Parshat Vaera: With Signs and Wonders

(9) “When Pharaoh speaks to you and says, ‘Produce your marvel,’ you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your rod and cast it down before Pharaoh.’ It shall turn into a serpent.” (10) So Moses and Aaron came before Pharaoh and did just as the LORD had commanded: Aaron cast down his rod in the presence of Pharaoh and his courtiers, and it turned into a serpent. (11) Then Pharaoh, for his part, summoned the wise men and the sorcerers; and the Egyptian magicians, in turn, did the same with their spells; (12) each cast down his rod, and they turned into serpents. But Aaron’s rod swallowed their rods. (13) Yet Pharaoh’s heart stiffened and he did not heed them, as the LORD had said.

When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying: “Show a wonder for you” (Exod. 7:9). He will be making a reasonable request to you. You find in the case of Noah, that though He said to him, after He saved him from the flood, Neither shall there be anymore a flood (Gen. 9:11), Noah demanded a sign, and God assured him: I have set my bow in the cloud (ibid., v. 13). Similarly, when Hezekiah was sick, the Holy One, blessed be He, sent Isaiah to him and he said: Thus saith the Lord, the God of David, thy father: “I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears; behold, I will heal thee; on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the Lord” (II Kings 20:5). But he replied: What shall be the sign? (ibid., v. 8), and He answered: This shall be the sign unto thee from the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that He hath spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees? (ibid., v. 9)...Since the righteous demanded signs, how much more did the wicked Pharaoh (have the right to do so). Hence, when Pharaoh says unto you: Show a wonder for you (he will be making a reasonable request).

Therefore, if a prophet arose and performed great signs and miracles, and thereby seeks to deny the prophecy of Moses our Master, we must not hearken unto him, for we know clearly that those signs are of enchantment and witchcraft, because the prophecy of Moses our Master is not based upon the signs so as to make a comparison between the signs of this one and the signs of that one; for with our own eyes we saw it, and with our own ears we heard it even as he himself heard...Therefore it is said in the Torah, if even the sign or the wonder come to pass: "Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet" (Ibid. 13.3)...

The Holy One Blessed be he said: This villain boasts and calls himself a dragon, as it is written (Ezekiel 29:3): "The great dragon (referring to Pharaoh) that lies in the midst of his rivers" (i.e. the Nile and its canals). Go tell him: See this staff, it is a piece of dry wood; it shall become a dragon with life and soul and swallow up all the other staffs, and it is destined to revert to a dry piece of wood.

You likewise, I created you from a putrid drop and gave you empire and you boasted and said (ibid.): "My river is mine own and I have made it for myself." Behold I shall turn you back to nothingness and chaos. You swallowed up all the staffs of the tribes of the children of Israel, behold I shall cause you to disgorge all you have swallowed.

"And also called Pharaoh to the wise men and to the sorcerers." At that instant, Pharaoh began to laugh at them [Moses and Aaron] and to screech at them like a chicken, and to say to them: 'Thus are the signs of your G-d? The way of the world is for people to ply their wares in a place that needs them. Nobody brings fish broth to Spain, Fish to Ako [All places already well-supplied with fish]. Do you not know that all the sorcerers are under my dominion?' Immediately [Pharaoh] sent for and brought in children from their school. And they did exactly [as Aaron had done]. And not only that! But Pharaoh even called his own wife in and she did exactly [as Aaron had done]. As it says: "And also called Pharaoh." What is the "also" [referring to]? That even to his wife he called. [The verse also says] "And they did also the sorcerers of Egypt." [Here], what does the "also" [refer to]? Even the 4-5 year old children were called and they also did this.

Similarly with regard to Moses, since Moses knew the precise moment of midnight, why did he say: About midnight, instead of: At midnight? Moses did so because he maintained: Lest Pharaoh’s astrologers err and believe midnight to be earlier. Since no disaster would have occurred, they would say: Moses is a liar. Moses spoke in accordance with the principle articulated by the Master: Accustom your tongue to say: I do not know, lest you become entangled in a web of deceit.