Parashat Va'era

In this week’s parsha we read of the first seven plagues inflicted on the Egyptians in an effort to convince Pharoah to release the Hebrews from slavery and to allow them to worship their own G’d. The categorisation of the plagues and the reasons for each of them has intrigued commentators over the generations.
The first plague seems easy to understand. The River Nile was a godhead to the Egyptians and Pharoah claimed both that the Nile was a source of his divinity and that he controlled it. Turning the River into blood was a task of such magnitude that Egypt’s magicians could not copy it or reverse it. Water affects everyone and the plague would have convinced many Egyptians to release the Hebrews. Interestingly, it was Aharon, not Moshe (Moses), who proclaimed this plague. The River Nile had played a part in saving Moshe’s life when, as a baby, he was placed in an ark on the water. Moshe could not now curse that which had saved him.
The hope, however, that the River would again save the Hebrew was not to be realised and the next two plagues of frogs and lice followed. These first three plagues were at ground level. The next three, swarming wild beasts, cattle disease and boils, were at the level of human life, and the final group of hail, locusts and darkness, emanated from sky level. However, the way in which the plagues were set into action varied. With the Nile, Aharon struck the water with his staff in the view of Pharoah and his servants, and it was similar with the frogs and the lice. When it came to the swarm of wild beasts, it was just G’d’s word that brought about the plague and similarly with the livestock disease. It might have been expected, therefore, to be the same with the boils. However, here we have a very different procedure. Moshe and Aharon both are involved in taking handfuls of furnace soot and then Moshe hurls the dust at Pharoah’s eyes and scatters it into the wind and the dust becomes the boils afflicting the Egyptians.
Rashi comments that this is a double miracle, for Moshe throws four handfuls from one hand in one direction and yet it spreads throughout Egypt. The symbolism of this plague is immense. It is directed at Pharoah, who stubbornness is the real issue, and once again he causes his people enormous pain. The dust is from the hot furnaces. Boils represents heat. The heat is rising in the tension between Pharoah and G’d. G’d says that it is clear that instead of boils, he could have sent a deadly disease but he chose one that irritates but does not obliterate.
To bring on the final set of plagues, Moshe alone raises his staff heavenward. To bring the hail to an end, Moshe stretches out his hand to G’d. No-one in Egypt has any doubt now that the source of the plagues is Divine yet Pharoah is not willing to concede that his own power is not absolute.