The plague of darkness, compared to the other nine plagues, is unique in many respects, and the text describes only a small part of what happened. It is as if Hashem was “keeping us in the dark” and deliberately omitting a huge chunk of information. In this shiur, we will try to “throw some light” on the parts that are “left out.”
From the simple meaning of the verses, it appears that the plague only lasted three days, but the Midrash says that it was actually six days long. For the first three days, the darkness was only visual – the Egyptians could not see anything. This was followed by an additional three days during which not only could they not see but the darkness was tangible; it was a force that prevented movement. If someone was standing, they remained standing for three days, if they were sitting, they could not get up – they were frozen in place.
What does the verse mean when it says, “Va’Yamesh Choshech (Shemot 10:21)? The word Va’Yamesh is from the root meaning “move.” When the Torah speaks about Yehoshua (Shemot 33:11), it says lo yamish, that Yehoshua did not move from the tent of Moshe, or about the Cloud of Glory, (Shemot 13:22), that the cloud did not move from the Ohel Mo’ed. This darkness involved movement (or lack thereof) and was not a darkness we are familiar with according to the laws of nature here on earth. Instead, it was a “primordial” kind of darkness that existed on the first day of Creation, when darkness is first mentioned.
What the Torah recorded thousands of years ago in Egypt was corroborated by a scientific experiment at the turn of the last century. Until 1915, physicists believed that light traveled in a straight line, like a laser beam, and obeyed Newton’s laws of physics. Then along came Einstein with his General Theory of Relativity, and theorized that gravity bends light. If you have a mass with an enormous gravitational force, such as the sun, it alters the straight path of light; it bends it.
Eddington confirmed this in 1919 when he photographed an eclipse of the sun and found that the position of the stars, whose light passed close to the sun, conflicted with what Newton’s physics would have predicted. This then led to the theory of black holes, regions with such intense gravity that they not only deflect the light, they “swallow it up” and prevent light from escaping. Around the same time, in 1903, physicists Fox and Hull proved that light also exerts force on objects. It is possible that these light-associated forces, which supernaturally intensified during the plague of darkness, were those that prevented the Egyptians from moving.
Unlike the Egyptians, who couldn’t see and couldn’t move, for Am Yisrael there was “light in their places of dwelling” (Shemot 10:23). It doesn’t say that there was light in Goshen, but anywhere Am Yisrael went there was light for them and there was movement. The Midrash describes how Am Yisrael went around the houses of the Egyptians to map out all the booty that they would collect when they left Egypt. In the same room, an Egyptian was in darkness, while a Jew had light, and not just regular light, but a more intense form of light, almost like X-rays, so that they could see gold, silver, and other treasures hidden in closets, under floor boards, etc. Later when they left Egypt and asked for the gold and silver, the Egyptians said, “What gold? What silver?” the Jews could answer: “In the third drawer on the left!”
The true focus of the plague of darkness, however, was not the suffering of the Egyptians, but a catastrophe of apocalyptic proportions for Am Yisrael.
If not for a “sidebar” in Rashi from next week’s parsha, Bo (Shemot 13:18) that is easily glossed over, we would never have known what transpired. The verse says that Am Yisrael left Egypt “chamushim,” literally translated as “armed.” Another explanation for this word relates to the number five. The Midrash (Mechilta, Shemot 13:18) brings a debate regarding how many Jews left Egypt. One opinion says one in five; another, one in fifty; and the third, one in five hundred.
Rashi references a prophecy of Yechezkel (20:1-9) that tells a story of the Exodus that few are familiar with.
Hashem reveals to Yechezkel that even before Moshe witnessed the Burning Bush, He appeared in a prophecy to Aharon, who related it to Am Yisrael. In the prophecy, Hashem reveals himself to Am Yisrael and promises that He will take them out of Egypt and bring them to a land of milk and honey. Hashem tells Am Yisrael to cast off their iniquity and not defile themselves. But they defied Hashem and did not do as He commanded, and Hashem resolved to wipe out those sinners during the plague of darkness.
Rashi cites the low estimate, one in five, which means that if 600,000 Jews left Egypt, 300 million died – a Holocaust times fifty!
Why do we not mourn this apocalypse?
The Maharal (Gevurot Hashem, chap. 3) says we should not mourn these deceased because the moment they made the conscious choice to not be part of Am Yisrael, they were not Am Yisrael anymore; they were Egyptians and we do not mourn the Egyptians who died in the Ten Plagues or in the Red Sea. The reason that this incident is not emphasized and the Torah deliberately downplays it is that it was an enormous chillul Hashem.
It is a terrible concept to contemplate, that only one Jew in five embraced G-d and was redeemed; the others were swallowed up in the pages of history as if they never existed.
As the dawn of Mashiach approaches, it is a safe bet that a similar scenario will transpire. It is our duty meanwhile to try to save as many souls as we possibly can, bringing them back into the fold with love and light so that they will not be lost to the darkness.
Parshat HaShavua Trivia Question: In this parsha we find the first mitzvah given to Am Yisrael – blessing the new month. Why does the Torah, which is a book of mitzvot, not begin with this first mitzvah rather than with the story of Creation?
Answer to Last Week’s Trivia Question: During the plague of blood, what would happen if a Jew and Egyptian both drank with straws from the same cup of water? The Midrash (Tanchuma, Va’eira, 13) says that the water the Egyptian sucked into the straw turned instantly to blood, while the Jew drank pure water.
