הגדה ברורה

Haggadot and essays for Pesah and all year round

Rashi

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 Vaeira: The sorcerers and the lice

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Up until the plague of lice, the Egyptian sorcerers had been able to mimic God’s plagues in order to convince Pharaoh that they were not genuine miracles. However, when they tried to produce lice, they were unable. There are different explanations about why they were able to turn their staffs into crocodiles, turn water into blood, and make frogs emerge from the water, but were unable to turn dust into lice. The sorcerers could not turn dust into lice because all the dust in Egypt had already …

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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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Parshat Shemot: ‘And this is your sign that I have sent you’

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When God tells Moshe his mission, Moshe is sceptical that he is capable or worthy of going to Pharaoh or freeing the children of Israel. God tells him that he will succeed ‘For I will be with you, and this is your sign that I have sent you, when you bring out the children of Israel, you will worship [the] God on this mountain’. On first glance, this looks like God is telling Moshe that the sign that he is worthy will be the subsequent revelation on Sinai, but this seems illogical since this can …

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