פרשת בא תשכ"ו - מכת החושך

And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days;

they saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days; but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.

שלשת ימים denotes a triad of days. old French terziane; so, too, שבעת ימים everywhere it occurs denotes in old French a septaine of days (a period of seven days). ויהי חשך אפלה … שלשת ימים — there was darkness of gloom when no man saw another during those three days, and there was moreover another period of three days’ darkness twice as thick as this when no man rose from his place: one who happened to be sitting when this second period of darkness began was unable to rise, and one who was then standing was unable to sit down. And why did He bring darkness upon them? Because there were wicked people amongst the Israelites of that generation who had no desire to leave Egypt, and these died during the three days of darkness so that the Egyptians might not see their destruction and say, “These, (the Israelites) too have been stricken as we have”. And a further reason is that the Israelites searched (the darkness came just in order that they might do this) and saw their (the Egyptians’) jewels, and when they were leaving Egypt and asked them for their jewels, and they replied, “We have none at all in our possession”, they answered them, “I have seen it in your house and it is in such and such a place” (cf. Midrash Tanchuma, Bo 1; Exodus Rabbah 14:3).

And Pharaoh called unto Moses, and said: ‘Go ye, serve the LORD; only let your flocks and your herds be stayed; let your little ones also go with you.’

And the LORD said unto Moses: ‘Yet one plague more will I bring upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt; afterwards he will let you go hence; when he shall let you go, he shall surely thrust you out hence altogether.

כלה Onkelos renders it by גמירא, taking כלה in sense of כליל entirely; i. e. he will send all of you away.

(2) ONE AND ALL (KALAH). All -- men, women, children, and livestock.