Homily: The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity Sunday 2024.docx
Plagues by Land, Plagues by Sea--Passover 2014
1. בס"ד
The Luries would like to welcome their new grandson. Shai Meir, into the world. May he thrive and prosper in “Torah, marriage canopy and good deeds."
Dedicated to the complete and speedy healing of Valerie by her sister, Naama Navon.
Plagues by Land, Plagues by Sea
Pesach 2014
Sarah Yehudit Schneider
Rabbi Yosi the Gallilean said: The Egyptians were struck by ten plagues in Egypt, and
fifty plagues at the sea...
Rabbi Eliezer said: …In Egypt they were struck by forty plagues, and at the sea by two
hundred plagues.
Rabbi Akiva said: …In Egypt they were struck by fifty plagues, and at the sea by two
hundred and fifty plagues.
This is the most obscure passage in the Hagada. The rabbis culled our vast body of
teachings and created a script for families to recite year after year to recall our story,
bolster our faith, bind us as a people, and transmit our precious tradition to the next
generation. But what did they expect us to learn from this esoteric debate that seems
divorced from reality.
There are two issues. The first is figuring out what these plagues actually were that
struck the Egyptians at the sea. The ten plagues in Egypt were so noteworthy that the
Torah spends reams of precious words extolling them. Now the rabbis inform us that
those plagues were trivial compared to the barrage at the sea. Yet the Torah does not
mention this second assault at all. Not a word. The second issue is the numerics. All
three rabbis agree that the plagues at the sea were five times worse than the ones by
land. Their debate concerns how many plagues there were in total—50, 200, or 250.
What is the significance of these numbers?
I’m going to explore the first question at length and address the second more
briefly.
The ten plagues began in the month of Tamuz. Each plague lasted a month—one
week of warning, three weeks of plague (or vice versa, by other opinions).0F
1
After the
third plague (by Rosh HaShana) the Egyptians were so debilitated that their enslavement
of the Israelites terminated.1F
2
Each subsequent plague broke them still more. By the end
they were on the verge of total collapse.2F
3
As the archetype of evil in those days, if Egypt
went, evil would cease, free choice would collapse and the purpose of creation would be
lost. Contrary to popular belief, the critical timing of our exodus (its hasty execution
called chipazon) was actually to salvage evil.3F
4
HaShem backed off at the last minute, so
that a remnant of evil could survive, recover and (seemingly) even prosper. Creation
requires its contribution though it is our job to seek its demise. (That last statement is
paradoxical but not contradictory).4F
5
And the tenth plague, the death of the firstborns, was so devastating to the
Egyptians that their cry that night (reports the Torah) was more agonizing than any other
cry that ever was or will be.5F
6
Conversely, at the sea, Pharoah’s army comprised 600 chariots (carrying, say, two to
three soldiers each).6F
7
The total number of Egyptians that drowned there was (at most)
1,800. Not to minimize the value of a single life, or the heartbreak of those who mourn
them, but that loss does not approach the devastation wrought by the ten plagues