Bo - 2nd Portion

Join me as we learn together for Monday Paras. The second Torah reading for paras chapter 10 verse 12. Yesterday's tow reading we read as Moshe warned Pharaoh about the upcoming impending plague of locust. Pharaoh was first concerned by his servants especially who were worried about it as Egypt is already in disarray. Pharaoh tries to bargain. Moshe says no, everybody will have to go. Today's Torah reading begins where Moshe then strikes Egypt and God strikes Egypt with the plague of locust. Verse 12 and God said to Moshe, raise your hand over your arm over your your arm over Egypt. of the with locust and the locust shall come up over Egypt and they will eat the grass of the land everything that was left over from the hail what does it mean explains you're going to lift your arm because as this will bring the plague of locust verse 13 m And Moshe raised the staff on the land of Egypt. And God directed the east wind on the land that entire day and the entire night. The morning came and the east wind carried the locust into the country. The east wind which blows from east to west blew the locust from the desert which is on the east side of the land of Israel as Arab carried the locust and brought it to the land of Egypt. It's coming from the opposite side because Egypt is on the southern west southwest tip of Egypt of Israel. That's explained in another place in the book of numbers verse 14. The locust came all over the land of Egypt. Rested in the in the territory of Egypt was a very difficult one. It was very severe. of before it was never such a great locust like it and will never again be like it in such devastation from the locust. How can we find that later on in the time of Joel as it's discussed in Joel 2 there was a time that there was a locust as well there was never such a thing ever in the world seemingly it looks like it was worse was more severe than the time of Moses so he explains as that locust was different because in the time of Joel it was more severe there were many different kinds of locust at the time Arab there four different kinds of locust at the time. However, in the time of Moses, there was only one kind of locust and such a kind of type of locust that there was only one specy of locust. That was only in the time of Moses and never again for it to happen. Verse 15 and they covered the entire surface of the land. And the land became dark because there was so much locust and it ate the entire grass of the landria ate and all the fruits of the trees that the hail left over. There was no greenery left on any tree or in the grass of the land in all of Egypt. Verse 15, that means greenery that was on the trees. The same when there was greenery on grass as well. Any greenery that was on the tree was all gone. Verse 17. parro hastily summoned Moses and Aaron and he says I have sinned against God your God and against you. Verse 17. Now please forgive me just this time and please entreat God. Ask Hashem should be able to remove from upon amongst me remove the just to remove this death from me. Verse 18. And Moshe left Pharaoh's palace, Pharaoh's presence, and he pleaded with God to remove the locust. Verse 19, God thereupon reversed the wind's direction. If you recall, last time the wind came from the east. So now the very strong wind, a very strong west wind came the very strong and it then carried away the locust and it plunged it into the sea of reeds. Not one single locust remained in all of Egypt's borders. A west wind Rashi says a wind that was coming from the west. What does it mean Yamos in the sea of reeds? So Rashi explains as follows. If you look as we're going to explain there was a long sea and what he's referring to over here is the sea that was there and how he's referring to what it means. I say that the sea of reeds wasn't all on one side some of it was on the west according to the whole south side which was also the east side of the land of Israel. Therefore, when he talks about over here, the west wind that's coming, the wind that's coming from west to east that carried the locust from the land of Egypt and then threw it into the sea on the sea of reeds connected which is opposing it because it would be on the east side of the desert. So, we find when it talks about the measurements and the properties of where the land of Israel was going to be. So he says he talks about the sea of reeds goes towards east as he says in verse in later on I'll give you your your place from the sea of reeds till the sea of meaning going east to west because the sea of the was on the west because it says that the was sitting on the west. So if he's telling us that he's giving us from the sea of re which goes along the eastern from east to west which was on the southern border wasn't left one locust when the Egyptians were looking for food they took the locust and they tried pickling them. So when the Torah tells us that not one locust was left even those that were pickled disappeared as well. Verse 20. Now, but once again, after the locust is all gone, God strengthened the heart of Pharaoh and they did not send the Jews, the Jewish people out of Egypt. Verse 21. Now we continue on to the plague, the ninth plague of darkness. And God says to Moshe, "Put your hand for put your rise your arm towards the sky and let there be darkness upon all of Egypt and the darkness was palpable." Verse 21. Why does it what's the difference between that there should be darkness and it was and there was a palpable kind of darkness. So he explains as follows. and he'll make it dark. A darker darkness than it was than a usual night. That means it's going to be dark as it is usually dark at night. But this will even be darker than that. That one will not be able to differentiate the difference between day and night as well. What is the word? Something which is palpable, something you can touch. We have many words which are missing al because generally it should be but the al is missing here and therefore becomes generally al is one of the silent letters that if it's the middle of a word it will not be that noticeable or pronounced. Therefore therefore the Torah is not particular to put the word there. So if you have the word, even though sometimes it would have an olive, not always would it have the olive because the olive is silent and not pronounced. He giving some other examples where there are olives in middle of a word a word and at times they're pronounced and the at times they're not pronounced. However, the las explains from the word remove that one could not remove after the darkness of night. Then it came even a darker part of night when it would come closer to the night the light of day. Then that means as the darkness would finish then another darkness would come when it was supposed to become light a new darkness came. However, it doesn't fit with the word and it became dark. It says afterwards and it was darkness again. However, the explains it this way like to touch around that it was so dark that it was so that the word comes from the word palpable able to touch it and that's what the med was able to touch the darkness that was there at the time. The Torah then continues in verse 22 raised his hand towards the sky was a opaque darkness in the entire part of Egypt for three days tells us an opaque darkness a darker darkness than there is on a usual night. Not only that, oh one brother did not see another fellow those three days and even more so why does he say three days that they weren't able to stand up the other three days was even a worse darkness was a double dark and that means there were three parts there were two parts of this plague the first three days was just darker than a regular night the second part of It was that one was not even able to move. That if you were sitting you couldn't stand and if you were standing you couldn't sit. Why did God bring them such a difficult darkness? Why darkness? There were people in that generation who were evil saying that because they were very close to the Egyptians and they had their money their honor. They didn't want to leave Egypt and they didn't want to go out. They were very happy and content with what they were getting in exile when they all died in the three days of darkness being that the Egyptians should not see that the Jews were dying and then they will say look they're also getting struck like us and therefore God hid it from them and allowed them and made the plague of darkness that they should be buried at that time. Another reason why it had to be dark at that time. Another reason was that the Jewish people should go and snoop and look around and scout the homes of the Egyptians and see what's there. Like this, when it comes time to leave Egypt, they're going to ask the Egyptians for the wealth. The Egyptians can deny and say, "We don't have anything." like this, the Jewish people will respond and say, "No, we saw it exactly in that closet, the top drawer. You put it over there. I know exactly where everything is." And therefore, they will not be able to deny it. Three days three days a three days was considered an entire time on its own like a third of days. When it talks about seven days, which means a week, it means a group of three days. Verse 24. This conclude this we now concluded about the concept of the darkness. And over here we see that this miraculous event of the darkness that the Jewish people were able to uh enjoy and seeing what the Egyptians had. This concludes the second aliyah for Monday. Parious