אמור אל אהרן נטה את מטך, “say to Aaron to stretch out his staff, etc.” seeing that we have been told earlier (6,6) that G’d would employ His זרוע נטויה, “outstretched arm,” when the “hand” was employed instead, the Torah had to spell this out. Ibn Ezra claims that the stretching out of Aaron’s hand with the staff in all four directions resulted in the frogs emerging from the streams and rivers as well as from the lakes, but not from the ponds.

ויעשו כן החרטומים, “the sorcerers did likewise. “They succeeded in making frogs emerge from the relatively few ponds which had not yet produced frogs. Seeing that they were unable to make the frogs retreat to their natural habitat, [presumably this had been the task set for them by Pharaoh Ed.] Pharaoh saw himself compelled to appeal to Moses and Aaron to pray to their G’d to stop the plague.

למתי אעתיר לך?, “for when should I entreat for you?” According to Rashi, Moses offered to pray immediately for the plague to cease at a time of Pharaoh’s choosing. Nachmanides, approaching the text from a literal perspective, claims the plague disappeared immediately at the time Moses prayed, as we know from verse 9 “G’d did in accordance with Moses’ word.” The Torah did not write that the frogs disappeared on the morrow. The letter לin the word למתי does not prove anything concerning the timing of the cessation of the plague. According to Nachmanides there is no special significance in the construction למתי, as to when precisely the frogs should die.

להכרית הצפרדעים, “to wipe out the frogs.” Seeing that Pharaoh had been under the impression that the frogs would increase dramatically, Moses prayed that the frogs should die forthwith, the word להכרית being of the same root as such verses as ונכרתה הנפש ההיא, “that particular life will be terminated, etc.” (Genesis 17,14, Exodus 12,15, et al.) The reason Moses prayed for the death of the frogs and not for their return to their habitat, was so that the stench from their carcasses should remind the Egyptians of how their conduct vis a vis the Jews was viewed by the G’d of the Jews. Pharaoh had assumed that Moses had meant that the removal of the plague meant that the frogs would return to where they had come from. Moses assured him that the frogs remaining at this time in the river would indeed remain there, but that the ones already on dry land would perish there. The line (promise) וסרו הצפרדעים, “the frogs will depart etc.,” (verse 7) was not meant to suggest that they would leave Egypt, but that a plague of frogs emerging from the river would not occur again. Moses’ elaborating on all this to Pharaoh only meant to prove to him that the plague emanated from G’d, and that it was decreed on account of his treatment of the Jewish people.

ויאמר למחר, He said: “as of tomorrow.” The whole world wonders why Pharaoh did not choose an immediate cessation of the plague. The answer given is that Pharaoh was still under the illusion that possibly this was a natural phenomenon, the approach of which had been overlooked by the astrologers, and that the frogs would disappear of their own accord in short order. By asking Moses not to stop the plague immediately, he hoped to disprove that G’d had anything to do with it. Nachmanides writes that from the word למתי, “for when,” used by Moses, Pharaoh had thought that Moses would be unable to stop the plague in short order, but that it might take at least a week, (as it had with the plague of blood). This is why he allowed Moses only a very short period to make good on his boast. Moses told him that he would honour Pharaoh’s wish for when the plague should cease. Other commentators understand the word למתי as not relating to the plague and its cessation at all, but understand it as Moses asking Pharaoh when he would release the Israelites in response to the plague’s cessation. Pharaoh promised to do so on the following day. However, he conditioned this on the understanding that Moses would pray immediately. The tone signs under the letters support this explanation somewhat, seeing that there is a pessik, a clear division sign, between the word למתי and the word אעתיר, “I shall pray, entreat.”

ויצעק משה, “Moses cried out;” seeing that he had gone out on a limb giving Pharaoh a chance to prove him wrong (התפאר עלי) without having first consulted G’d, he now had to add an element of urgency to his prayer, i.e. “he cried out.”

על דבר הצפרדעים, “concerning the matter of the frogs.” This is an allusion to what our sages (Sanhedrin 80) said when they claimed that the frogs were even quacking within the Egyptians’ entrails. [which would make G’d’s task of removing them difficult. Ed.]

וימותו הצפרדעים, “The frogs died.” How do we square this with verse 7 in which Moses predicted the frogs as “departing?” Moses had referred to the frogs as a plague departing, he did not predict that they would depart under their own power, as did the locusts in the eighth plague. On this occasion the dead frogs remained wherever they had died.

מן הבתים ומן החצרות ומן השדות, “from the houses, the courtyards, and the fields.” You will note that the frogs that had put their lives at risk by entering the ovens of the Egyptians, are not reported as having died. This was their reward for their self-sacrificing conduct in the service of the Lord. They were rewarded by returning to their habitat, the river, alive. The frogs that had remained in the river also did not die so as to preserve the species.

ויאמר ה' אל משה ,אמור אל אהרן, “The Lord said to Moses: “say to Aaron, etc.” This time Pharaoh was not given a warning of the upcoming plague. We do not find any warnings prior to the sixth or ninth plague either. Each of these plagues was the third in a series. We have a rule (Maimonides Sanhedrin 18,4) that if someone twice in a row ignores the penalty of physical punishment administered for sins committed and persists in his conduct, he will be confined in a prison on a starvation diet which will result in his early death. Nachmanides writes that Moses did not issue warnings to Pharaoh concerning impending plagues unless the plague in question would involve the death of Egyptians, and it would have been unfair not to forewarn them of impending death for ignoring Moses’ request. The plague of blood, for instance, could have resulted in the death of Egyptians who could not dig near the Nile to obtain subterranean water. Similarly, the plague involving the frogs wrought havoc amongst the Egyptians as we know from Psalms The three plagues vermin, boils, and darkness however, did not pose any threat to the lives of the Egyptians. Some of the warnings of the plagues were given by Moses after G’d had instructed him to deliver the warning early in the morning on the banks of the river Nile, -This does not mean an ungodly hour in the morning, but what is called “morning” for Kings, who habitually are presumed to be late risers.- The King at such times, would be accompanied by a sizable entourage so that the issuing of the warning was overheard by many people and Pharaoh could not have denied having received the warning. G’d selected this method in the hope that some of Pharaoh’s servants after hearing the warning, especially after the first plague, would try and make their ruler change his mind and release the Israelites. In the event that the servants did not try and change their ruler’s mind, they would be just as guilty as Pharaoh himself, and would have brought their misery on themselves by their own obstinacy. When we do not find G’d instructing Moses to warn Pharaoh in the morning, he received the warning while in a private audience with Moses and Aaron. Warnings in public also were the case when G’d had instructed Moses with the words: בא אל פרעה, “come to Pharaoh.” When such opportunities for Pharaoh’s servants to show themselves as less obstinate were not taken advantage of, the reason for delivering these warnings in public no longer existed. The well known abbreviations of the three groups of plagues, i.e. דצ'ך, עד'ש, באח'ב may also be explained in terms of the type of warnings preceding them, or no warning preceding them at all.. According to the Midrash, the letters in these abbreviations were engraved on Moses’ staff to indicate which plagues would be preceded by which warning or by the absence of any warning. Others claim that the division is based on which plague was orchestrated by Aaron, which by Moses, and which by Moses and Aaron jointly. Others hold that they are hints as to which plagues originated in the atmosphere and which originated on earth or in the water. Yet other opinions draw attention to the purpose of each of these groups of plagues, a purpose spelled out clearly by the Torah before each group of plague, each time the operative clause begins with למען תדע, ”so that you will realize that, etc.” Ibn Ezra writes that the first three plagues used the least sophisticated phenomena in our universe, i.e. water and dust. These plagues were initiated by Aaron. The plagues that were brought about by phenomena in the upper regions of our universe were orchestrated by Moses, seeing that Moses represented the highest level attained by any of G’d’s creatures. These were: hail, and locusts, which is brought on by the wind, an almost non-physical phenomenon. Similarly, darkness was also a plague that was brought on by the air, the atmosphere, something intangible. The third group such a wild beasts, pestilence, and the slaying of the firstborn was brought on directly by G’d Himself. The remaining plague, the boils, was brought on jointly by both Moses and Aaron without the staff having been used at all. The three plagues brought on by Aaron alone were orchestrated by means of the staff, as were the three brought on by Moses alone. None of the other 4 plagues involved use of the staff. Rabbi Saadyah Gaon writes that between them the plagues made use of the 4 basic raw materials our physical universe is made of. Three plagues utilized the basic material עפר, dust, i.e. earth; they were: “boils,” which originated in the dust remaining after the furnace has burnt its course. The vermin and the wild beasts, the other two, also made use of that raw material as all bodies are made of earth and return to becoming earth when the life they supported terminates. Three further plagues were based on the second raw material our universe consists of, i.e. on water. They were: blood, frogs, and hail. Still another three plagues made use of the third of the four basic elements, i.e. air. They were 1) דבר, the pestilence which struck especially the livestock. We have a verse in Psalms 91,6 מדבר באפל יהלך, which is interpreted by Bamidbar Rabbah 12 as describing disorders in the domain of air. [birds would not fall from the air, their habitat, unless someone had interfered with that habitat. Ed.] 2) the plague of locust, which had been brought on by unusual changes in the air, i.e. a wind blowing constantly from the same direction. 3) The darkness. The atmosphere was made opaque instead of transparent, so that people felt as if they were in a narrow prison and could not move at all. Finally, there was one plague, which employed the fourth basic element, fire; this was used in orchestrating the simultaneous killing of all the firstborn in Egypt. Separation of body and soul is the result of a subcategory of fire, i.e. heat, which disturbs the equilibrium needed for body and soul to live side by side in harmony. The plagues utilizing the staff as the instrument that resulted in the onset of each plague also show variations in the way the staff was employed on each occasion. Sometimes Moses is commanded: “take your staff and incline it, etc.” other times he is commanded: “take your staff and raise your hand in which you hold the staff, etc.” Sometimes he is commanded to first employ his hand followed by the staff, other times the sequence is reversed. Some commentators feel that the basic example is the plague of blood, and that the same procedure i.e. extending the hand which was holding the staff, was followed invariably in bringing on all these plagues, but that the Torah did not bother to repeat this each time. The Torah merely employs part of the procedure on different occasions, particularly when describing the execution of the command. These commentators are concerned to have us realize that Moses and Aaron carried out their instructions without deviating from them in the slightest.

ויעשו כן, “they did so.” Even though the command was executed only by Aaron, the Torah includes the issuance of the command by Moses, and that is why it uses the plural mode when describing its execution.

ויעשו כן חרטומי מצרים, “the Egyptian sorcerers did likewise.” This does not refer to what they accomplished, but to their copying the manner in which Moses had produced the vermin. They struck the dust and chanted their incantations. Another way of understanding the words ויעשו כן, would be that they do not refer to the sorcerers trying to imitate Moses and Aaron, but to their using their own techniques, hoping to achieve a similar result. After all, on the previous two occasions they had succeeded at least in convincing Pharaoh that they too could produce the phenomena Moses and Aaron had produced. A third possibility of understanding our verse would be that far from wanting to increase the number of vermin, they endeavoured to get rid of them by using their standard methods. When they failed, they had to admit that Moses and Aaron were not mere sorcerers of a more advanced school, but that their art was inspired by Divine assistance.

ולא יכולו, “but they were unable.” Our sages find in this confirmation that the power of demons does not extend to creatures smaller than a grain of barley. Some commentators believe that the failure of the sorcerers lies in the fact that they are anchored in the habitat ”air, atmosphere,” are not part of the creatures who walk the surface of the earth, whereas the vermin are an integral part of earth itself, being generated inside the crust of the earth. Creatures that cannot walk the earth do not have dominion over creatures that originate within the earth.

ותהי הכנם באדם ובבהמה, ”and the vermin kept afflicting man and beast.´ The sorcerers themselves were also afflicted by this plague.

ויאמרו החרטומים אצבע אלוקים הוא, “The sorcerers said that it was manifestation of a ‘finger’ of G’d.” Ibn Ezra wrote that far from admitting that Moses and Aaron were superior to them, seeing that thus far they had been able to match Moses and Aaron plague for plague, they now attributed this plague directly to a natural phenomenon, i.e. part of nature and its cycles, and as not related even remotely to the situation of the Israelites. [the fact that Moses had not given any warning of this plague helped convince Pharaoh that his sorcerers were right. Ed.] Pharaoh had never denied the existence of elokim the Creator, he had only refused to acknowledge the existence of the attribute Hashem, and the special relationship of that attribute to the Israelites, as “HIS” people. Ibn Ezra cites the fact that the sorcerers did not say: אצבע ה' אלוקים הוא, “it is a manifestation of the finger of Hashem elokim, although even Pharaoh had begged Moses to entreatHashem to remove the plague of frogs, as proof of their being far from acknowledging the phenomenon Hashem. Nachmanides writes that in his opinion Ibn Ezra is not correct, seeing that the Torah would not refer to a plague as אצבע אלוקים, unless such a plague was a clear indication that it occurred as a Divine punishment, not as a random event, part of astrologically predictable “normal” phenomena. Expressions such as “G’d’s finger, G’d’s hand, G’d’s arm,” are always reserved for manifestations of G’d’s direct intervention in the affairs of man, not natural phenomena which could have occurred at any time without reference to specific events known to man. He quotes such examples as Exodus 14,31, Samuel I 12,15, Samuel I 5,11 as support for this thesis. Furthermore, the very fact that the Torah reports that the sorcerers were themselves afflicted to the extent that they had to leave Pharaoh’s presence, would make any claim that this was not a Divine manifestation related to the Israelites’ continued enslavement quite unlikely. Seeing that the sorcerers ceased playing any role, as Pharaoh did not summon them to try and get rid of the plague of wild beasts, a plague that he had been forewarned about, shows that Pharaoh by then was isolated in his obstinacy, knowing that the sorcerers would be of no help to him at all. The sorcerers had referred to “a finger of G’d,” in order to minimize the awe in which G’d would be held on account of a minor plague such as the vermin. We do not find that Pharaoh and his advisors ever referred to G’d as Hashem, except when they were in the presence of Moses and Aaron. This was mere lip service, as they did not want to aggravate their relations with Moses who had proven capable of not only orchestrating a plague but also of causing it to stop. As to Ibn Ezra’s argument that Moses and Aaron had not given warning of this plague, this is only technically so, as no doubt they had struck the earth while being in the presence of Pharaoh, and this clearly was meant to bring forth the vermin. To attribute such a plague of vermin to “natural” atmospheric phenomena would hardly be believable to anyone. If, in apparent contradiction to the above, we find that the Torah describes the sorcerers as so afflicted by the plague of boils, (#6) that “they were unable to remain in the presence of Moses,” (9,11) the Torah does not mention this because the sorcerers had come to duplicate the plague of boils, but because the Torah had stated that in spite of this very painful plague, something which should have given Pharaoh food for thought, the Torah wants to illustrate how painful this plague was by stating that even the sorcerers who had their reputation at stake, could not maintain a posture during that plague. If the sorcerers could not maintain a posture, how far less could any other Egyptian, excepting Pharaoh, of course. The Torah therefore explains that if Pharaoh remained steadfast this was only because G’d had given him the strength to do so. ויחזק ה' את לב פרעה. (9,12)

וגם האדמה אשר הם עליה “including the ground they are on.” This includes the areas that did not have houses on them.

והפלאתי ביום ההוא, “I shall set apart on that day, etc.” There is no doubt that all the other plagues did not afflict the Israelites either. The reason why the Torah mentions that the land of Goshen would not be invaded by the wild beasts, is that once wild beasts are allowed to roam freely, it could have been expected that they would not know how to distinguish between areas inhabited by Egyptians and districts predominately populated by Israelites. The Torah had made a similar comment during the plague of pestilence (#5) stating that not a single Jew became afflicted with that disease. There too, we would have expected the microbes not to have known how to make a detour around the Israelites. In the case of the fourth plague, although there may have been a few Egyptians living in the province of Goshen, the fact that it was populated in the main by Israelites, appears to have protected the few Egyptians there. [this in turn might have stiffened Pharaoh’s attitude, as he was searching desperately for an excuse that these were natural disasters, not vengeance by the Jewish G’d. Ed.]

כי אני ה' בקרב הארץ, “that I, the Lord, am also G’d in the midst of the land.” Ibn Ezra writes that it was customary in those days that the kings would make their residence in the centre of their land, so as to be equidistant from most of their subjects. They felt that just as man’s heart is located centrally within his body, so the place of a king has to be in the center of his realm.

ושמתי פדות בין עמי ובין עמך, “I will place a deliberate distinction between My people and between your people.” This means that even if an Israelite will find himself in an Egyptian neighbourhood at the time when the beasts invade urban areas, they will not harm a single Israelite.

כי תועבת מצרים, “for it is an abomination in the eyes of the Egyptians;” some commentators claim that this line is a comment added to the Torah by Moses, seeing he wanted to take a swipe at idolatry. When confronting Pharaoh in person, Moses referred to their deities as אלוהי מצרים, and not as תועבה. The reason Moses was provoked to refer to the Egyptians’ deities by a derogatory term was that they worshipped the image of a lamb.

העתירו בעדי, “entreat for me!” Ibn Ezra writes that the words העתירו בעדי should by rights, have been written at the beginning of this verse. Pharaoh’s intent was that as a result of Moses and Aaron entreating G’d on behalf of Pharaoh, G’d should remove the plague. Subsequent to this, he, Pharaoh, would release the Israelites from bondage and permit them to leave the country (temporarily). He stipulated only that the Israelites would not travel far (three days’ journey as per Moses’ original request) in order to perform their ritual in the desert.

וסר הערוב מפרעה, מעבדיו, ומעמו, מחר, “the wild beasts will retreat from Pharaoh, his servants and his people tomorrow.” Seeing that during the plague of the frogs Pharaoh had requested that the removal of the frogs be arranged for the following day, Moses told him that this time too he would pray for the wild beasts to depart on the following day. However, they would not die, as had the frogs, as our sages explained; this was because their carcasses would have proved useful and welcome to the Egyptians, and they were not to benefit from the plague. According to the plain meaning of the text the difference in the disappearance of the frogs on the one hand and the wild beasts on the other, is rooted in the fact that the frogs and similar low life creatures which are always spawned in multiple births, have a tendency to increase in huge numbers constantly. To bring them all back to the river would overtax the river’s ability to sustain them. The wild beasts did not increase in numbers during the time they invaded the urban areas of the country, and making them return to their normal habitat did not strain that habitat’s ability to sustain them. G’d had not created a single extra animal (mammal) in order for it to plague the Egyptians.