Confronting Darkness/Returning to the Light

Ramban: וְלֹא קָמוּ אִישׁ מִתַּחְתָּיו

No man could see his brother nor could anyone rise from his place.

Ramban asks: Why could the Egyptians not move just because it was dark?

Ramban describes the darkness as something physically thick and tangible.

He writes: This darkness was not just that there was no sunlight. It was more than a nighttime darkness. It was “thick darkness” meaning that a very thick midst came down from the sky. This is why God said to Moses: “Stretch forth your hand to the heavens” - Moses had to bring down this darkness.

Seforno: וְיָמֵשׁ חֹשֶׁךְ.

Even darkness which may be felt

This will remove the normal darkness called “night”. The reason this was necessary was that the night consists of air ready and capable to absorb light in the morning. The darkness that would occur now was something unable to interact with light at all. The reason for this inability to interact with light was the density of the texture of this darkness. As a result of this totally different kind of darkness even a lit up flare would not be able to make a “dent” in the darkness.

Bereshit Rabbah 12:6

After having committed the first sin, Adam saw his first sunset and it filled him with dread. The midrash teaches that after having committed the first sin, Adam saw his first sunset on the eve of Shabbat; he was alarmed, afraid that the world was blacking out, running down, and that he had caused it to happen. The cosmic darkness, he thought, not only reflected his own inner darkness, but perhaps resulted from it. At sunrise, Adam realized it was the way of the world, and that he would have to cope with it and confront the darkness. After Shabbat, God gave Adam two flints, which Adam struck together and created fire, blessing God, “Blessed are You, who creates the lights of fire.”

Reb Hanoch of Alexander (19^th Century Hassidic Rebbe; see Parpera’ot La-Torah p. 43)

לֹא רָאוּ אִישׁ אֶת אָחִיו

A person did not see his brother

That is to say, each individual only worried about himself and only looked to save himself and the members of his household – and, thus, “did not rise from under the darkness for three days.” Not a single one of them succeeded in rising above the degraded spiritual level that they were caught in.

The Egyptians were responsible for their own darkness because of their selfishness and self-centeredness. It was not the symptom of darkness--it was the cause. Their darkness was spiritual.

Or Hachayim - Rabbi Chayim Ben Attar:

The darkness of the Egyptians is described in individual terms:

לֹא רָאוּ אִישׁ אֶת אָחִיו

A person did not see his brother

וּלְכָל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל הָיָה אוֹר בְּמוֹשְׁבֹתָם.

for all the children of Israel there was light in their dwellings.

He comments on this word וּלְכָל. No matter what - a Jew had light. Whenever a Jew went to the house of an Egyptian he still had light even within the dwellings of the Egyptian.

The light of the Israelites is communal.

Rabbi Lucy H. F. Dinner

("Bo: Power and Liberation," The Women's Torah Commentary p.135)

Freezing the Egyptians in darkness for three days while the Israelites enjoyed light, this ninth plague imposes a hiatus in Egyptian mastery that gives the Israelites a taste of the liberation to come. This temporary reprieve from slavery strengthens the Israelites' confidence, and makes them eager for freedom.

Rabbi Avraham Arieh Trugman (Orchard of Delights, page 222)

In psychological terms darkness represents a sense of depression that is fed by despair and purposelessness. ...Depression causes people to feel alone, as if no one cares about them and in turn leads them not to care about others. This phenomenon is quite literally described in the biblical verse - "no one would could see their brother." An even more extreme form of depression occurs when people are completely sunk in the abyss and virtually unable to move. They are stuck in a state of physical or emotional paralysis. This phenomenon is also quite literally described in the biblical verse - "nor could anyone get up from his place."

Reb Nachman (18th Century)

The evil inclination is more interested in the depression following a sin than in the act of sinning itself, for nothing is as spiritually and even physically debilitating as depression.

The Exodus from Egypt, nationally and personally, entailed confronting the darkness and returning to the light. They held on to the light and hope of salvation.

Just as the plague of darkness immediately preceded the redemption from Egypt, so too, the darkest hour always comes right before the dawn. Knowing this secret and deciding never to give up are the greatest antidotes against the evil inclination's ultimate secret weapon of depression.