further the Midrash asks, where did the darkness come from? Rabbi Yehudah said that it was the darkness from above which was created on the first day of creation – it was not just an absence of light but a darkness that had its own substance. Rabbi Nehemiah said that the darkness was the darkness of hell (Gehenom).²³¹ But in the homes of the Israelites there was light. Just as there is an imperceptible division between the heaven and hell, so the darkness of the Egyptians was separated from the light that filled the Israelite homes. During those three days of darkness, the Israelites buried their own wicked who had been struck dead. In that way the Egyptians would not know what happened. The Rokeach claims that this took place on the 13th of Adar.²³², a group of German Jewish pietists. Furthermore, we learn that the darkness was so thick that it could be touched, ‘like the thickness of a coin.”²³³ How do we know this? The Torah says “a darkness that can be touched (vaymesh).”²³⁴ The word vaymesh has the same numerical value as k’dinar av, ‘as the thickness of a coin.’

footnotes: ²²⁹ Exodus 14:20 ²³⁰ Psalm 105:28 ²³¹ Tanchumah Bo chapter 3; Exodus Rabbah 14:2 ²³² Eleazar Rokeach (c. 1176 – 1238), also known as Eleazar of Worms or Eleazar ben Judah ben Kalonymus, was a leading Talmudist and Kabbalist, and the last major member of the Chassidei Ashkenaz ²³³ Yalkut Shimoni Tehillim 105 ²³⁴ Exodus 10:21