The Torah tells us that Pharaoh’s wise men and sorcerers were able to turn their staffs into taninim by means of their להטים. This word is unusual and Ibn Ezra suggests it may not be a Hebrew word. There are two main approaches to explaining how Pharaoh’s courtiers were able to perform the same miracle as Moshe. Rav Sa’adya Gaon and Ibn Ezra suggest that it was some sort of trick or optical illusion and that in fact no real change had occurred. This fits best with the interpretation according …
Sa'adya Gaon
Parshat Va’eira: ‘By my name HASHEM’
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 …
