הגדה ברורה

Haggadot and essays for Pesah and all year round

Ralbag

Parshat Bo: Was there ever another plague of locusts like it?

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The Torah states that not only was the plague of locusts unprecedented, but that it will never be repeated. However, the prophet Yoel describes a plague of locusts during the first temple period and says that this too was unprecedented in its severity. For that to be true, it must have been greater than the plague of locusts in Egypt, but the Torah seems to rule that out in advance. Rashi points out that Yoel (chapter 2:2) describes four sub-species of locusts ארבה, ילק, חסיל and גזם and …

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Parshat Va’eira: Where did Pharoah’s sorcerers find water

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Since Aharon had already turned the waters of Egypt into blood, it has to be explained where Pharaoh’s sorcerers found the water with which they performed their own tricks. Answers include: Aharon only turned the waters that were above the ground into blood. The Torah reports that the Egyptians dug up subterranean water to drink and it was this that the sorcerers used. (Ibn Ezra, Hizquni, Ralbag)The water in the rivers and lakes only remained as blood for a short time and the reason it was …

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Parshat Va’eira: ‘By my name HASHEM’

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וַיְדַבֵּר אֱלֹהִים אֶל־מֹשֶׁה וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו אֲנִי יְהוָה׃ וָאֵרָא אֶל־אַבְרָהָם אֶל־יִצְחָק וְאֶל־יַעֲקֹב בְּאֵל שַׁדָּי וּשְׁמִי יְהוָה לֹא נוֹדַעְתִּי לָהֶם׃ Translated literally, God’s opening statement to Moshe here reads as follows. ‘I am HASHEM. And I appeared to Avraham, to Yitzhaq, and to Ya’aqov as El Shaddai and my name HASHEM I was not known to them.’ This statement is difficult to parse on a grammatical level and also presents a major interpretative problem because numerous …

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Parshat Shemot: Lest he strike us with the plague or with the sword

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Moshe and Aharon plead with Pharaoh that they be allowed to go three days in the wilderness to sacrifice to the God of the Hebrews, ‘lest he strike us with the plague or the sword’. Since, presumably, Pharaoh was not likely to be moved by compassion for the slave population, it needs to be explained why they thought this plea would be effective. Rashi claims that ‘lest he strike us’ is a polite euphemism for ‘lest he strike you’, which Moshe used out of respect since he did not want to …

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