Last week, we started discussing the fundamental attribute of middah k’neged middah, measure for measure; how Hashem punishes and rewards to exactly match a person’s own behavior. We cited the Rambam who says that this is a thread that runs through the makkos, the plagues, and how it is a mitzvah to explain how each plague was measure for measure, perfectly matching the evil behavior of the Egyptians. We pointed out that this understanding is vital for it precludes any element of chance when we discover that the punishment perfectly fits the crime. In Part One, we discussed the plague of dam, blood. This week, let’s turn our attention to tzfardei’a, the frogs.
If I would ask you to pick one plague that you would have to experience, which one would you choose? I would venture to say that after careful consideration, most people would say, “If I have to suffer through one of them, let it be frogs. They’re squishy little things and I get that hundreds of them would be annoying, but it wouldn’t be as bad as the painful boils, the killing hail, destructive locusts, dangerous wild animals, and so on.”
The Abarbanel, however, paints a completely different picture. He says that the word tzfardei’a (or tzfard’im) is written in the Torah ten times, to teach us that it was as bad as all ten plagues put together. For the explanation of this, he points to the verse (Shemos 7:8), “Al dvar hatzfard’im.” Literally this means “about the matter of the frogs.” But the word dvar also means to speak, and the Abarbanel says that each frog made a different sound with a different pitch, having a different screech. And they croaked in unison without pause, twenty-four seven. When they filled the Egyptian houses and bedrooms, it was like having 100 alarm clocks going off continuously with 100 different reverberations. The Egyptians couldn’t think, couldn’t sleep, and it drove many of them thoroughly insane.
This was measure for measure for the lachatzeinu, intense pressure, that the Egyptian taskmasters inflicted upon us nonstop, hour after hour, day after day. (As an interesting aside, I found a Tanna d’bei Eliyahu that says that the sound the frogs made was cuckoo, which in English is slang for going crazy. Perhaps this is the source for the word cuckoo, since this is the effect that the frogs had on the Egyptians. In secular etymology, they say that the word cuckoo comes from cuckoo birds, which are “brood parasites” who act crazy, leave their eggs in other species nests, tricking them into raising their chicks who then often kill their host’s young.)
In Shemos Rabbah, in explaining the damage of the tzfardei’a, the Medrash quotes a pasuk in Tehillim (78:45), “U’tzfardei’a vatash’chiseim – And the frogs caused them destruction.” Rashi in Tehillim explains that this particular destruction was that the frogs mutilated the Egyptians’ private parts. Shemos Rabbah says the same thing (which is probably Rashi’s source), stating that the frogs wounded their bodies and castrated them. This, then, is a very precise middah k’neged middah, for Pharaoh’s entire final solution against the Jews was focused on the mission of pen yirbeh, lest the Jews become too many (since they were having sextuplets).
Therefore, Pharaoh closed the mikvaos, left the husbands in the field, separating them from their wives, and only directed the avodas perach, crushing labor, to married men thereby discouraging people to get married and have families. In perfect retribution, Hashem sweepingly castrated the Egyptians so that they wouldn’t be able to procreate. It’s fascinating that embedded within the word tzfardei’a is the word pered, a mule, that can’t reproduce, hinting at the objective of the frogs against the Egyptians.
As we deepen our awareness of the absolute reality of measure for measure, it really gives us an incentive to act kindly, patiently, lovingly, caringly, and warmly to all those we encounter. In that merit, we will be treated in the same fashion, and may we be blessed by Hashem with long life, good health, and everything wonderful.
Transcribed and edited by Shelley Zeitlin.