Bo - Beware of Darkness
(22) Moses
held out his arm toward the sky and thick darkness descended upon all the land
of Egypt for three days. (23) People could not see one another, and for three
days no one could get up from where he was; but all the Israelites enjoyed
light in their dwellings.
ויהי חשך אפלה … שלשת ימים — there was darkness of gloom when no man
saw another during those three days, and there was moreover another period of
three days’ darkness twice as thick as this when no man rose from his place:
one who happened to be sitting when this second period of darkness began was
unable to rise, and one who was then standing was unable to sit down.
(cf. Midrash Tanchuma, Bo 1; Exodus Rabbah 14:3).
"Watch out now, take care
beware the thoughts that linger
winding up inside your head -
The hopelessness around you
in the dead of night
Beware of sadness"
(c) George Harrison 1970
This last
quote, which sounds as if it could have been a direct warning from Gd directly
to Pharaoh, comes from a song written by George Harrison called "Beware of
Darkness".
The song
appeared on his triple album masterpiece "All Things Must Pass", which most people (including critics) hold as being the finest release from any
of the four solo Beatles.
It will celebrate its golden anniversary at the end
of November.
What is it
about the plague of darkness that distinguishes it from its predecessors and
why ‘darkness’?
To date,
we've seen the decimation of Egypt, with the first couple of plagues being more
of an irritant than a serious threat.
Blood,
frogs and lice were not exactly pleasant, but at least they didn't result in
too much damage to humans or animals.
The wild
animals were ferocious and deadly, but many Egyptians escaped alive.
Plague
number 5 decimated the animals in the fields (according to Rashi) but not those
that were housed indoors.
Even boils,
painful as they were didn't present a mortal threat (though they did kill off
the surviving animals) – so as bad as things were, at least the Egyptian
vegetarians weren't too bothered and no doubt, there were many more after the
end the plague!
Things
however started changing with the hailstones. They were deadly - both in the
human cost and the overall impact on the economy, with the crops being
destroyed as a result - where carnivores and omnivores amongst the Egyptians
were now disadvantaged.
The locusts
gave the "coup de grace" by mopping up any remnants of food with
their unrelenting attack on any crops and fruit that might have survived the
hailstones:
(14)
Locusts invaded all the land of Egypt and settled within all the territory of
Egypt in a thick mass; never before had there been so many, nor will there ever
be so many again. (15) They hid all the land from view, and the land was
darkened; and they ate up all the grasses of the field and all the fruit of the
trees which the hail had left, so that nothing green was left, of tree or grass
of the field, in all the land of Egypt.
By the
time we get to Plague Number 9, you have a population that is battered,
bruised and most important, hungry. The skin has properties to heal from most
conditions, not least boils, but hunger cannot be eradicated so easily.
Which
brings us to the plague of darkness - a strange follow-on from the dramatic
events described in Plague number 8.
The commentator Rashi provides a vivid description of the "viscosity" as it were, of darkness
as though it had been turned into a thick broth of air, that turned Egyptians
into living versions of the Pompeii statues - frozen in their respective stance
- whether standing or sitting. It can't have been pleasant but this plague was certainly not
life-threatening (however, the Midrash does tell us though, that during this plague,
four fifths of the Israelites who didn't merit to leave Egypt were killed by
Gd, but that is another sermon).
What was Gd
trying to teach the Egyptians by punishing them with a plague of the night?
Could he have
written "Beware of darkness?" version 1.0?
A few weeks
ago, my wife and I visited the Saatchi Gallery in London to view the remarkable
exhibition on Tutankhamun. It really is worth visiting before it closes in
May.
There were
many elements that we found fascinating, not least the descriptions of how the
Egyptians relied on magic and their obsession with the dead .
It was illuminating to compare these with the examples provided in the Torah's narrative, regarding the way in which
the magicians were able to replicate a number of the early plagues.
Concerning our relationship with the dead, the Book of Devarim/Deuteronomy warns to stay away from those who communicate with the dead, presumably referring to the highly venerated Egyptian Book of the Dead - which no doubt our ancestors would have been familiar with.
Most importantly, the central
figure in Egyptian religious belief was the sun god Ra. The Egyptians believed that he
ruled all parts of the created world, the sky, the earth and from the point of
view of the Book of the Dead, the underworld.
This was
made abundantly clear in the exhibition and featured heavily in the reasons why
the body of Tutankhamun, the boy king was surrounded by so many coruscating artefacts.
The kings even named themselves after this god, as exemplified by Ramses - which means "born of Ra".
By foisting the plagues on the Egyptians, Gd is
sending a clear message to Pharaoh, that there is only one God and it is
certainly not the man with the statue!
It also
isn't Ra - the sun god.
After
everything that Gd has heaped upon the Egyptians, in terms of material and
physical pain, we now have a plague that has been used for attacking the very core of
their spiritual belief – removing the sun they worshipped from their lives.
He does
this by plunging Egypt into darkness.
o Gd has
destroyed Hapi the god of the annual flooding of the Nile.
o He has
mocked the idea that different gods control fire and ice - with the plague of
hailstones (fire inside ice).
o And now, He demonstrates to the Egyptians that Gd has mastery over the
belief that rules everything else – He literally removes Ra from the Egyptian
vista - it's a masterstroke!
George
Harrison didn't realise it, but by calling one of his songs "Beware of
Darkness", he was striking a very ancient anvil. Gd's message to the
Egyptians and to Pharaoh was to beware of darkness, because the entities
that they worshipped were as shallow as the delta inhabited by the Israelites
in Goshen.
Yes, by all means, appreciate the gifts that nature provides – the bountiful Nile and its endless
possibilities through irrigation. Make Egypt the breadbasket of the known world (the Egyptians are credited as being one of the inventors of the bread making process) but never forget that a Pharaoh, whatever he might call himself -
is a man, not a god.
There is
only one Gd and only He will take the Israelites out of Egypt, when He chooses
and in the manner in which He decides to make this happen - if it takes nine
plagues to get the message across, so be it.
Pharaoh did
not choose the heed the warning and for a final time, Gd hardened a heart that
Pharaoh did not have the inclination to open. Even the obliteration of Ra could
not convince him otherwise.
This meant
that only one last plague would change his mind and it would hit him so hard -
the death of his own first-born son - that he would finally acknowledge the
mastery of Gd as the only ruler of the universe. It was Gd’s final blow before the giant waves of the Sea of Reeds that engulfed the entire Egyptian army.
Many suns
have risen and set since the darkness that enveloped Egypt stopped the
Magicians in their tracks and the ordinary Egyptians in their frozen stances.
Tutankhamun's
secrets, hidden beneath myriad layers of sand for three millennia were finally
revealed almost a hundred years ago. They highlight a culture steeped in the
artificial sunlight of Ra and the forbidding darkness of the underworld, which demonstrates
their fallibility.
The
fascinating parallel descriptions in our Torah, at the same time, attests to
the Majesty of Gd and His miraculous rescue of our people over 3,300 years ago.
Shema
Yisrael, Hashem Elokeinu. Hashem Echad.
Shabbat
Shalom.
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