Shabbos Parashas Bo - 5780
Shabbos Parashas Bo - 5780
Rabbi Hal Miller
For if you refuse to send forth My people, behold, tomorrow I shall bring a locust
swarm into your border. [Shemos 10:4]
Our verse is Moshe quoting God to Pharaoh. But for this plague, unlike all the others,
the Torah never tells us what God said to Moshe. Where did Moshe come up with
the locust idea?
Most commentators try to get around this question. Ramban, for example, follows
the Midrash Rabbah [13:4], which refers to verse 10:2 where God tells Moshe to
relate to his descendants that He made a mockery of Egypt, which Ramban interprets
as including the details of the plague. He says that the Torah was just being brief
here, but that does not explain why here and not for any of the other plagues.
Rav Hirsch notes that this plague is an exception, that in the others, the Torah tells us
briefly what God explains to Moshe, then of the occurrence, without going into detail
on what Moshe relates to Pharaoh. But here, the opposite appears in the text, to
emphasize what 10:3 says, "Until when will you refuse to be humbled before Me?"
But this too seems a weak explanation of why this plague is different from the others.
Ibn Ezra notes a second item in this plague that differs from the others. Verse 10:3
begins, "Moshe and Aharon came to Pharaoh". The others do not include this, even
though we know that both went together to Pharaoh each time. Ibn Ezra says that
this is because later in this plague, Pharaoh orders the two of them out together,
which did not occur elsewhere. Interesting point, but also does not answer the
question of why here and nowhere else.
Malbim also follows the Midrash, but adds something that helps us understand. He
says that God's words asking when Pharaoh would humble himself were understood
by Moshe to refer to the small, humble locust to defeat Pharaoh.
Perhaps we can read this event as God supporting Moshe's claim, even though
Moshe came up with the locusts on his own. Moshe may have chosen the locust as
a way to cut Pharaoh down to size, and God implemented Moshe's words. Although
Moshe was the most humble of human beings, he was also influential enough that
even God decided to follow through by bringing the locust plague merely because
Moshe said so.