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What was the Plague of Choshech
Bo, 5774
Shmuel Herzfeld
This week’s portion finishes up the last three of the ten plagues that Hashem brought upon
the Egyptians. Living in DC, we can relate in a small way to one of the plagues.
Don’t get me wrong. Living in DC is a treat and a privilege. It is one of the greatest places to
live in the United States. There is a reason why many of the brightest people in the country
are increasingly moving to our area. A recent study predicts that by the year 2040 there
will be over seven million people living this area, an increase of 32%.
But with all that there is one thing that all DC area residents deal with. Come summer time
we all live in fear of the plague of a power outage. We have all been visited with the plague
of choshech as our homes have gone dark and we have been sitting in the dark just waiting
for Pepco to turn our lights to come back on.
Obviously the plague of choshech in Egypt had to be so much worse than our power
outages. Otherwise it would just be an inconvenience and not a plague.
What was the nature of the plague of darkness?
The plague itself is described in a mere three verses in the Torah.
The Lord said to Moses, "Stretch forth your hand toward the heavens, and there will be
darkness over the land of Egypt (vi-hi choshech al eretz mitzrayim), and the darkness will
become darker (vayamesh choshech)." So Moses stretched forth his hand toward the
heavens, and there was thick darkness over the entire land of Egypt for three days. They
did not see each other, and no one rose from his place for three days, but for all the
children of Israel there was light in their dwellings (u-lekhol benei yisrael hayah or
bemoshvotam). (Exodus 10:21-23)
This is the shortest description of any of the plagues and even more noteworthy is that this
plague seems to be the tamest of all the plagues. After all, the text just tells us that there
was a heavy darkness on the land for three days.
The meekness of the plague causes us to notice it. Nothing seems to have been destroyed
or ruined by the darkness. The other plagues literally destroyed the economy of the
Egyptians, ruined their food and their livestock and their ability to eat and sleep and live;
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the other plagues inflicted lasting damage, whereas from the literal text this just appears to
be an uncomfortable three days.
Our sages are sensitive to this and for this reason understand the plague to be more than a
simple darkness over the land.
Here are three ways to understand the plague of choshech.
First is the approach of Rashi.
Through his commentary Rashi addresses the questions we raised. Rashi says that the
choshech was a highly debilitating darkness. Moreover, Rashi suggests that the whole
reason for the plague was not to inflict the Egyptians with misery but to protect the Jewish
people from embarrassment or else to enable the Jewish people to figure out how to get
their parting gifts from the Egyptians when the moment of redemption would arrive.
Here are Rashi’s words:
Thick darkness in which they did not see each other for those three days, and another
three days of darkness twice as dark as this, so that no one rose from his place. If he was
sitting, he was unable to stand, and if he was standing, he was unable to sit. Now why did
He bring darkness upon them [the Egyptians]? Because there were among the Israelites in
that generation wicked people who did not want to leave [Egypt]. They died during the
three days of darkness, so that the Egyptians would not see their downfall and say, “They
too are being smitten like us.” Also, the Israelites searched [the Egyptians’ dwellings
during the darkness] and saw their [own] belongings. When they were leaving [Egypt] and
asked [for some of their things], and they [the Egyptians] said, “We have nothing,” he [the
Israelite] would say to him, “I saw it in your house, and it is in such and such a place.
(10:22)
The upshot of Rashi’s commentary is that the purpose of the plague of darkness was not so
much as to inflict a heavy blow upon the Egyptians but as to provide cover for the Jewish
people.
Still, according to Rashi, the darkness just seems to be a mildly uncomfortable
phenomenon. If we took a vote most people would probably prefer this type of darkness to
any of the other plagues, like lice and boils.
A second understanding of choshech can be seen in Ramban (and also Ibn Ezra.)
Ramban argues that there was a thick cloud of darkness that came down from heaven (eid
av meod she-yarad min hashamayim). But it was more than just a darkness coming down
from the sky. There was also an atmospheric change that sucked out the ability for any
light to exist and that made it impossible to live under those conditions:
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Ramban writes: “There was a great darkness which would descend upon them and which
would extinguish every light, just as in all deep caverns and in all extremely dark places
where light cannot exist as it is swallowed up in the density of thick darkness. Similarly,
people who pass through the Mountains of Darkness find that no candle or fire can
continue to burn at all.”
The Mountains of Darkness is a reference to a place described in the Talmud (Tammid,
32a) as existing in Africa in which it was impossible to pass through or to live.
Thus, Ramban’s interpretation is that there wasn’t mere darkness, but rather there was a
tremendous change in the atmosphere that prevented light from existing.
Without negating the power of the interpretations of Rashi and Ramban, lets look at a third
approach that also appears in the writings of our sages. A third approach suggests that this
plague of darkness must also be understood on a symbolic level.
On a symbolic level, choshech suggests that the Egyptians were in such a place of spiritual
darkness that their world was crashing in around them. At the end of the entire series of
plagues as they realized the might of Hashem, they also finally understood the fact that
their lives were based on falsehoods and emptiness. The Mitzrim now realized with clarity
that their lives, their society, their culture, and their values were all meaningless and
empty; this realization led them to a place of darkness as a deep and immobilizing
depression overcame their society.
There are strong hints to this symbolic interpretation that can be found in the text of the
Torah.
The Torah says “ve-lo kamu ish mitachtav, and no man rose from his place.” This reminds
us of a depressed person, lying down and unable to move, immobilized by their emotional
darkness.
According to the literal text of the Torah, the plague lasted for three days. Our sages
generally understand three days as a sign of intense depression and immobilization. For
example, the Talmud distinguishes between the first three days of shiva and the rest of the
shiva. As it states in the Talmud: "Three days for weeping and seven for lamenting" (Moed
Katan, 27b). There are different laws of the shiva that apply to the first three days and not
the rest of the shiva. So the fact that this plague lasted for three days when the other
plagues lasted for longer tells us that this reflects a period of depression and overwhelming
sadness that overcame the mitzrim.
There was also no warning to the plague of darkness. The other plagues, which
represented physical inflictions upon the Mitzrim, were preceded by a warning. But the
damage of this plague was primarily symbolic and emotional. When our world comes
crashing down and we realize that our lives are spiritually bankrupt -- on this matter there
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is often no immediate warning. It is often the result of a lifetime of bad mistakes. For
example, we can warn someone don’t drive the car drunk or you will crash it. But it is
much harder to say to someone if you live a life in this manner, you will eventually enter
into a deep depression over the emptiness of your life.
And that is exactly what the plague of darkness was.
It was symbolic of the Egyptian realization that their whole way of life was tremendously
off.
The mitzrim had many gods that they worshipped. But the god that was the most widely
worshipped was the sun god named, Ra. So it is easy to see the plague of darkness as a
symbolic attack upon the sun god of Egypt.
But this is more than just an attack on the sun god, Ra. It is an attack upon the entire
Egyptian society that overvalued the power of light. What does it mean to overvalue the
power of light?
The plague of choshech reminds of a secular song that is all about darkness and light. The
song tells the story of the dangers of too much light and the spiritual benefits of having a
little bit of darkness.
Here are some of the lyrics of the song, “The Sounds of Silence.”
Hello darkness, my old friend,
I've come to talk with you again….
And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more.
People talking without speaking,
People hearing without listening,
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence.
"Fools" said I,"You do not know…
And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made.
The Mitzrim didn’t only worship the sun god. They also worshipped the neon light. They
were this society of ten thousand people gathering in the naked light, but not bothering to
speak and listen. They were a society without a strong, moral core. That is what it means
to worship the neon lights.
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We often make the mistake of running after the light. In this sense we are like insects
attracted to light. We think that where there is the most light and the most fanfare there is
the most strength. This is what Egyptian society was about. They had the neon lights that
they were using to enslave the Jewish people.
The plague of choshech reminds all of us that the most powerful ideas are the ones that are
willing to sprout up in the dark. The most powerful ideas in human history were brought
forth not by the advanced civilization of Egypt, but by the counter culture spirituality of
Moshe Rabbeinu
So the MItzrim were given the choshech in order to teach them that all their superficial
neon lights—their strength, their chariots, their Pharaohs, and their pyramids-- were not
illuminating but were really obscuring.
The Kedushas Levi (10:21, cited to me by C. Reischer) points out that this is why there is a
crucial difference when it comes to this plague. With respect to the plague of hail it says
that the Jewish people “did not have hail.” But here the Torah doesn’t say that the Jewish
people didn’t have darkness. Rather it says that the Jewish people had light, hayah or
bemoshvotam. For the Jewish people to avoid the plague of darkness it was not enough to
simply not have darkness, rather they needed light.
The Jewish people needed real light—the light of Torah and mitzvot as a guide, This is why
right after the plague of darkness the Jewish people are given their first mitzvoth: Rosh
Chodesh, Korban Pesach, and Bris Milah. Without these commandments we too would not
have had real light. We would have been fooled by the Egyptian neon lights.
This is true on a historical – national level.
But it is also true on a personal level. How many of us go around looking for light in our
lives in all the wrong places. We are sidetracked by what appears to be light, but what in
reality is actually just another shade of darkness.
The real light in this world is the light of Torah and the light of Hashem and the light of
following His path.
When the Egyptians were struggling with the choshech the Jewish people had the light of
mitzvot. Some Jews died in this plague, but others were busy preparing for the redemption.
This is the unbelievable power of spirituality and of having a connection to Hashem:
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There was physical darkness in the air, but those who had a relationship with God saw the
darkness as inspiring and not as debilitating. For the Jews in the face of darkness there was
light, hayah or bemoshvotam.
When redemption will finally come to the Jewish people it will come bechatzot halailah--in
the middle of the night. When have the light of the Torah to guide us then even in the
middle of the night we will be able to overcome darkness and see the light.
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