העתירו אל ה׳, "Implore G'd, etc." Why did Pharaoh not simply go to his home as he had done during the first plague? After all, his magicians had demonstrated in both instances that they were able to duplicate Moses' and Aaron's magic? Actually, we should interpret Pharaoh's beliefs as reflected by his reactions. He would not have called in Moses and Aaron to pray for him unless he had been afraid of the deathly effect of the plague in question.

The plague of blood did not represent a threat to life as people could still their thirst by either digging for water in the vicinity of the river or buying same from the Israelites. As a result, Pharaoh did not become overly agitated at that plague.

The plague of frogs contained two elements. 1) It was accompanied by an overpowering noise orchestrated by all those frogs; 2) the frogs invaded people's entrails as we know from 7,29 "and the frogs shall come upon you, etc." This plague was very frightening, no one being certain of his survival. These considerations are what prompted Pharaoh to implore Moses to remove this plague accompanied by a promise that he would release the Israelites to offer sacrifices to their G'd. When he said: ממני, he referred to his entrails, which was the most frightening aspect of the plague.

Pharaoh did not ask Moses for removal of the third plague, the insects, even though he had watched his magicians' impotence and admission that this plague was indeed a "finger of G'd;" his heart remained obstinate as the plague, painful though it was, did not constitute a danger to life.

The fourth plague, that of wild animals invading Egypt's urban areas was truly fear-inspiring and resulted in Pharaoh instructing Moses and Aaron to go and take the Israelites to sacrifice to their G'd within the country. For the first time, Pharaoh was prepared to negotiate where this could take place. At any rate, he pleaded with Moses to pray on his behalf.

The plague of pestilence did not move Pharaoh particularly as its main effect was on the animals, though none of the livestock owned by the Israelites died. Pharaoh remained obstinate, did not release the Israelites and did not ask Moses to pray to stop the plague.

The sixth plague, painful boils on the skin, also did not move Pharaoh to prayer as it was not a life-threatening situation although for the first time even his magicians did not remain immune.

The plague of hail was a major spectacle not only ruining the crops but killing people who had not heeded G'd's warning. For the first time Pharaoh reacted by admitting that he and his people had sinned against G'd. He pleaded with Moses to pray and not only promised to release the Israelites but did so without attaching conditions.

During the eighth plague, the locusts, the Torah quotes Pharaoh's alarm when, for the first time, his servants move him to negotiate the Israelites' release before the onset of the plague. Negotiations having broken down, the plague does occur and Pharaoh pleads for G'd "to remove this death."

We do not find that Pharaoh asked Moses to pray on his behalf during the plague of darkness; perhaps this was due to his attempt during the first three days of that plague to counter it by lighting all kinds of lanterns, etc. During the following three days when no one could even rise from his seat, Pharaoh was incommunicado and could not send a messenger to call Moses to intercede on his behalf. After the seven days of darkness were complete, Pharaoh immediately sent for Moses to tell him that he and his people could leave and that they only had to leave their livestock behind as insurance that they would return. Moses immediately refused the condition. Seeing that the plague of darkness was already over, there was no point in asking Moses to pray for its removal.

התפאר עלי, "have this glory over me, etc." What exactly did Moses mean by the expression התפאר עלי? If what he meant was that even if Pharaoh would ask for an immediate removal of the frogs this would constitute his glory, the result of Pharaoh asking that the frogs be removed only on the morrow would indicate that he was not interested in besting Moses; Moses' confirmation: "as you have said," would make little sense in that scenario. We also need to analyse why Moses did not say מתי אעתיר לך which we would have expected, but said למתי וגו׳?

I believe Moses wanted to demonstrate that G'd tries to oblige those who are dear to Him so that it was beyond his imagination that G'd would forsake him (not do what he promised). He did this by contrasting the relationship between man and G'd with that of slave and master. When a slave asks a favour from his master he will be happy if his master grants the favour at all and it would not occur to him to attach conditions as to the time when such a favour has to be granted. He will be even less likely to ask for the date of such a favour to be advanced or delayed, but will await the time when he judges his master to be in a favourable frame of mind to grant his request. He will be most happy if his request is granted at the time it pleases his master. Not so the relationship between Moses and G'd. Moses was anxious to demonstrate to Pharaoh that a) he could offer a prayer at any time; b) his prayer would not only be granted but that he could attach conditions as to the "when" of G'd's response. This is why he asked Pharaoh what time or day he wanted him to pray that the frogs should disappear. Pharaoh was to prove himself superior in that he could determine when Moses should pray.

It is difficult to understand why Pharaoh wanted the frogs to be removed only on the following day. Although we know from Proverbs 21,10 that wicked people harbour a death wish (unconsciously), this applies only in the abstract. No wicked person deliberately opts for continued flagellation when given a chance to escape the pain involved. Why then did Pharaoh ask Moses to make his prayer effective only on the following day? At first glance one may be tempted to conclude that Pharaoh misinterpreted Moses' offer as proof of his awareness that the plague was about to come to an end, and that he wanted to take the credit for this by appearing to pray for the removal of the frogs at once. Pharaoh therefore wanted to show up Moses as a fraud. He interpreted Moses' use of the word התפאר as a trick designed to induce him to ask for the immediate removal of the frogs. This is why he decided to suffer a little longer if only he could expose Moses as a fraud.

What is wrong with this theory is that if Pharaoh wanted to unmask Moses as a fraud he did not really have to extend the period of his suffering at all by asking Moses not to pray until the following day. Besides, Pharaoh had never heard of a prayer that is offered up at one time and is not to be effective until the following day. This is why he wanted Moses to demonstrate that though he prayed now and his prayer would be accepted, the removal of the frogs would not be implemented until the morrow. This was the challenge Pharaoh presented to Moses when he said: למחר. He wanted proof that Moses prayed immediately though the frogs would not disappear until the morrow. When Moses told Pharaoh: כדברך, "as you said," he meant that he had accepted Pharaoh's challenge. Moses did not leave the city to offer his prayer (as he did on other occasions) but prayed inside the city in order for everyone to be aware precisely when he had prayed. This is why the Torah writes: "Moses and Aaron left the presence of Pharaoh and Moses cried out to G'd concerning the frogs G'd had brought on Pharaoh, etc." Moses prayed concerning two matters. 1) Removal of the frogs. 2) Not to remove the frogs until the following day. This is why the Torah states על דבר הצפרדעים, "concerning the matter of the frogs," instead of להסיר הצפרדעים, "to remove the frogs."

אשר שם לפרעה, which He had brought on Pharaoh. We learn from this that one must be articulate and precise when offering a request in prayer.

ותהי הכנם באדם, the insects remained on man, etc. We would have expected the Torah to say: כל עפר הארץ היה כנים, ותהי הכנים באדם "the whole dust of the earth turned into insects, and the insects remained on man, etc." Why did the Torah reverse this sequence by telling us first that the insects remained on man? We may understand this with the help of an argument between Rabbi Yoseph from Orleans and Rabbenu Tam cited on Shabbat 12 concerning the meaning of the word כנה. Some rabbis hold that what is meant is a black flea, an insect which originated in the dust and which is able to jump very high. Other rabbis hold that these "insects" were white parasites which originated on the clothes people wore. These rabbis prove their point by basing themselves on a statement in Berachot 51 according to which vermin is generated from rags. In order to prevent the reader from making the error that the כנה described here is the so-called כנה לבנה, the parasite, the Torah makes the point that it originated from the dust of the earth. Had the Torah used the version commencing with the words: כל עפר הארץ היה כנים, there could have been no question about the insects originating in the earth. The Torah therefore displayed wisdom by writing ותהי הכנם באדם, to tell us that the insects which were normally generated in dirty clothes now became a plague of intolerable dimensions so that both man and animal suffered from an excessive amount of fleas, etc., each of the variety they were familiar with.

It is also possible that the Torah speaks about both variants of insects. The first category is alluded to in the words: ותהי הכנם באדם ובבהמה, meaning the varieties of parasites man and beast experience on their skin from time to time. This was in addition to the insects which originate in the earth and which are called כנים as distinct from the first variety which is called כנם. If this is correct, our verse does not serve as support for the opinion of Rabbi Yoseph from Orleans, and we would have to accept the view of Rabbenu Tam who proved in the Talmud that the insect known as the white one is a parasite, whereas the other one known as the black one, which is distinguished by its great jumps, is incorrectly referred to as כנה but is in reality a פרעוש. (This is also the ruling of the halachah compare Tur Shulchan Aruch, Or Hachayim ruling 315).

ומלאו בתי מצרים את הערוב, the houses of Egypt will be filled with wild beasts, etc. The reason the Torah repeats the word הערוב, "the wild beasts," is that the houses will be filled with the wild beasts; if the Torah had merely written once: "the wild beasts will fill the houses of Egypt," we would have thought that the purpose of the plague was simply to fill the Egyptians' houses with wild beasts; this was not so, however, as the Torah had already stated: "I will send the wild beasts against you, your servants, your people as well as against your houses;" the obvious meaning is that the beasts were to cause damage and destruction. As it is, the additional message is that the houses would literally be filled with wild beasts.

Another meaning of the words את הערוב the second time could be that had the Torah not repeated these words we would have assumed that the plague would have exhausted its purpose as soon as the houses of the Egyptians had become full of wild beasts; however, this was not the full extent of the plague. There were so many wild beasts that they could not be accomodated even after they had already filled all the houses of the Egyptians. This is why the Torah added: "and also the ground whereon they are."

ושמתי פדות, "I shall set apart, etc." G'd meant that not only would the wild beasts respect the boundary of the province of Goshen and not invade that province, they would not even approach those Israelites that happened to be outside the province of Goshen at the time. The Torah made this clear by the nuance "between My people and between your people." This means that whenever members of both people were found next to one another, only the Egyptians would be bothered by the wild beasts. The beasts would not bite a Jew.

תשחת הארץ, the land was ruined. This means that the beasts would destroy everything except the human beings.

לא תרחיקו לכת. "Do not go very far." Pharaoh meant: "not as far as the three days you have requested." His argument was that if Moses was afraid the Egyptians would stone the Israelites if they slaughtered animals the Egyptians regarded as sacred, there was no reason to travel a distance of three days to escape that particular danger. Apparently, Moses did not make an issue of this at this time; he reasoned that the Israelites' major purpose was to get out of the urban areas, no matter how far. If Pharaoh would pursue them, Moses was certain that G'd would deal with him. At that point Moses wanted only to ensure that Pharaoh would not have a reason to renege on his promise; this is why he warned Pharaoh not to deal deceitfully with him and the Jewish people. He emphasized this by use of the word רק. Moses meant that though they would travel for a distance of less than three days the important thing for them was to get out of town for a while.