פרשת וארא תשי"ג - הקדמה למכות

’When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying: Show a wonder for you; then thou shalt say unto Aaron: Take thy rod, and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it become a serpent.’

תנו לכם מופת, “identify yourselves by means of a miracle which shows that the One Who has sent you is capable of carrying out what He promises so that we should obey Him. The expression אות as opposed to מופת is meant to identify the messenger, i.e. to prove that he is not a pretender, a charlatan. This was the reason why Moses performed אותות before the Israelites so that they should not entertain any doubt as to his being an authentic messenger from G’d to them. Pharaoh, whose doubts did not relate to the authenticity of Moses as the people’s representative, had to be convinced of the identity of the G’d who Moses claimed had sent him. It was he who had said that he did not recognise even the existence of such a G’d. Hence Moses had to perform miracles proving that such a G’d did in fact exist. The fact that the same miracle could help establish two separate facts is no hindrance to Moses performing the same miracle in two locations for two different audiences.

thus saith the LORD: In this thou shalt know that I am the LORD—behold, I will smite with the rod that is in my hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood.

ונהפכו לדם AND THEY SHALL BE TURNED INTO BLOOD — Because rain does not fall in Egypt but the Nile rises and irrigates the land and the Egyptians on this account worshipped the Nile, therefore God first smote their deity and afterwards smote them (Exodus Rabbah 9:9).

וישמעו AND THEY HEARD — There are many Midrashic explanations and our Teachers have already collected them in their appropriate places in Genesis Rabbah and in other Midrashim. I, however, am only concerned with the plain sense of Scripture and with such Agadoth that explain the words of Scripture in a manner that fits in with them. וישמעו AND THEY HEARD — What did they hear? They heard the sound of the Holy One, blessed be He, as He walked in the garden (see Genesis Rabbah 19:12).