This passage in the Haggadah often troubles readers – the seemingly playful way in which it counts the number of plagues in Egypt and again at the sea. Instead of ignoring the fact that the term “hand” is used to refer to the plagues in Egypt and not just by the sea, the author comes up with an ingenious way of reconciling this seeming contradiction. The math here is a bit sketchy but Rabbi Horowitz seriously plays with the numbers in the spirit of the Haggadah and the sages. From where can one deduce….how many with a finger? Ten plagues! At first glance, it appears that since each finger is ten plagues, then hand is ten times five plagues which is fifty plagues at the sea, even though the thumb (gudal) and the pinky (zeret) are not really technically fingers (etzbaot). For all practical purpose, all five digits are considered fingers here. Etzba is the term for the finger adjacent to the thumb. According to the Magen Avraham, one should drip drops of wine with the etzba. But this is problematic since there are several places in Scripture that use the word hand (yad) to refer to the plagues. Also, the term, etzba elohim is used to refer to the plague of lice and not to the plagues in general. But these passages do not contradict one another. Each etzba refers to two plagues: the thumb, blood and frogs, the finger next to the thumb, lice and wild animals, and so on. Thus we read in scripture: “I will lay my hand upon Egypt.”¹²³ This seems to contradict what Rabbi Yosi Hagallili said. We can reconcile what he said through the verse, “Five of you shall give chase to a hundred and a hundred shall give chase to ten thousands.”¹²⁴ Commenting on this Rashi writes: “Is this then the correct proportions? Should it not have said and a hundred shall give chase to two thousand? However one cannot compare the few who keep the Torah to the many who keep the Torah.”¹²⁵ This is so because the ones who keep the Torah help one another. Similarly, we learn¹²⁶ that the deeds of the righteous are even greater than the act of creation (by God)! Regarding acts of creation we read, “Behold, My hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand has spread out the heavens.”¹²⁷ Regarding the righteous we read, “The place You made to dwell in, Adonai, the sanctuary, Adonai, which your hands established.”¹²⁸ While each can accomplish some things, two hands can help one to accomplish much more. So too in Egypt Israel experienced the hand of God – each finger representing a separate force - while at the sea, God’s hands worked together and were far more powerful in concert with one another. At the sea, then, each plague was the hand of God, and together they were more like fifty plagues – much more powerful. Just as five has the strength of a hundred and one hundred is ten thousand – 5:100 and 100:10,000 (when it should have said 100:2,000), so if 1 finger is as 2 plagues (5:10 or 1:2) then (ten plagues at the sea) were like as 50 plagues.¹²⁹ Why were the Egyptians punished so severely at the sea; they faced plagues, drowning, and the Israelites plundered the wealth which washed on the shore after they were drowned? According to the law, Noahides who were put to death should not have been fined as well. However the different punishments were for different aspects of their sin. The plunder was back pay for the Israel’s years of service in Egypt. The drowning was punishment for having pursued the Israelites after they left Egypt since one who pursues another to kill him can be put to death to save the victim. The plagues at the sea were punishment for having pursued the mixed multitude¹³⁰ usually is taken to mean “armed.” Rabbi Horowitz takes it to be a reference to the mixed multitude that left Egypt with Israel. Since the word chamushim comes from the Hebrew root chamesh, five, he offers his interpretation of the word above. The mixed multitude refers to those non-Jews who chose to join the Israelites when they left Egypt. Horowitz suggests elsewhere that there were divine sparks mixed among the mixed multitude that still had to be freed so Moses took them along. that left Egypt with the Israelites, since the appropriate punishment for this infraction would have been lashings. The Torah says that the Israelites left Egypt “chamushim.”¹³¹ Chamushim means that there were five times more people in the mixed multitude than there were among the Israelites. Since the mix multitude was five times more numerous than the Israelites, the Egyptians were punished five times more severely than they were in Egypt. The sages interpreted the verse, “We add wreaths of gold to your spangles of silver,”¹³² as a reference to the plundering of Egypt (spangles of silver) and the plunder at the Red Sea (wreaths of gold). Why did the sages make a connection between these two events? When the Israelites reached the Red Sea, the plunder from Egypt was already in their hands. The plunder that they received at the Sea was theirs by virtue of it being ownerless; according to Jewish law anything that is claimed from the sea belongs to the one who finds it since we presume that if someone lost something in the sea or a flood they despair of ever claiming. That which was taken from Egypt, however, was different. According to the Torah the Israelites “borrowed” objects they took in Egypt. This meant that they had the status of borrowers and therefore could be considered to have certain responsibilities to the ones from whom they borrowed the property. It was for this reason, therefore, that the Midrash claims that the Egyptians did not drown until they could see the Israelites on the shore of the sea. When this happened they despaired of ever getting their possessions back – so the Israelites did not take full possession of the Egyptian plunder until the Egyptians drowned in the sea.

footnotes: ¹²³ Exodus 7:14 ¹²⁴ Leviticus 26:8 ¹²⁵ Ibid, Rashi ¹²⁶ Babylonian Talmud, Ketubot 5b ¹²⁷ Isaiah 48:13 ¹²⁸ Exodus 15:17 the first verse speaks of God’s hand while the second one is plural, ‘hands.’ ¹²⁹ Here is my best effort at the math here. If five can pursue 100, then mathematically, 100 should pursue 2000. But in the Torah, the larger number increases fivefold to ten thousands. Similarly since each plague equal one finger making ten plagues, then, at sea the larger number here increases fivefold so at the sea the ten plagues are equal to fifty. ¹³⁰ The word chamushim ¹³¹ Exodus 13:18 ¹³² Song of Songs 1:11