Parshas Va'Eira

Full Parsha

First Aliya

G-d Guides Moshe

G-d rebukes Moshe for doubting Him in questioning why G-d sent Moshe to try to get the Israelites out when it seemingly made their plight worse (see yesterday's post). He tells Moshe that he is "Hashem"(i.e the Ineffable Tetragrammaton), i.e the name which indicates that G-d is faithful to his word.

G-d elaborates and says that by contrast, He had appeared to the forefathers Avraham, Itzchak and Yaakov as the name "K-El Shakkai" and not Hashem since while He had make promises to them, He had not yet fulfilled them.

The covenant/promise that G-d made with the forefathers (that had not yet been fulfilled) was that the land of Canaan should be theirs.

G-d reassures Moshe that in seeing the suffering of the Israelites, He has not forgotten his covenant and intends to fulfill it. He tells Moshe that this is what Moshe should tell the Israelites to reassure them, that G-d had made a covenant with His people and that He intends to fulfill it and rescue them from Egypt and the Israelites will worship G-d as their redeemer.

Hashem mourns the death of the patriarchs, reminiscing how though there were occasions when they could have questioned G-d (such as when Avraham could only purchase the plot of land for Sarah's burial at an exorbatant price, or when people raised claim over the wells that Itzchak dug in the land of Canaan, or when Yaakov as well had to purchase the land which G-d had promised him), they did not.

So Moshe relayed all of this to the Israelites, yet they were not consoled as they felt despondent about their situation.

G-d tells Moshe to tell Pharaoh to release the Israelites from his land.

Moshe protests, saying, "If the Israelites didn't listen to me, how will Pharaoh?" (I.e all the more so he won't - this is one of 10 Kal vachomers in scripture). Moshe says that his lips are "blocked".

So G-d sets up Aaron to be his mouthpiece, on account of Moshes's "blocked" lips. He tells them to be patient and speak calmly to the Israelites, and to speak with honor to Pharaoh.

Second Aliya

Moshe and Aaron's Lineage

The chumash now takes a short deviation from the story to trace to lineage of Moshe and Aaron to demonstrate how they were befitting to be leaders.

Moshe and Aaron were descendants of the tribe of Levi, but the chumash first delineates the families of Reuven and Shimon, the two brothers who were older than Levi, as they were part of the lead up to Levi.

Another explanation as to why Reuven and Shimon's lineages are outlined here is to compensate for Yaakov rebuking them on his deathbed, and thus demonstrating that they were nonetheless indeed worthy of leadership.

So the immediate genealogy of the three sons (Reuven, Shimon and Levi) were as follows (I've marked in bold the people from whom Aaron and Moshe came. I have not always listed everyone in the same order as is listed in the text but rather listed it in a way that felt more organized to me):

Reuven (Yaakov's firstborn) sons were: Chanoch, Pallu, Chezron and Carmi

Shimon's sons were: Yemuel, Yamin, Ohad, Yachin, Zohar, Shaul (son of Dina, AKA "The Canaanite woman" - see earlier in chumash for more info on this).

Levi's sons were: Gershon, Kehath, Merari

Levi outlived all of his brothers, dying at 137 years old. It was only then, after all of the sons of Yaakov died, that the enslavement of the Israelites in Egypt began.

Side note, in the Brit Bein HaBetarim (Lit. "the Covenant between the Parts", see Breishis 15:13), G-d prophesied that the Israelites would be enslaved for 400 years. According to this count, the enslavement began with the birth of Yitzchok and ended with the exodus from Egypt. This comes out to 400 years total as such:

Yitzchok was 60 when Yaakov was born.

Yaakov was 130 years old when he descended to Egypt, at which time Yosef was 39 (see earlier in Chumash for more detailed calculation of this) and Levi was 43. Since Levi died at the age of 137, this means that he spent 94 years living in Egypt.

60 +130 + 94 = 284 years.

400 total years -284 years up until Levi died = 116. Which means that while the enslavement "officially" began with the birth of Yitzchok, it didn't really begin in an overt way until the last son, i.e. Levi died, meaning the real enslavement lasted for 116 years.

The chumash now goes on to further detail Levi's family tree:

Again, Levi's sons were: Gershon, Kohath and Merari. He also had a daughter named Yocheved.

• Gershon

  • Gershon's sons were: Livnei and Shimei

• Kohath

  • Kohath (who lived till 133)'s sons were: Amram, Yitzhar, Hevron and Uzziel. Amram lived till 137.

  • Yitzhar's sons were: Korach, Nefeg and Zichri

    • Korach's sons were: Assir, Elkahan and Abiasaph

  • Uzziel's sons were:

    • Mishael, Elzaphan and Sitri

• Merari

  • Merari's sons were: Mahli and Mushi.

• Yocheved.

  • Amram (Kohath's son) married Yocheved (Kohath's sister and thus Amram's aunt). Yocheved and Amram begot:

    • Aaron

      • Aaron marries Elisheva (daughter of Aminadav, sister of Nachshon*)

      • They have 4 sons: Nadav, Avihu, Elazar and Itamar.

        • Elazar marries one of the "daughters of Putiel"(she was from both Yitro's family as well as Yosef's family. Yitro is sometimes called "Putiel" (translated as a contraction of the words "fatten" and "to G-d") alluding to his earlier idolatrous days when he would fatten up calves for idolatrous worship). Elazar and this "daughter of Putiel" beget Pinchas. In regards to her descent from Yosef's family, Putiel can also be understood to mean "to oppose", alluding to how Yosef opposed and overcame his evil inclination with the incident with Potiphar's wife).

        • *The fact that scripture lists not only who Elisheva's father was but also her brother teaches us that a man should investigate a woman's brothers when deciding if he should marry her.

    • Moshe.

The scripture wraps up this genealogical tangent by stating that this is the Aaron and Moshe of which is being spoken of and alludes to their righteousness in not deviating from fulfilling G-d's mission for them. Aaron is here listed before Moshe (and throughout scripture the order of their names fluctuates) to signify that they were equal in greatness.

The text reiterates what G-d told them to do, namely to take the Israelites out of Egypt, to speak to Pharaoh and ask him to release the Israelites and states how G-d spoke to Moshe on that day in Egypt.

Third Aliya

G-d Lets Moshe Know What Is Coming

After yesterday's tangential outline of the lineage of Moshe and Aaron, the Chumash now returns to it's regular narrative, with G-d telling Moshe to speak to Pharaoh on account of G-d's Greatness and Moshe protesting that his "lips are blocked".

G-d reassures Moshe that Moshe will have dominion over Pharaoh with plagues and tortures and that Aaron will serve as his spokesperson.

G-d specifies that Moshe should speak the words that G-d told him to Pharaoh, after which Aaron is to explain these words to Pharaoh.

Pharaoh was the type of wicked person who never really repents sincerely but rather once in a while acts as if he regrets his actions and is repenting, under duress of a severe punishment.

G-d did not want people to be fooled by such a mock repentance on the part of Pharaoh and think that G-d was acting unnecessarily cruelly towards him. So G-d said that He would "hearden Pharaoh's heart" so that he would not even act as though he were repenting.

As things played out, G-d only needed to harden Pharaoh's heart during the last five plagues. For the first five, Pharaoh was stubborn enough without Divine Intervention.

G-d predicts that Pharaoh will not cede to Moshe's requests and G-d will have to take the Israelites out of Egypt through force and by causing suffering to the Egyptians.

G-d continues, saying that at that time, Egypt will will recognize that He is G-d.

Moshe and Aaron act as G-d commanded them too. Moshe was 80 years old at that time and Aaron was 83.

Fourth Aliya

The First Two Plagues

G-d tells Moshe and Aaron that when they approach Pharaoh and Pharaoh asks them to do some kind of wondrous act, Moshe should tell Aaron to hit his staff on the ground and the staff will become a snake.

And so it happens that Moshe and Aaron approach Pharaoh and Aaron hits his staff on ground and it turns into a snake.

Pharaoh summons his wise men and magicians and they replicate this trick using incantations.

Aaron's snake reverts back to a staff and then (as a staff) swallows up all of Pharaoh's magicians' snakes.

As G-d predicted, Pharaoh's heart hardens and he refuses to listen to Moshe and Aaron. G-d tells Moshe that this is what is happening.

Pharaoh pretended that he was a deity and as such was above regular bodily needs like going to the bathroom. So he would regularly wake up very early (so as to remain unseen) and relieve himself in the Nile river.

G-d tells Moshe to approach Pharaoh during this time, at the Nile river and bring the staff that had turned into a snake with him. He tells Moshe to tell Pharaoh that G-d sent Moshe to ask Pharaoh to let the Israelites out of his land so they can worship G-d in the wilderness. Moshe is to then say that Pharaoh has not yet listened and possibly will not listen until after the plague of the firstborn.

G-d continues to instruct Moshe to then warn Pharaoh that Moshe will take the staff and strike the Nile* and the water in the Nile will turn to blood. Moshe should continue, saying that the fish in the Nile will die and the Egyptians will become weary from trying to find a remedy to transform their water back to how it was.

*Side note: Egypt was a very barren country and the only source of water was from the Nile which extended out to feed all the other waters in the country. For this reason, the Egyptians worshipped the Nile. Due to this deification, G-d chose to strike the Nile first, before the Egyptian people themselves.

Since as a baby, Moshe was saved by water (Yocheved, his mother hid him in a basket in the water), G-d decided that Aaron, rather than Moshe should be the one who struck the water. From here we learn that one should never harm a thing which once helped them.

So G-d instructs Moshe to tell Aaron to take his staff and stretch his arm out over all the waters of Egypt: the rivers, canals and ponds, and any other place that water was gathered, and all of the water in Egypt would turn to blood. Even the bath water and the water in the vessels in people's private homes.

So Moshe and Aaron obey G-d's commands and in front of Pharaoh and his servants, Aaron stretches out his staff as such and all of the water in Egypt turns to blood. The fish die and the Egyptians cannot drink the water which was now blood.

Pharaoh's necromancers successfully replicate this "trick" as well, using their incantations. Pharaoh's heart hardens and he likens Moshe and Aaron to people who bring straw into the city of Ofryaim which is already abundant with straw. So too, G-d says, are Moshe and Aaron bringing in magic into a land (Egypt) which is already abundant with magicians. Pharaoh was not impressed and went to his house.

The Egyptians dig around the river to get drinkable water. This plague lasts for seven days.

G-d instructs Moshe to once again approach Pharaoh and request that he let the Israelites out so that they can serve G-d, saying that if Pharaoh refuses to do so, G-d will attack the entire border of Egypt with frogs. The frogs will rise up from out of the river and invade Pharaoh's* bedroom and bed, the homes of his servants and of his people, the ovens and kneading bowls. The frogs would infest the Egyptians bodies and enter into their intestines and croak from within there.

*Side note, since Pharaoh was the one who initiated the suffering against the Israelites, he will be struck first.

G-d instructs Moshe to command Aaron to stretch out his staff over the rivers, canals and reservoirs and summon the frogs to rise up. Aaron does so, and a "frog" rises up. This singular frog can either be a single frog who after coming out from the river, was hit, only to have a multiplicity of frogs emerge from him as a result. Alternatively, many frogs emerged from the water at the same time, however like a swarm, they appeared as one unit.

Pharaoh's sorcerers managed to replicate this trick as well.

Pharaoh summons Moshe and Aaron and pleads that they ask G-d to get rid of the frogs, after which time Pharaoh will release the Israelites.

Moshe tells Pharaoh to humble himself before Moshe and that Moshe will demonstrate that whenever Pharaoh requests that the frogs be gone, so it shall be. So Pharaoh says he wants the frogs to be gone the following day. So Moshe prays to G-d that day for the frogs to disappear the next day.

Fifth Aliya

The Plague of Lice

Moshe reassures Pharaoh that the frogs will leave the Egyptians homes and only be in the Nile. Moshe then departs from Pharaoh and as he said he would, he prays to G-d for the frogs to be gone on the following day.

G-d heeds Moshe's request and the next day the frogs all die and the frog corpses pile up into mounds and the land becomes foul.

Once Pharaoh saw that relief had come with the frogs, he once again hardened his heart as G-d had predicted that he would.

G-d commands Moshe to instruct Aaron to stretch out his staff over Egypt, which He says will bring lice all over the land*.

*Side note, G-d did not want Moshe to instigate this plague, which involved lice coming up from the ground, as the ground had helped Moshe insofar as Moshe hid the Egyptian that he killed in the sand. Therefore, G-d preferred that Aaron do it.

So Aaron went ahead and stretched out his hand with the staff and hit the ground and all of the dust in the entire land of Egypt turned into lice and both men and beasts became infested.

Pharaoh's sorcerers tried to replicate this (from an area apart from Aaron so people would know that they weren't just using the lice which Aaron created) but they could not. Demonic forces cannot have power over anything which is smaller than a grain of barley, and these lice were smaller than that.

The sorcerers told Pharaoh that the lice were not a trick but rather coming from G-d but Pharaoh did not accept this and once again, as was predicted, Pharaoh's heart hardened.

Hashem tells Moshe to once again approach Pharaoh in the early morning at the Nile and ask Pharaoh to release the Israelites. He is then to warn Pharaoh that if Pharaoh does not heed this request, G-d will send an assortment of harmful wild beasts* and snakes and scorpions into Egypt which will invade the Egyptian's homes. The Israelite homes will not suffer from an invasion of these beasts however, and thus the land of Goshen (where the Israelites resided) will be noticeably distinct and G-d's presence in the land known thereby.

*Side note, the plague of the wild beasts was the first one that directly killed the Egyptians. However not all of the subsequent plagues caused the Egyptians directly to die, so what is the meaning behind the order of the plagues? To understand this, Rashi quotes a Midrash which expounds upon the order of the plagues, saying that they follow the order of typical military strategy in battle:

Blood - Typically, an invading army will attack the enemy's water supply

Frogs - Then they make loud sounds and blow horns to scare and confuse those who live in the besieged city, much like the croaking of the frogs.

Lice - The army will then shoot arrows at the enemy, much like the lice which entered into the Egyptians like arrow.

Wild Beasts - These are like foreign mercenaries which the invading army then sends in.

Pestilence - This corresponds to the subsequent seizure of enemy captives by the invaders.

Boils - This is the invaders attempt to burn out the enemy.

Hail - This is likened to stones thrown from catapults at the enemy.

Locusts - This is likened to a large army attacking.

Darkness - Assuming the enemy has still not surrendered at this point, they are imprisoned.

Firstborn - If they still don't surrender, their leaders are executed.

Sixth Aliya

The Plagues of Beasts, Pestilence and Boils

G-d continues speaking to Moshe, saying that "tomorrow" he will bring about a redemption which will distinguish the Israelites from the Egyptians.

As He said that He would, G-d then sends a mixture of wild beasts into Egypt and the beasts destroy the land.

Pharaoh summons Moshe and Aaron and tells them to go worship their G-d, but in their homes, in Egypt.

Moshe replies that it would not be proper for them to do so, for the way that the Israelites will worship G-d would be to sacrifice lambs which are worshiped by the Egyptians. The fact that the Egyptians worshipped these animals was repugnant to the Israelites, and if the Egyptians witnessed the Israelites sacrificing lambs to their G-d, it would be repugnant to the Egyptians and the Egyptians would likely attack the Israelites. Moshe states that by contrast, the Israelites will go on on a three day journey into the wilderness to worship G-d.

Pharaoh relents and says that they can go worship in the wilderness so long as they don't travel very far.

Moshe says that he will go to plead with G-d to get rid of the wild beasts, however he implores Pharaoh to not back track on his promise and to follow through with letting the Israelites leave to worship G-d.

Moshe leaves Pharaoh's presence and prays to G-d to get rid of the beasts. G-d accepts his prayers and removes the beasts. Unlike the frogs which died on the spot, the beasts are removed rather than killed, since the Egyptians could have benefited from the dead animal's hides.

The beasts were all gone, and Pharaoh's heart hardened and yet again, he refused to let the Israelites out.

G-d tells Moshe to approach Pharaoh and say that G-d requested that Pharaoh let out the Israelites and to warn Pharaoh that if he refuses to let go of them, G-d will send a severe plague upon the livestock of the Egyptians, upon their horses, donkeys, camels, cattle and sheep. Additionally, G-d will differentiate between the Israelites and the Egyptians, whereby none of the Israelites' livestock will be harmed. G-d says that he will put all of this in motion the following day.

And so it was the following day, G-d caused all of the Egyptian's livestock to die, but the Israelite livestock remained unharmed. In spite of this obvious disparity, Pharaoh's heart hardened and he refused to let the Israelites out.

G-d then instructs Moshe and Aaron to each fill their cupped hands with soot (from extinguished coals) and then Moshe is to take all of the gathered soot and throw it upwards in front of Pharaoh. Miraculously, all of the soot that filled both hands of both Moshe and Aaron fit into one hand of Moshe (as one can throw more forcefully with one hand).

G-d predicts that this soot will miraculously cover the entire land of Egypt and that it will turn into a boil that will bring about blisters on all of the Egyptian people and animals.

And so it was that Moshe and Aaron took this soot and Moshe threw it upwards in the presence of Pharaoh and the soot turned into a boil that brought blisters upon all of the Egyptian people and animals*.

*Side note: The previous plague of pestilence only killed the Egyptian livestock which was kept out in the field. There were some Egyptians that recognized the hand of G-d and brought in their livestock. This livestock did not die during the plague of pestilence but was here stricken with the boils.

The Egyptian sorcerers were stricken with the boils as well and could not stand before Moshe. And as G-d had predicted, Pharaoh's heart was hardened and Pharaoh did not acquiesce to Moshe and Aaron.

G-d instructs Moshe to approach Pharaoh early in the morning and tell Pharaoh that G-d demands that Pharaoh let the Israelites out of Egypt so they can worship Him and that if he refuses to do so, G-d will send a plague that is so great that it is likened to all the plagues combined so that Pharaoh will recognize that there is no being like G-d in the entire world. Pharaoh should know that G-d could have killed him off already with the plague of the pestilence, but He refrained from doing so since He wanted Pharaoh to experience how powerful G-d is and that G-d would be publicized throughout the world.

Seventh Aliya

The Plague of Hail

G-d continues to dictate to Moshe what to say to Pharaoh:

He should say that Pharaoh is still oppressing Moshes's people by not letting them out and G-d will send an unprecedented hailstorm into Egypt at a specified time the following day.

Moshe should then tell Pharaoh to have all of the Egyptians gather inside together with their livestock and everything else. He warns that anything that is left out in the field will die from the hail.

There were some Egyptians who feared G-d and brought their livestock indoors. Those who did not fear G-d left everything outside.

G-d then instructed Moshe to stretch his staff upwards towards the heavens (some say it reached even higher than the heavens) and there was thunder and a downpour of hail began. There had never before been a hailstorm like this in Egypt. This hail was also extra unique in that there was fire within the ice. Although this is in opposition to their natures that fire and water should coexist in this way, for the sake of performing G-d's will, they made peace amongst themselves for this miracle. The hail struck everything which was outdoors in Egypt, with the exception of Goshen. In Goshen, where the Israelites lived, there was no hail.

Pharaoh summons Moshe and Aaron and confesses that this time he has sinned and says that he concedes that Moshe and Aaron are righteous and that the Egyptians are wicked. He asks them to plead with G-d to stop the hail, saying that this hail has been sufficient in serving it's purpose.

Moshe says that once he leaves the city*, he will pray to G-d to get rid of the hail and thus Pharaoh will know that the Earth is G-d's, although he knows that Pharaoh and his people are still degenerates who do not yet fear G-d.

*He isn't able to pray to G-d in the city as it is filled with idolatry.

The flax and the barely, being nearly ripe during the storm got totally destroyed however the wheat and the spelt, having not yet ripened were still resilient to the weather and did not get destroyed.

Moshe leaves Pharaoh and gets out of the city and stretches out his arms. The hail ceases. Even hail that was already on it's way down halted midair.

When Pharaoh saw that the hail had stopped, he once again resumed sinning and him and his people's hearts hardened and just as G-d had predicted, he refused to let the Israelites out.