ראה נתתיך אלהים, “See, I have made you a master over Pharaoh,” i.e. that Pharaoh would listen to him. Firstly, G’d would give Moses a stature that Pharaoh could not ignore. Secondly, as to the matter of verbal communication between them, G’d appointed Aaron as Moses’ spokesman. The word נביאך, usually translated as “your prophet” must be understood here as ניב שפתיך, ((Isaiah 57,19) “he will express what emerges from your lips.” Onkelos also translates the word as “your interpreter.” Shemot Rabbah 8,1 understands the words אלוהים לפרעה as “Pharaoh appointed himself as god.” He did this by claiming “the Nile is mine because I have created it “(Ezekiel 29,3). In response to this arrogance G’d told Moses that he was nothing, but that on the contrary, He would show him that Moses would be his “god.”

ואני אקשה את לב פרעה, “and I will harden the heart of Pharaoh.” Many people ask that if G’d’ hardened Pharaoh’s heart so that he refused to release the Israelites how could G’d justify bringing the plagues upon him and the Egyptians seeing these people had acted under duress? Such plagues would represent caprice, undeserved violence by the Creator against people who were not guilty. How can we reconcile this with our concept of a fair and just G’d? Punishing Pharaoh for divinely inspired obstinacy and refusal to change his ways seems unfair. The answer is, of course, that Pharaoh had already been a confirmed sinner, having committed other sins which accounted for his forfeiting the right to do Teshuvah, repentance. If his only sin had been that he refused to let the Israelites go, and G’d had indeed made his heart stubborn on that score alone, punishing him would indeed have been doing violence to his rights as a human being. Pharaoh’s original sin versus the Jewish people has been spelled out in Exodus 3,5 where he used the natural (or unnatural) increase of the births amongst the Jewish people as a pretext to “outsmart” them and to kill their babies. Seeing that he had displayed his wickedness for all to see without having been interfered with by G’d, the time had now come when his punishment was that he was deprived of his free choice. Had G’d allowed Pharaoh and his people to become penitents He could not even have punished them for what they had done up until now. We have proof of this from the story of Jonah and Nineveh. G’d accepted the repentance of the people of Nineveh and they completely escaped punishment. This is why G’d had to find a stratagem to prevent the Egyptians from becoming penitents at this stage.

A Midrashic approach based on Shemot Rabbah 13,3: Rabbi Yochanan said that this verse provides the heretics with ammunition and enables them to claim that if Pharaoh did not do Teshuvah it was G’d’s fault, not his own. Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish replied that on the contrary, this very verse is an answer to the heretics as it demonstrates Solomon’s saying (Proverbs 3,34) “at the scoffers He scoffs, but to the humble He shows grace.” G’d had issued three successive warnings to Pharaoh and he had failed to respond to any of them. As a result, G’d slammed the door to Teshuvah shut. It is only after the fifth plague that the Torah actually uses the transitive form of “G’d hardened Pharaoh’s heart,” instead of the intransitive “Pharaoh’s heart remained hard” (compare 8,28 and contrast with 9,12).

According to this Midrash the words which G’d spoke to Moses in our verse where He said: “I will harden the heart of Pharaoh,” refer to the last five plagues. We observe that several times when the plagues were really hurting the Egyptians Pharaoh weakened and made promises and offered compromises to Moses until in the end he reneged. The reason he reneged was that G’d hardened his heart although without such interference he would have given in much sooner. G’d had provided an additional rationale for all this when He said (9,16) “in order for My name to become a household word all over the earth.” This is analogous to Ezekiel 38,23 והתגדלתי והתקדשתי ונודעתי לעיני גוים רבים, “Thus will I be exalted and sanctified and become known in the eyes of many nations, etc.”

You should know that the obstinacy of Pharaoh had already been hinted at to Moses at the very beginning of his career as a prophet at the burning bush when G’d had shown him a bush which burned without being consumed. G’d had compared the multiple troubles and plagues to fire, and Pharaoh and the wicked Egyptians as the bush of thorns which refused to submit to the fire (plagues). This had been G’d’s way of alerting Moses to the remarkable obstinacy which would be displayed by Pharaoh plus the fact that this would be just as unnatural as the spectacle he was observing at the time.

והוצאתי את צבאותי, “and I will take out My hosts.” Here G’d referred to the Jewish people as “My hosts.” He meant to contrast them and their influence on earth with that of the planetary system. In Deut. 1,10 Moses himself refers to the multitude of the Jewish people as “here you are to-day as numerous as the stars in the heaven.” When G’d said צבאותי, He also referred to His hosts in the celestial regions. The correct translation of our verse is: “I will lead forth My celestial hosts together with My people on earth the Children of Israel.” This is another instance from which our sages derive their oft-repeated principle (Megillah 29) that the Shechinah was exiled together with the Jewish people. If even a relatively high celestial Being such as the Shechinah considered itself in exile while the Jewish people were in exile, how much more so is this true of other (lower) echelons of celestial beings! The Talmud Shevuot 35 stipulates that the word צבאות ranks as one of the names of G’d therefore must not be erased. The reason is that it represents the heavenly hosts. When later on (12,41) the Torah speaks of יצאו כל צבאות ה’ מארץ מצרים, “all the hosts of the Lord departed from the land of Egypt,” the reference is to both G’d’s celestial and terrestrial hosts (compare Mechilta on that verse).

כי ידבר אליכם פרעה, “when Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, etc.” Here G’d informed Moses that Pharaoh would demand that he perform a miracle in order to legitimise himself. This was standard practice. A person is not accepted as a genuine prophet before he has performed some miracle (Maimonides Hilchot Yesodey Hatorah 7,7).

Shemot Rabbah 9,1 phrases it thus. Seeing that even righteous people demand legitimisation by the performance of a miracle, it is clear that wicked people will do no less. We find that after the deluge G’d said to Noach that He would not ever again bring a deluge to wipe out all the people. Noach asked for a sign. Thereupon G’d gave him the sign of the rainbow (Genesis 9,12). When King Chiskiyah was told by the prophet Isaiah that G’d had accepted his prayer for an extension of his life, the King (a very loyal Jew who almost became the Messiah) asked for a sign that the message from Isaiah which contradicted his earlier message that he should make his last will and testament was true (Isaiah 38,1-7). Seeing that these righteous people asked G’d for a sign, we cannot blame Pharaoh for asking Moses to perform some miracle.

ויהי לתנין, “it turned into a snake.” This was the first of the many miracles Moses performed for Pharaoh. The word תנין, means serpent; we know this from verse 15 where G’d referred to Moses’ staff as having turned into a נחש, a snake. The reason the staff turned into a snake and not into some other animal was that the snake had been the first creature to introduce sin by seducing Chavah with its tongue. Pharaoh had also sinned with his tongue, when he refused to recognize the existence of the G’d of Israel and used this pretext to add that he was not obligated to obey a deity he had never heard of. Just as the serpent at the time had been punished, so Pharaoh starts being punished. It has become accepted norm that when one slanders G’d or His existence, one is bitten by snakes as we know from Numbers 21,5 “the people spoke out against G’d and Moses“ which is followed by (21,6) ”G’d sent fiery serpents against the people and they bit the people.” Furthermore, just as a snake can make itself rigid and wriggle out of unpleasant situations, so Pharaoh squirmed and on other occasions remained rigid in order to avoid having to obey G’d’s wishes. Whenever the plagues got the better of him he seemed to relent in order to gain relief only to renege in the hope that G’d had exhausted His power. He would resume his obstinate stance of refusing to let the Israelites go. The reason that this נחש is called תנין in our verse is that Pharaoh has been referred to elsewhere as the התנים הגדול הרובץ בתוך יאוריו, “the great sea-monster that crouches within its rivers” (Ezekiel 29,3). The word תנין here contains a hint that just as the staff of Aaron swallowed all the staffs of the Egyptian magicians so the sea (G’d) would swallow Pharaoh and his army at the sea of Reeds.

According to an unnamed Midrash, when Pharaoh saw the transformation of the staffs of his magicians into snakes, he exclaimed: “is this your G’d’s trademark? Now I know where all the witchcraft in this world originates.”

.ויקרא גם פרעה , “Pharaoh also called in.” According to an ancient version in the Tanchuma Vaeyra 11 the word גם means that Pharaoh also called in his wife and that the latter then called in the sorcerers of Egypt. The practice of witchcraft was so commonplace in Egypt that Pharaoh’s wife and even young children were well versed in such sleights of hand.

גם הם, “they too.” First he had only called on the children; subsequently on the wise men and sorcerers. This is the reason why the Torah repeated the word גם when writing ויעשו גם הם, “they did likewise.” Rabbi Shimon ben Pezzi said (Shemot Rabbah 9,3): “what did the sages perceive that they compared the wriggling of a snake to the conduct typical of the kingdom of Egypt seeing they quoted Jeremiah 46,22 ‘she shall rustle away like a snake.’ Just as a snake winds its way slithering hither and thither, the king of Egypt did likewise. Just as the snake hisses prior to killing, so the Egyptian Kingdom hisses prior to killing its enemies.” Moses suspended the staff over Pharaoh telling him that it would become the source of the plagues he was going to inflict upon him.

בלהטיהם, “with their spells.” Some kind of witchcraft. The ability to perform such tricks is anchored in the מלאכי חבלה, spiritually negative forces [whose origin are wasted human sperm, and other sins committed by man. Ed.] The word is derived from לוהט as in אש לוהט, (Psalms 104,4) “fiery flames.” The author speculates about a variety of causes responsible for these phenomena. One of his suggestions is that they attack man בלט, when he is unaware. The word חרטומים is a combination of two words i.e.חר טמי , “people who consult dead bones.” Most necromancers employ either human bones or animal bones to receive their knowledge of matters not accessible to ordinary people (compare Nachmanides).

ויהיו לתנינם, “they (the staffs of the sorcerers) turned into snakes.” The Torah refrained from saying ויהיו תנינים, which would have meant that they actually became snakes. The sorcerers did not have the power to do that. They could only create the illusion not the real thing. The wording of the Torah here is similar to Joshua 7,5: “their hearts melted into water.” This was a description of people losing courage. It did not describe a phenomenon literally. We have another example of this in (Samuel I 25,37) וימת לבו בקרבו והוא היה לאבן, which translated literally would mean “his heart (Naval’s) died within him, and it turned into stone.” The word אבן is merely a figure of speech. You may well counter that the expression ויהי לתנין is also used when Moses’ staff turned into a snake, so what is so peculiar about the Torah not writing תנין when describing what happened to the staffs of the sorcerers? We have to explain that in the case of Moses’ i.e. Aaron’s staff, this was a true transformation of the staff into a snake and that a similar wording is found in Genesis 2,7 ויהי האדם לנפש חיה where the letter ל at the beginning of the word לנפש certainly does not speak about something illusory. However, by way of contrast, what the sorcerers did was merely sleight of hand. Seeing that the wording lent itself to two different interpretations, the Torah had to write immediately that Aaron’s staff swallowed all the staffs of the sorcerers in order the show the qualitative difference between what Aaron had done and what the Egyptians had been able to do. The fact that the Torah describes “their staffs” as being swallowed instead of “their snakes” being swallowed, shows that their staffs had remained staffs in spite of appearing to be snakes. Another proof that the sorcerers only created an illusion is that the Torah does not describe them as having performed their art in the presence of Pharaoh and his servants as the Torah had been at pains to emphasise concerning Moses’ miracle. Alternatively, supposing that the חרטומים had really been capable of turning their staffs into snakes as the Talmud Chulin 7 suggests, why then were they called sorcerers instead of prophets? The answer is that they denied the power of the celestial forces. We could interpret the words ויהיו לתנינים to mean that their staffs did indeed turn into live snakes. The letter ל would be justified seeing that later on these snakes reverted to being staffs. The qualitative edge of Moses’ staff was simply that it swallowed the staffs of the sorcerers. According to Shemot Rabbah 9,7 when Pharaoh observed that Moses’ staff (as a staff) was able to swallow the combined staffs of his sorcerers he reflected that it might equally be capable of swallowing him and his throne. The word ויבלע means that something inert was able to swallow both something else inert and something live. We have a parallel in Numbers 16,32 when the earth swallowed both Korach and family as well as his tents and belongings.

בזאת תדע כי אני ה', “through this you shall know that I am Hashem.” You have claimed “I do not know of any “Hashem.” I am going to perform something which will make sure that you do know Me.” We know from Exodus 14,18 that in the meantime the Egyptians would find out who Hashem is There are several verses making a similar point.

Another explanation of 'בזאת תדע כי אני ה based on the plain meaning: Through this wondrous sign and similar ones you will come to recognize Me. A kabbalistic approach: The Ineffable Name which had been “hidden” up until now would be revealed by an attribute known as זאת. This was the יד הגדולה, “the great hand” which G’d displayed in His treatment of the Egyptians. The words describing Pharaoh’s obstinacy most clearly are found in verse 23, ולא שת לבו גם לזאת, “he did not take to heart even זאת, “G’d’s manifesting Himself as the attribute זאת,” i.e. the Ineffable Name.

הנה אנכי מכה במטה אשר בידי, “I am about to strike with the staff which is my hand, etc.” The words הנה אנכי mean “at my command,” (seeing Aaron was doing the actual striking of the river, verse 20); The verse teaches that the water was transformed not only in appearance but also in taste as well as in smell. We know that the appearance changed from verse 20 where the miracle is described as occurring before the eyes of Pharaoh and his servants. We know that the taste of the river changed from the words: “the fish in the river died.” Fish live in a cool environment. When the water turned into blood it also became warmer. The fish drank from it and died as they could not survive in the warmer temperatures. We know that the smell of the river changed from the words: “the river stank.”

ויעשו כן חרטומי מצרים, “the sorcerers of Egypt did likewise.” Seeing that all the water had turned into blood, where did the sorcerers take water from? We must therefore assume that Moses and Aaron struck only the waters of the Nile. This is supported by the words “the waters in the river” in our verse. Most of the verses dealing with the subject do not describe Moses and Aaron as striking “all the waters in Egypt.” Even verse 18 speaks only of the inability of the Egyptians to drink water “from the river.” It follows that the sorcerers had ample sources of water to draw on in order to demonstrate their skill. If we adopt this line of reasoning, how do we understand the words in verse 19 that Moses and Aaron were commanded to stretch out their hands over “all the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, over their ponds over their canals and over all their gathering of waters and they shall become blood?” How do we account for the fact that apparently Moses and Aaron did not comply fully with G’d’s command and struck only the waters in the river (verse 20)? We may answer this apparent omission by Moses and Aaron by remembering that the Nile was the primary source of water in Egypt and that all the ponds and canals were in the nature of tributaries receiving their water supply from the Nile. This, of course, brings us back to the question of “where did the חרטומים take water from to demonstrate their tricks?” The answer is that they started digging in the ground. They found some water which they proceeded to turn into what looked like blood. Moses’ decree applied only to waters which were already visible as such not to subterranean pools of water. Alternatively, seeing that the sorcerers had heard the warning announcing this forthcoming plague, they had hastened to some areas where the water had not yet turned into blood, had taken some water out of its natural habitat and had then proceeded to demonstrate their skill in turning such water which had been divorced from its source into blood. They claimed that they had done this by their own efforts, though in fact, these waters also turned into blood once Moses and Aaron decreed that the waters in the Nile and those supplied by the Nile should turn into blood. You will note that Moses’ deed is attributed by the Torah to having occurred while Pharaoh and his servants were watching, i.e. לעיני פרעה ועבדיו, whereas it is not mentioned anywhere that Pharaoh or his servants actually watched the water used by the sorcerers changing into blood (verse 22).

Another possible approach to this short paragraph is that G’d actually gave two separate instructions. 1) He commanded that the river be struck with the staff in order that its waters turn into blood. 2) Stretching out of Aaron’s hand while he was holding the staff without actually striking the waters of the tributaries, the ponds the canals, etc. When we read in verse 17 “here I am about to strike the waters in the Nile with the staff in my hand,” this referred to the river Nile only and was addressed to Aaron. Moses was not permitted to strike the river Nile seeing it was the instrument which had saved his life when he was in the basket. He was not permitted to strike the Nile to produce the frogs either (compare 8,2.) When the Torah reports (in the plural) “Moses and Aaron did so just as G’d had commanded them; he raised his staff and struck the waters in the Nile before the eyes of Pharaoh, etc.,” this means that Aaron raised his hand with Moses’ staff and inclined it in all four directions over all the waters in Egypt. Moses’ part in all this was to warn Pharaoh of the forthcoming plague. This, after all, was what G’d had commanded in verse 19. When the Torah appears to repeat in verse 21 ויהי הדם בכל ארץ מצרים, “the blood was throughout the land of Egypt,” this means that by merely stretching out his hand whilst holding the staff the other sources of water in Egypt were turned into blood also.

מים לשתות, “water for drinking.” It is clear from the wording that they did not succeed in drinking the water they found. Had they done so, the Torah would have written: מים וישתו, ”water which they drank.” Seeing they did not succeed in drinking the water mentioned in our verse, how did they manage for seven days without water?

We are therefore compelled to interpret the verse to mean that they did indeed drink water they found as a result of digging for it. The meaning of the word לשתות maybe interpreted in two ways: whereas they did drink it this was still as if they could not drink it as the water was salt-water. This is the meaning of the additional words: “for they could not drink the waters from the river.” Seeing they could not drink regular water, they were forced to drink water which tasted very salty. כי לא יכלו לשתות מים ממימי היאור, “for they could not drink the waters of the river Nile,” which were sweet and fit for drinking. This is the explanation of the gaon Rabbi Saadyah. He makes the point that there is a difference in meaning between the word מי and the word מימי. The word מימי is used only for water which is fit to drink. We find proof of this in Numbers 20,8 ונתן את מימיו, “and it will yield its waters.” Or, Exodus 23,25: וברך את לחמכם ואת מימיך, “He will bless your bread and your water.” Another example is found in Chronicles II 32,30 יחזקיה סתם את מוצא מימי גיחון, “King Chiskiyah stopped up the sources of the waters from the river Gichon.” The word מי is used to describe waters unfit for drinking in Genesis 7,7 מפני מי המבול, “on account of the waters of the deluge;” another example of the word מי referring to waters not fit to drink is Exodus 15,19 וישב ה' עליהם את מי הים, “G’d turned back upon them the waters of the sea.” The author quotes additional verses making the same point.

וימלא שבעת ימים, “seven days were completed.” The Torah spells out that the duration of the first plague was seven days, the length of time a menstruating woman is bleeding or is considered impure due to bleeding. The ritual state of the Egyptians was comparable to that of a menstruating woman. The Torah did not bother to give us data for the length of subsequent plagues as they lasted seven days unless otherwise reported. The interval between one plague and the next was 21 days so that a plague and its aftermath lasted approx. a month. We find this confirmed by Rabbi Eliezer Hakalir in his liturgical poem (recited in Ashkenazi congregations on the eighth day of Passover, commencing with the words מה מועיל רשע רשע בעליו) He says there that a full month was allocated to each plague and that three quarters of the month was allowed for warning and waiting. The fourth part of the month was the actual duration of the plague.

את כל גבולך, “your entire territory.” The word “your territory” excludes the territory of Cham. The sons of Cham (the kushim?) and the sons of Mitzrayim had a territory גבול, between their respective territories. According to Shemot Rabbah 10,2 this area had remained disputed between them until that time. Due to the plague of the frogs they made peace amongst themselves. They came to the realisation that the area not invaded by the frogs belonged to the territory of Cham. We derive this from the words of Moses’ warning “your entire territory,” i.e. not anyone else’s territory.

ובכה ובעמך, “against you as well as against your people.” The unusual letter ה at the end of the word ובך “and against you,” indicates that every one of the ten plagues was subdivided into 5 plagues [compare Haggadah shel Pessach Rabbi Yossi Hagalilee].