Shabbos Parashas Vaera - 5777

Shabbos Parashas Vaera - 5777

Rabbi Hal Miller

When Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, 'Provide a wonder for yourselves,' you shall say

to Aharon, 'Take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh, it will become [a snake].'

Shemos [7:9]

Why did G-d, Who can do anything, lead Moshe and Aharon through all the apparent

sorcery to out-do the Egyptians before Pharaoh? Why not just go directly to the slaying

of the firstborn? Why did Moshe stoop to a magic show?

Two verses after ours, we read, "Pharaoh too summoned his wise men and sorcerers,

and they too, the necromancers of Egypt, did so with their magic." [7:11] Apparently

Pharaoh thought it was a contest. Although the Egyptians did pretty well in the early going,

they eventually lost, but that could happen to anybody. How did that prove the existence

and overwhelmingly infinite power of G-d to Pharaoh?

Nechama Leibowitz notes that this is the second time Moshe and Aharon appeared before

Pharaoh. "On the first, their audience with him was accompanied by no sign or wonder.

They came to Pharaoh 'in the name of the G-d of Israel' and presented their demand: 'Let

my people go'." Pharaoh replied, "I know not the L-rd and moreover, I will not let Israel go."

Thus this time they needed to do something different. They found it in Pharaoh's words, as

cited in our verse, "Provide a wonder for yourselves." This, though, asks rather than answers

our question.

Rav Hirsch takes it from here, by asking what Pharaoh is attempting to accomplish with this

request for a wonder. He writes, "Proudly, he does not require or wish for any miracles, has

no desire to be convinced, 'but if you want to stand forth, well and good, you must of course

justify yourself by some sign, legitimize the position you take, by performing some magic'."

In other words, Pharaoh was merely being polite to two old men by allowing them a chance.

If they did not avail themselves, so be it, but he would listen no further. G-d wanted to, in the

end, prove even to Pharaoh that He is the ultimate power, but knew that Pharaoh was not

ready to listen. Thus Moshe needed to work his way in.

Ramban thinks that Pharaoh had some pretty serious power himself. He notes that acts of

sorcery are "accomplished through destructive angels." If Pharaoh had the right to use this

tool, then to counter it required G-d providing Moshe the tool of the miracles.

Sforno hints that perhaps the wonders performed by Moshe and Aharon were not intended

for Pharaoh at all, but rather for the Jews. It was they who needed to know that Moshe was

not a pretender, but in fact a messenger from G-d. This same argument can be applied to

the Egyptian people. It also answers a secondary question as to why G-d hardened Pharaoh's

heart even in the face of these wonders--Pharaoh was not the intended target of the lesson.

Leibowitz explains that a "sign or wonder can only impress the one who is psychologically

prepared to be convinced." Pharaoh was not prepared to be convinced, thus had to be forced

through the plagues. But, the people of Egypt and the Jews were both prepared to be convinced.

They required something they could understand. Going right to the last plague would have

been seen as fantastic, but as a potentially one-off, natural event. The magic show given by

Moshe did the trick.