הנה יד ה' הויה, “behold, the hand of Hashem is about to afflict, etc.” Our sages have derived from the word יד ה' “the hand of Hashem,” as opposed to the previous mention of אצבע אלוקים, ”a finger of G’d,” that G’d orchestrated five times as many miracles while the Israelites and the Egyptians were at and in the sea of Reeds, as He had done in Egypt proper. Even though mention of G’d’s finger occurred only in connection with the plague of vermin, the meaning of that had been that whereas previously the Egyptians had related to the plagues as a variant of the magic performed by sorcerers, at that point they had realized that they were confronted with something Divine in origin, the “finger” of the Creator. Although, now that the word יד, “hand of Hashem’” appears in connection with a plague that occurred in Egypt proper, this appears to invalidate the sages’ comment, this is not necessarily so, as the Torah here uses the word “hand” to describe the five categories of creatures which will become the victims of the pestilence about to occur, i.e. horses, donkeys, camels, cattle and sheep. The word יד is really extraneous in our verse as everyone can count that five species of creatures are mentioned. It is therefore reasonable to contrast the 10 plagues in Egypt with the 50 plagues which Rabbi Yossi Haglili told us occurred at the Sea of Reeds. Personally, I believe that the sages based themselves not so much on the word אצבע and יד respectively, when they extrapolated from its appearance, but from the addition of G’d’s name. Whenever the Torah uses the term יד or אצבע by itself, it is to be understood as such, and nothing additional needs to be read into it. When mention of the organ is followed by a reference to who is the owner of that ”hand” or “finger,” this is an invitation to the reader to investigate an additional message contained in the verse. The author, (Rabbi Yaakov ben Asher) feels that the fact that the word יד ה' is followed by precise details of who will be the victim of this hand, means that nothing beyond what meets the eye is to be read into our text.

במקנך אשר בשדה, “against your cattle that are exposed in the field.” According to Rashi the pestilence struck only the beasts left in the field in spite of the warning. This explains why there were beasts left that perished during the plague of hail. They were the beasts that had been sheltered by their owners during the plague of pestilence. Nachmanides writes that the Torah chose the present tense to narrate this plague and that the beasts which were indoors died also, and that this is why the Torah writes (verse 6) “all the livestock of the Egyptians died.” The word כל usually translated as “all,” is not to be understood literally, as whenever the majority of something died this is described as “all” of it dying. Some commentators understand the line וימת כל מקנה מצרים, “all the livestock of the Egyptians died,” as meaning that all the dead beasts were found to have been owned by Egyptians, and not Israelites, the Torah adding this by writing that not a single beast owned by an Israelite died during that period, in order to emphasise it still further. The Israelites had kept their sheep well apart from the Egyptians, seeing that these considered sheep raising as an abominable occupation. It is possible that seeing that the microbes that infected the animals were carried through the air, the Torah had to write that G’d performed a miracle so that none of the animals owned by the Israelites would be victimized.

ויאמר ה' אל משה ואהרן קחו לכם מלא חפניכם פיח הכבשן, “the Lord said to Moses and Aaron: ‘take for yourselves two handfuls of furnace soot;’” According to Ibn Ezra the reason that no demand was made to release the Israelites prior to decreeing that plague was that it did not last long.

והיה לאבק, “it will turn into dust.” According to our sages this minute amount of furnace dust scattered over the entire land of Egypt and descended wherever there was a human being or beast that it could land on, and these would break out in painful boils on their skin. Perhaps the wind carried this dust even into the houses of the Egyptians. A similar phenomenon is well known as occurring during periods of drought when dust is brought even into the houses with the nightly dew. Perhaps a straightforward explanation of the verse is that the words והיה לאבק, “it will turn into dust,” means that this soot from the furnace will immediately be turned into dust that in turn would turn into boils the moment Moses and Aaron threw it into the air. G’d decreed that this soot [normally the antithesis of anything septic. Ed.] will pollute the air and spread this painful series of boils. This was a heavenly decree not accounted for by any of the scientists.

ולא יכלו החרטומים לעמוד, “and the sorcerers could no longer stand before Moses, etc.” This is a description of the embarrassment of the sorcerers at their impotence, so that they withdrew to their private quarters so as not to have to face any hostile or disrespectful audience.

ויחזק ה', “the Lord strengthened the heart of Pharaoh.” It is possible that during the preceding plagues the presence of and encouragement by the sorcerers had helped Pharaoh to maintain a defiant posture. Now G’d had to strengthen his heart so that he would not capitulate prematurely, and G’d could not complete the whole series of plagues He had planned. Ibn Ezra writes that Pharaoh did not ask Moses to pray to G’d on this occasion because the plague did not last long, and we should not assume that because the first plague had lasted for seven days, that all the subsequent plagues also lasted for a whole week. We should be guided by the text, so that the plague of pestilence lasted only for an hour, whereas the plague of darkness continued for three whole days. This being so, we have no way of calculating during which month of which year these plagues commenced. If what the sages have handed down to us is based on tradition, we are, of course, bound to accept this, if not, we may pursue our own speculations.

השכם בבקר, “arise early in the morning!” Ibn Ezra draws our attention to the fact that the Torah did not command Moses this time to meet Pharaoh at the banks of the river Nile. Perhaps there was some other reason why Moses was commanded to arise early on that day.

את כל מגפותי, “all My plagues.” The Torah describes the phenomenon of this hail as “G’d’s plagues,” (plural mode) although it is listed as only one of ten plagues. The reason is that it consisted of so many different components, i.e. thunder, rain, hail, and fire. This clearly was the plague that shook Pharaoh more than any other so far, as he reacted by admitting that the Lord was righteous and that he as well as his people were the wicked ones.

עודך מסתולל בעמי, “seeing that you still continue to act as an obstacle against My people. etc.” According to Ibn Ezra the word מסתולל has its origin in סלסלה, a word describing something exalted, superior, etc. Pharaoh is accused as still considering himself and his people as superior to the Israelites. The root letters are repeated as originally it would have sufficed to write the word as in סולו לרוכב בערבות, “exalt the One Who rides the highest celestial regions.” (Psalms 68,5) Some commentators understand the word as describing reinforcement as inנשמו מסילות , “the paved (reinforced) highways have become desolate.”(Isaiah 33, 8)

אשר לא היה כמוהו בארץ מצרים, “the like of which never occurred in the land of Egypt.” The wording suggests that this phenomenon had never been experienced in Egypt, although it had occurred elsewhere. We have a verse in Joshua 10,11 where G’d is described as raining down large stones on the Canaanites. Seeing that rain does not normally fall in Egypt, this would be a frightening experience in that country. Seeing that hail consists of frozen rain particles, that experience was new in Egypt also.

למן היום הוסדה ועד עתה, “from the day it was founded until now.”

All the preceding comments were part of what G’d announced to Moses, as Moses would not have been in a position to make such statements not having lived that long in Egypt. There is no need to tell us that Moses would deliver every word to Pharaoh which G’d had told him to convey to him. There is therefore no need to repeat his telling this to Pharaoh in detail, and the Torah made do with reporting that there were people who took Moses’ warning at face value, whereas those who did not paid with their lives. According to Rashi who claims that the pestilence only struck the beasts which had been left outside in the fields, why did Moses not warn the Egyptians at that time to take their beasts indoors to protect them, as he did here, to offer them protection against the hail? The answer, no doubt must be, that if the Egyptians had heeded Moses’ warning against leaving their livestock outside, the pestilence would not have a target to attack. In the case of the hail, the hail struck the earth, the orchards, etc, so that there were plenty of targets left even if the livestock had been salvaged. The livestock had only been considered a secondary target of the hail.

ויט משה את מטהו על השמים, ”Moses stretched his staff heavenwards.” According to Ibn Ezra, the word שמים here is an alternate for the word “atmosphere.” We also find the expression רקיע השמים as referring to the atmosphere and not to celestial regions.

ותהלך אש ארצה, “and the fire traveled earthward;” the reverse of the natural behaviour of fire which strives upwards.

רק בארץ גשן אשר שם בני ישראל לא היה ברד “only in the land of Goshen, the area in which the Israelites lived, was there no hail.” Seeing that Moses raised his staff toward the atmosphere generally, not in any specific direction, we would have expected that the hail would strike indiscriminately. The Torah therefore reports the additional miracle that the district in which the Israelites lived was not struck by the hail or rain.

ה' הצדיק, “the Lord is righteous;” a reference to the warning issued by G’d to Pharaoh. When human beings exact vengeance they do not, as a rule, first warn the victim and provide him with a means to escape the impact of the punishment.

כצאתי את העיר, “when I will leave the city, etc.” According to Nachmanides, normally Moses prayed in his house when calling upon G’d to stop the plague. Seeing that on this occasion he wanted to spread out his hands in prayer towards heaven imploring G’d to stop the hail, the thunder and rain immediately, this kind of prayer could not have been offered inside the city which was so full of the abominations that the Egyptians worshipped. Our sages say that Moses always prayed outside the city, period. The only reason that the Torah mentions this specifically at this point was that Pharaoh demanded an immediate prayer with immediate consequences. The Torah therefore had to explain that all of this could not occur immediately, in the strict meaning of the term, as Moses first had to leave town in order to pray to G’d. Some commentators understand the words כצאתי את העיר as meaning: ”when I leave your presence in order to go back to the city, etc.”

ואתה ועבדיך ידעתי כי טרם תיראון, “I am well aware that both you and your servants do not yet relate with awe and reverence to Hashem.” According to Rabbi Saadyah gaon, this verse must be understood as part of the verse following, in which we are told tat the hail destroyed only the flax and barley crop. The wheat and spelt crops had not been harmed. He hinted to Pharaoh that as long as he had these crops to fall back on, he did not expect him to become a true penitent. He could promise that the hail would not again destroy any crop. Ibn Ezra directs our attention to the absence of any mention of what was supposed to happen before Moses would pray. Normally, after the word טרם, the Torah reports the event or activity which followed next. (compare Genesis 19,4, Isaiah 65,24, Samuel I 2,15) Here we may assume that Moses conditioned his prayer on the Egyptians first confessing their guilt and their willingness to make amends. The Torah wrote that Pharaoh continued to sin, and that this was because G’d had hardened his heart, i.e. his penitence was only from the lips outward. Nachmanides writes that there is no need to put words in the Torah’s text which are not there. Moses referred to his experience with Pharaoh, i.e. that as long as the plague had not been called off he maintained a posture of penitence, which vanished as suddenly as the plague itself.

הפשתה והשעורה נוכתה, “the flax crop and the barley crop had been destroyed;” Nachmanides writes that he does not understand why these verses have been inserted here, at a point when Moses had not yet completed his prayer. According to Rabbi Saadyah gaon these comments are not part of the Torah, but are a Torah recording of what Moses had thought at the time. Nonetheless he himself is unhappy with this interpretation, seeing that the Torah had stated that the hail struck all the grass in the field (verse 25), i.e. even underdeveloped grain seedlings. [we must remember that we do not possess an original manuscript of Rabbi Saadyah gaon on this, but only Ibn Ezra’s quote. Ed.] In light of this, how could the wheat and the spelt have escaped serious damage by the hail? We must therefore assume that the comments which we find disturbing were part of Moses telling Pharaoh that he knew that his posture of penitence while under the influence of the destruction all around him, may have been sincere, but it would not last as not all the crops have been destroyed, and that is why as soon as he would experience relief he would promptly forget about his having acknowledged that G’d was righteous and that he was the sinner. [When one looks at the plagues with the benefit of hindsight as we do, Pharaoh’s continued obstinacy appears foolish and self-destructive in the extreme. When one tries to put oneself into the realities of his time, one can appreciate that he felt that any G’d who does not kill a rebellious creature, as does a mortal king with a rebellious subject, probably does not have the power to kill. The plagues were tools at his disposal, but sooner or later he must run out of such tools, and the survivor of God’s plagues would stand tall as a hero. Ed.] Moses explains that the reason that the wheat and spelt crop was undamaged had nothing to do with G’d’s inability to ruin them, but was an integral part of their developing later in the season, and remaining pliable even after lengthy exposure to hail and rain. Moses may have presented these words as an inspiration he had received from G’d, although he had not been told specifically to reveal this to Pharaoh. It is an implied warning not to renege on his penitence as G’d has other means at His disposal to also ruin these crops without which the Egyptians could not sustain any meaningful standard of living.

כי אפילות הנה. “for they ripen later in the season.” Rashi, offering also the view of the Midrash Tanchuma 16, writes that this was an exceptional miracle i.e. the word אפילות is a rearrangement of the word פליאות, ”miracles.” The Midrash quasi begs the question why we need to resort to miracles when the Torah itself had offered a rational explanation why these crops had not been destroyed by the hail. Perhaps, although these crops had not been ruined by the hail, they could have been ruined by some other natural disaster. The Torah therefore may have wanted to inform the reader that Pharaoh was aware that there had been no other reason to fear for that crop. Some people question that if we accept the view that the time frame of each plague, including the preceding warning, lasted for a month, and we count backwards from the plague of the dying of the firstborn which occurred in Nissan, that the plague of hail must have occurred in the month of Tevet, and how could any crop be sufficiently advanced at that time to suffer damage or even be ruined through hail? Even in the land of Israel only barley ripens by Nissan? In light of this calculation, most commentators came to the conclusion that each cycle involving any of the plagues could not have lasted longer than two weeks, including the preceding warning when such occurred. Accordingly, the hail would have occurred during the month of Adar. Possibly, seeing that Egypt’s crops never had to wait for irrigation, thanks to the river Nile and its canals, the grains ripen there at a time which for us is the deep of winter.

וירא פרעה כי חדל המטר והברד והקולות, “when Pharaoh saw that the rain, the hail, and the thunder had ceased, etc.” Note that in the previous verse the Torah had described the cessation of the plague as occurring in a different sequence of steps, i.e. 1) thunder, 2) hail; 3) rain. The latter was described as being arrested in mid-air. The sound of Moses’ prayer resulted in the sound of thunder ceasing, the spreading out of his hands resulted in the hail and rain stopping to fall. Pharaoh’s perception of the sequence of these events was different, however. He first noticed that the rain and the hail had stopped. Only later did he realize that also the thunder had ceased.

ויוסף לחטוא, “he continued to sin.” All this in spite of the fact that he had publicly acknowledged that G’d was righteous and that he and his people were the wicked ones.

ויכבד לבו, “his heart became strong;” in spite of the fright that he had experienced during the progress of the plague of hail.

הוא ועבדיו, “as well as his servants.” The Torah mentions his servants as they had a tradition that Moses would impose 10 plagues, and hail had been the seventh plague. We had pointed out earlier that the plague of hail contained elements of four plagues (hail, fire, thunder and rain) so that the Egyptians clung to the illusion that they had weathered the last of the plagues. This was also the reason why, when Moses threatened an additional plague, the servants finally lost their cool, and challenged Pharaoh, asking rebelliously, for how long he would allow Moses to become the snare that would ruin them. They had realized that these plagues would continue endlessly until Pharaoh would release the people of Israel. Alternatively, seeing that Moses had said that both Pharaoh and his servants had yet to humble themselves in true penitence, they reacted by making Moses’ statement a self-fulfilling prophecy and they stiffened their attitude.