These are the ten plagues which the Holy One, blessed be He, brought upon the Egyptians in Egypt, and they are as follows:

Blood, Frogs, Lice, Wild Beasts,
Pestilence, Boils, Hail, Locusts,
Darkness, Slaying of the Firstborn.

Rabbi Yehuda grouped them by their initials:
'DETZACH (Blood, Frogs, Lice)
ADASH, (Wild beasts, Pestilence, Boils)
BEACHAV (Hail, Locusts, Darkness, Slaying of Firstborn)'.

The ten plagues mark the climax of the Jews' liberation. They should therefore occupy a central place in the discussion of the Exodus on Seder night. Obviously, God could have exerted irresistible pressure upon the Egyptians from the beginning, so that they would have freed the Jews right away. However, the Divine plan provided for a step-by-step approach, a gradual unfolding of the redemption process. What was this meant to teach?

In the first place, the gradual escalation of the plagues gave the Egyptians the opportunity to mend their ways before the full measure of Divine punishment struck them. It is true that 'God hardened Pharaoh's heart' at the later plagues; however, it has been explained that this did not take away his freedom of choice, but rather gave him the strength to continue on his own course, even in the face of the mounting pressure of the plagues. During the first plagues, Pharaoh showed that he would not give in of his own free will, though he might go through the motions of submission under extreme duress. Therefore, God gave him the fortitude to persevere in what he really had wanted to do--and he chose to defy God, despite his people's suffering. (1)

But if the successive plagues did not bring about a change of heart among the Egyptians, the dulling impact of blow after blow demonstrated to all onlookers, then and for ever after, that God cannot be defied. The impossibility of fighting God was underlined by the whole pattern of the ten plagues. A Midrash points out that the plagues corresponded to the strategy of a general laying siege to a city. Thus, the plague of blood corresponded to the poisoning of the drinking water; the frogs, to the trumpeters that would sow fear among the inhabitants; the lice, to the arrows shot into the city; the wild animals to the mercenaries that would be sent; and so on (Tanchuma).

The Midrash also stresses that each of the plagues represented punishment for a particular wrong that the Egyptians did to the Jews: 'They made them drawers of water--and so their river was turned to blood; they made them load their freight -- and the frogs destroyed it; they had the Jews sweep the streets--and the dust turned into lice; they made the Jews watch their children--and God flooded the country with wild animals that devoured the children ...'. The Egyptians made them cattle-herders, whereupon the pestilence killed the herds. They used them to prepare their baths--and then they developed boils which made it impossible for them to wash. The Jews were made stone-cutters -- and God sent hailstones against the Egyptians. They were forced to tend the vinyards and fields--and the locusts consumed all that grew. The Egyptians sought to keep the Jews as prisoners--and were themselves shackled by the thick darkness that fell upon Egypt; their murderous designs upon the Jews brought the killing of the firstborn-- and their drowning of Jewish children was repaid by their death in the Sea of Reeds (Tanchuma).

Various other Midrashim also stress that the plagues struck measure for measure, as divine retribution for the suffering of the Jews. We already pointed out how the plague of blood can be seen as a response to the shedding of Jewish blood and the drowning of the children in the Nile; but it has also been pointed out that the Egyptians were deprived of water by this plague because they had forced the Jews to labor without even a chance to wash off perspiration and dirt. As a result, the Jews also suffered from vermin, and this led to the plague of lice. The frogs and wild animals were sent against Egypt because the Jews had been sent afield to gather all kinds of animals -- for the pleasure of the Egyptians and in order to disrupt the family life of the Jews. When the Egyptians held their sumptuous banquets, Jews had to stand at attention, with torches on their heads, to light up the scene; hence the plague of darkness came to repay the Egyptians for the inhuman treatment of their slaves.

In a broader sense, the plagues have been interpreted as a sweeping assault upon all aspects of Egypt's self-seeking materialistic society. The Nile formed the basis and the embodiment of Egyptian power. It was considered the god of the Egyptians and Pharaoh identified with it, claiming to be its creator. Therefore, the plagues not only started with the Nile, but centered on it-- they were directed against it, emanated from it, or were announced at its banks.

The first plague, blood, struck at the Nile itself. Moreover, it demonstrated God's supreme power because it did not merely represent God's use of natural forces but an actual change in nature (Midrash Hagadol; Maharal).

The frogs represented an invasion, by God's messengers, of all aspects of Egyptian life, down to bed chamber and oven. Incidentally, the frog's readiness to die on their mission demonstrated the importance of carrying out God's will, even at the price of one's own life (Talmud, Tractate, Pesachim 53b).

The lice represented the defeat of the all-powerful Egyptian priests and magicians; they could not duplicate this plague, acknowledged God's power, and are not mentioned again. Moreover, this plague struck at the earth which had heretofore provided man with the clay and bricks needed for his misguided adventures, such as the Tower of Babylon and, later, Pharaoh's store-cities. This would explain why, according to some Midrashic opinions, the Jews at this point were no longer forced to continue their slave labor.

The wild beasts robbed the Egyptians of the use of their lands; greed and deceit were dominant forces in Egyptian society, but now the fruits of their immoral practices would no longer be enjoyed by the Egyptians. At the same time, this plague reminded them that, as a result of their conduct, they could not expect the animals to fear them as they were supposed to.

The pestilence struck yet another blow at Egyptian pride, for it showed the Egyptians that they were no longer masters even of their own rightful possessions.

The boils demonstrated a further tightening of the noose: even the bodies of the Egyptians were now struck. In this way, this plague also brought retribution for the immoral ways in which they misused their bodies. (2)

The plagues of hail and locusts can be seen as a punishment for the failure of the Egyptians to properly use their God-given faculties. They had refused to see God's hand in the world, or to hear His warnings; now they were forced to hear and see unmistakeable demonstrations of His power and will: the thunder that accompanied the hailstorm, and the heavy layer of locusts that hid the entire land. The proper use of our senses is of crucial importance to man. All human failings began with Eve's seeing and Adam's listening to the wrong thing ( See Genesis 3 :6); now the plagues prepared the Jews, and all of mankind, to see and hear God's revelation on Mount Sinai.

The plague of darkness put an end to all constructive human activity and, in particular, isolated every individual from his fellow-beings; in this way the Egyptians were shown the effect of a total breakdown of the social order, which they had been courting by their unrestrained self-seeking and disrespect for other human beings. Whilst they were made to realize that the rule of evil is bound to bring darkness upon the world, the Jews who looked to God for their salvation enjoyed the use of light to prepare for their redemption in accordance with God's instructions.

The killing of the firstborn, finally, represented the climax of the retribution visited upon Egypt. It had been announced before all the plagues (Exodus 4:22-23): 'So speaks G-d, Israel is my firstborn ... and you refuse to let him go; behold, I will kill your firstborn son.' This was carried out by G-d alone, but the Jews had to deserve it by dedicating themselves to G-d. (3)

Thus, the plagues can be seen not simply as a fitting punishment of the Egyptians, but also as the destruction of a decadent civilization that had misused its G-d given powers. At the same time, these same plagues educated the Jews to the moral perils of Egypt and to the need for dedicating to God all that they received from His hands. This lesson was driven home by the commandment to give over to God all their first-born sons, since they had been spared the fate of the Egyptians. (4)

The commentators point out a further aspect of the ten plagues. They can be perceived as a parallel to--or echo of--the ten Divine pronouncements which brought the world into existence (See Ethics of the Fathers 5:1). The redemption of the Jews from Egypt would, thus, appear to be a counterpart to the creation of the world. The process of creation showed God as the master of nature; the Exodus showed him as the ruler of history, bending the laws of nature to His purposes.

From a different vantage point, we can view Creation as a process of building, and the plagues as acts of destruction necessary for creation.. The 17th century commentator Maharal points out that the ten pronouncements created the world, whilst the ten plagues brought about the creation of the Jewish people.

Our Sages ask why the world was created by ten pronouncements rather than one; they reply that this was done so that evildoers would be punished for ruining a world created by ten pronouncements, and the righteous would be rewarded for sustaining such a world (Ethics, 5:1). God knew that man, given the power of free choice, would do harm to the world. He, therefore, created it in ten stages--and the downfall of the evildoers through the ten plagues would serve to redress the harm done to every stage. Moreover, there would be men eager to do right--and they would be given the ten commandments to sanctify the world in every respect. The revelation of God's Kingship, as a result of the ten plagues, thus opened the way for the further disclosure of God's will, through the ten commandments. (5)

The punishment of the Egyptians lasted one year--exactly as long as that of Noah's generation that perished in the Flood, and as long as the punishment of evildoers in Gehinom after death. On the fifteenth day of the Jewish month Nissan, exactly one year before the Exodus, Moses had the vision at the burning bush (Exodus 2:2), and then returned to Egypt to appear before Pharaoh. The plagues followed--each lasted seven days, and was preceded by twenty-four days of warning, or (according to another opinion) the warning lasted seven days and the plague twenty-four (Tanchuma). By Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, the Jews no longer had to work, and in Nissan they were redeemed.

"Rabbi Yehuda grouped the plagues by their initials:
'Dezach, Adash, Beachab.'"

Why did the Talmudic Sage, Rabbi Yehudah, find it necessary to coin the abbreviation of the ten plagues:
'Dezach, Adash, Beachab.'?

The Machzor Vitry suggests that Rabbi Yehudah sought to teach the plagues in a concise form that is easily remembered; and we do find in various Talmudic passages (see for example Talmud, Tractate Menachos 96a).

Rabbi Yehudah arranged the initials of the plagues in three groups. It has been suggested that each group came to teach Pharaoh -- and the world in general -- one of the three principles which, according to the commenatator Rabbi Joseph Albo, form the fundamentals of our faith. The first three plagues were designed to establish the existence of G-d; they were introduced by the warning: 'you shall know that I am G-d, (Exodus, 7:17). The second group was to demonstrate G-d's providence; here the introduction is: 'you shall know that I am G-d in the midst of the land' (Exodus 8:18). The third group, finally, was to show the truth of prophecy; in connection with this group the Torah speaks of those 'who would not listen to G-d's word' (Exodus 9:21; Based on Ritva).

There is also another pattern that can be discerned in the grouping of the plagues. The first three were initiated by Aaron, with the use of Moses' staff; and they involved water and land. The next three were initiated by Moses without use of the staff, and involved those dwelling upon the land, man and beasts. The next three, finally, were initiated by Moses, with the use of his staff, and revealed God's power to strike from the air. (6) The slaying of the firstborn had, of course, a totally unique character.

The first two plagues in each group were always preceded by a warning; the third plague came without warning. Rabbi S.R. Hirsch points out that the first plague in each group (blood, wild animals, and hail) reduced the Egyptians in their own land to the insecure existence of strangers. The second plague in each group (frogs, pestilence, and locusts) robbed them of their pride, their possessions, and their sense of superiority, reducing them to lowly submission. The third plague in each group (lice, boils, and darkness) imposed upon them actual physical suffering. This was the retribution for their oppression of the Jews which had taken these same three forms; their punishment then reached its climax in the slaying of the firstborn.

NOTES

1. See commentary of the Meshech Chochmah on Exodus 3:19.
2. See Leviticus 18:3.
3. On Pesach night, all those died who were firstborn from either their father's or their mother's side. As a result, many instances of adultery and immorality were revealed. Even the firstborn of slaves and prisoners died. Their parents had no hand in the oppression of the Jews but they rejoiced over their suffering. Moreover, if their firstborn had survived, they would have ascribed this to the protection of the idols which they worshipped. Even firstborn animals died. Otherwise, they might have been worshipped as idols. Furthermore, the Egyptians were to be shown that their conduct had put them on the same level as animals. In houses where there were no firstborn, the head of the household was slain (Midrash).
4. See Exodus 13:2.
5. 'The ten plagues turned the ten pronouncements with which the world was created, into the ten commandments'. God's sovereignty over the world, which He had created with ten pronouncements, became evident to all as a result of His inflicting the ten plagues upon the Egyptians. It was then that He could announce to the world His law, in the form of the Ten Commandments (Chidushei haRim).
Each of the ten plagues corresponded to one of the pronouncements by which the world was created. For instance, 'Let there be light' had its counterpart in the plague of darkness.
6. See Ravon and Rashbam.

Reprinted with permission from the Artscroll Haggadah.