The Torah says in Perek Chet that at first Egypt was struck with the Plague of the Frog
בוַיֵּ֤ט אַֽהֲרֹן֙ אֶת־יָד֔וֹ עַ֖ל מֵימֵ֣י מִצְרָ֑יִם וַתַּ֨עַל֙ הַצּפַרְדֵּ֔עַ וַתְּכַ֖ס אֶת־אֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרָֽיִם:
"And Aaron stretched forth his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frog came up and covered the land of Egypt."
Yet later we see that Egypt is filled with many frogs:
הוַיֹּ֨אמֶר משֶׁ֣ה לְפַרְעֹה֘ הִתְפָּאֵ֣ר עָלַי֒ לְמָתַ֣י | אַעְתִּ֣יר לְךָ֗ וְלַֽעֲבָדֶ֨יךָ֙ וּלְעַמְּךָ֔ לְהַכְרִית֙ הַֽצְפַרְדְּעִ֔ים מִמְּךָ֖ וּמִבָּתֶּ֑י רַ֥ק בַּיְאֹ֖ר תִּשָּׁאַֽרְנָה And Moses said to Pharaoh, "Boast [of your superiority] over me. For when shall I entreat for you, for your servants, and for your people, to destroy the frogs from you and from your houses, [that] they should remain only in the Nile? " - Rashi says
וַתַּעַל הַצְפַרְדֵע
literally, and the frog came up. It was one frog, and they [the Egyptians] hit it, and it split into many swarms of frogs
: Question
Why would the Egyptians who were extremely intelligent do something so foolish? Similarly why did the people not get the
hint when it came to the other plagues and make more of an effort to complain to pharaoh |
In the other plagues- did the Egyptians want to let the Jews go but Paro stopped them?
According to Chizkuni, even though the torah explains the frogs in a singular way, the meaning is that the swarms of the frogs all came. I think that It is a very interesting explanation because even though it seems like the torah is talking about a singular frog, its talking about a lot of them.
ReplyDelete^Ayala Kilimnick
Delete
ReplyDeleteSource: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.myjewishlearning.com/article/pharaohs-courtiers/amp/
According to an article provided by American Jewish world service, the Egyptians did want the plagues to stop and understood the circumstances that would continue if they didn’t. Because they didn’t have any authority is was extremely difficult for them to get paroah to listen to them. Eventually they did and pharaoh let the Jews go but then he changed his mind. Eventually the Egyptians decided to stop going to the king to release the Jews and started releasing their Jewish slaves and paying back everything they have stolen. I think it’s interesting how we just assume that no one tried to stop the king when in fact they could have been doing whatever they can the whole time but are not credited because they are “minor characters” in the story of the Makkot.
^^Kayla Tarlow
ReplyDeleteThe Steipler Goan also known as Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky comments on this. He also is confused as to why the Egyptians would do something so foolish if they were intelligent people. He answers that it wasn't because they were foolish rather it was because of the affect that their anger had on them. Initially when someone feels as though they are insulted and they get angry then that anger turns into them wanting revenge until it becomes a vicious cycle of insults and impulsive actions. When the Egyptians saw the frogs their initial reaction was to hit them and when that didn't work it frustrated them even more so they hit them again until suddenly there were frogs everywhere.
ReplyDeleteI really like this interpretation because it shows how powerful anger is. We learn from this that even highly intelligent people act impulsively and can make foolish decisions when angry. Next time we get angry we should not act impulsively like they Egyptians did rather we should calm down first and then come back to the situation when we are ably to think clearly again.
Source: http://www.aish.com/tp/i/gl/The-Plague-of-Frogs.html
https://vimeo.com/82779735
ReplyDeleteAriella Rosencrantz
Rabbi Kelemer says the reason why the makkah came this way was so that it would be like the Egyptians brought this plague onto themselves. It hurts more psychologically when midah kneged midah happens and someone has to realize that they did something in order to deserve something else. In this case, the Egyptians had to realize they brought this upon themselves by hitting the frogs and bringing more they had to realize the hurt they had caused the Jewish people.
I think this is a very interesting approach and shows how HaShem really thinks about every single aspect when he brings a miracle. HaShem thought about this so much that he wanted the Egyptians to realize psychologically that they deserved this.
Rashi additionally proposes the more straightforward idea that it is linguistically acceptable to use the singular form when referring to the plural of certain species of animals, as in the case of "fish" or "sheep" in English.
ReplyDeleteI really like this answer because I find the midrash explanation of this plague to be hard to understand/believe. This answer is more straightforward and therefore easier to understand.
In the plague of locusts, Pharaoh's servants tried to get him to give in to Bnei Yisroel but he refused. It says in Perek Chet, Pusuk Zayin: Pharaoh's servants said to him, "How long will this one be a stumbling block to us? Let the people go and they will worship their God. Don't you yet know that Egypt is lost?"
ReplyDeleteRashi comments on the words הִטֶרֶם תֵּדַע - do you not know that Egypt is lost? Here, it is clear that they have given up and want Pharaoh to let the Jews go. I think this commentary really demonstrates that Pharaoh's heart must have been hardened by Hashem for some bigger purpose because his own advisors were telling him he was crazy to not let the Jews go and he couldn't accept that while any sane person would.
In the article on Torah.org, the only explanation is that the Egyptians were not thinking rationally. They were still scared by the blood in the first plague so they were angry, frustrated, and panicking about the frogs. The more they panicked, the more they hit the frogs, the more frogs appeared.
ReplyDeletehttps://torah.org/torah-portion/legacy-5769-vaera/ ^^
ReplyDeleteThe Steipler gaon addresses the question of why the Egyptians would bring such an awful thing on themselves, why they kept hitting the frog knowing it was multiplying. He says that the reason they kept doing this was not because of their stupidity it was because of a common character flaw the Egyptians had which was anger. upon seeing the frog they hit it to get rid of it but soon realized that hitting it would just make it multiply and that made them extremely angry so instead of stopping they kept hitting it out of pure wrath making a widespread plague of frogs all over Egypt that they brought upon themselves. I think this is really interesting because it shows how destructive anger is and what damage you can bring upon yourself by being angry.
ReplyDeleteRicky Weiss
https://www.ou.org/life/inspiration/frog_and_staipler_rabbi/
Rashi asks how they can use a singular word for frog and compares it to lice which is plural. A source (not Rashi) says that the wording for lice is saying “we will bring inidiviual lice” which results in a singular swarm, therefore making the wording correct.
ReplyDeletehttps://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/79766/why-is-there-a-number-switch-in-the-names-of-the-plagues
I agree with this analogy and this it’s very logical.
Steipler Rabbi (Rabbi Yaakov Kanievsky) says that the Egyptians kept hitting the rock out of anger. They saw that when they hit the frog k stead of dying it kept dividing. This set the Egyptians into a rage and they kept hitting the frog out of "revenge". The Egyptians thought that they could either “swallow the frog” or strike back. The most tempting alternative is to hit the frog, to fight back and to engage in a battle. Also if Pharah saw this happening why didnt he stop it? Was he also overcome with rage that he lost all senses
ReplyDelete-Eden Schechter
The Steipler Rabbi (Rabbi Yaakov Kanievsky) says that they Egyptians saw that when they hit the frog instead of dying it multiplied, so as an act of revenge they kept hitting it. If the Egyptians had remained calm, the plague of the frogs would not have been such a severe tragedy. But instead the Egyptians thought that they could either “swallow the frog” or strike back. The most tempting alternative to them was to hit the frog, to fight back and to engage in a battle against it. If Pharah saw this happening why didn't he stop the soldiers before it became so terrible? Was he under the same rage as the soldiers?
ReplyDelete-Eden Schechter