Rabbi Binyamin Yuhanan - Parashat Va'eira

[Music] good evening today we're learning parashat va era and we are going to start learning about makot there are seven plagues seven makot in parashat and the last three out of the ten are in parashat paul so before we go into the makot i just want to give a summary of what they are and certain patterns that we see first of all when moshe came to paro and he said hashem is giving your command you have to let the jewish people go what did powder say she said who is hashem and he said i don't know hashem and he said i'm not going to let jewish people go so paro made three denials and uh against these three denials hashem sent him the the 10 plagues so the 10 plagues are going to be in three sets the first step is going to be to show him that there is hashem when he said who's hashem me hashem the second set is when when he said i don't know his name and hashem so that is going to be the second set of plagues to teach him um the the the hashem that not only exists but also that he is in control of um whatever is happening in the world which we call divine providence that that hashem is but he's also involved in the world and then he said why should i listen to him i'm not going to listen to him so that's the third set of plagues that not only hashem exists and he's involved in the affairs of the world but you have to listen to him as well he has the power and so at the end of the three plagues and the the final plague is the to top it all off the plague of the firstborn that's it realizes yes there is god he is still involved in history and i have to listen to him and he lets the jewish people go that's pattern number one the the second pattern is that you will notice that some plagues hashem says to moshe go to the palace speak to par some plagues hashem says to moshe go to the nile river speak to and some plagues hashem just tells moshe make the plague no talking to potter so we see a pattern that the first plague hashem tells moshe go to par the second plague hashem says or i'm sorry the opposite first plague hashem says to moshe go to the river nile river warn warn paro that the river is going to turn to blood don the second plague hashem says go to the palace and warn paro that frogs are going to come out from the river the third plague hashem says no warning for paro just bring lies no warning then the same cycle of three repeats just like we said there are three sets each set is three plagues the same cycle for the fourth plague arov wild beasts go to the river the fifth plague devil when the animals die go to the palace and warn him the sixth plague the boils no warning and the last said the same thing seventh plague hail go to the river the eighth plague arbeit grasshoppers go to the palace the ninth plague crosstail darkness no warning and of course the the last plague there was a warning from from before and um okay that's the second pattern that you have three sets of three plagues and each is um three different kinds of warning question right away why does it have to be in such order and why are there warnings by the river why there are warnings by in the palace and why some don't have a warning at all let me just mute everyone okay and uh the the reason why hashem tells moshe go to the river is because paro is claiming and that's the tradition in egypt that paro is god and as god he doesn't have bodily needs he doesn't have to go to the bathroom so [Music] paro is not god he needs to go to the bathroom so how is he going to do it so he wakes up early in the morning and he goes to the nile river he pretends to enter the river to bathe but really he is urinating and defecating finally after after so long he is finally able to really relieve himself so hashem tells moshe go to paro while he is most vulnerable when you will show him that you know the truth you know exactly the time and the spot on the river where he's uh taking care of his needs and you face him and you show him that you are aware of his trick you know that he is no god and you give him the warning there the second warning go to the palace this time to show publicly the the warning by the river power was there alone now show in front of all his servants embarrass him to show everyone all his ministers officers that power doesn't have power come into the palace nobody can stop you and stand in front of power and say i'm giving you a warning in the name of the true god who you are not and give the warning in front of paro and in front of the entire palace um staff and then the third plague you don't need to give a warning you gave warning twice the third word the third play comes without a warning and then the same cycle is repeated to break paro's defenses both from within and from without both inside he feels like garbage because uh because now moshe is showing him that uh he knows that he's not god and he's catching him in the most uh embarrassing spot and the time placed and paro is also embarrassed that now the whole country knows that paro is impotent he is he has no power okay now another pattern that you may find is that by some plagues paro ignores and says i don't care by some plagues paro says okay i'll listen i will let you go later he changes his mind but at least during the plague he is scared and that is because some plagues are just uncomfortable and some plagues are dangerous so during the plagues that are dangerous to life paro breaks down and says gives false promises says yes yes i will let you go during plagues that there is no danger to life it's just discomfort sparrow is stubborn and he says no i'm not gonna do it for example during the first plague of um blood paro says no i'm not gonna stand jewish people why there is no water to drink the midrash says yes there is water to drink because egyptians can buy water from the jews so it's just monetary loss but it's no no threat to life additionally it says they could dig wells and drink they couldn't drink from nile river but if they would put in effort hard work and dig a deep well and they would get water from there it would stay water and some say that they were able to eat fruits and vegetables and get their moisture from there so there was no danger to life by dumb by blood the the second the second plague fardeha frogs paro told the moshe yes and you can offer sacrifices to god why why did paro agree because there was danger to life the midrash says that that the the frogs jumped into people's innards they jumped into the open mouth and crept into the the stomach and the egyptians were about to die so paro quickly went and said yes yes um i will i will let you go the third plague kinim lies there was no danger to life it was just uncomfortable ichi all over the body the fourth plague arov the the wild animals there was danger to life wild animals lions and tigers and then snakes and scorpions so the jewish people says yes i will send you please sacrifice just don't please please don't go too far stay near egypt um the next one the animals die there is no danger to human life only animals that suparu doesn't budge the next one is uh is she boils also very uncomfortable but no danger to life paro again doesn't budge the seventh hail there is danger to life the the hailstones fall on people's heads and paro says i sinned this time hashem the god is righteous and i in my nation are the evil doers and he says yes i will let you go you're not gonna stay any longer so powder promises falsely because there's the danger to life and then the next one the eighth plague arbeit grasshoppers there is also danger to life and paro because they ate everything no food and the powder again says hashem look at him go and serve hashem your god but then he puts a condition he says but who's going i'm not going to let everyone go i'm not going to let your children go you go but children leave here and then the next plague number nine horsham darkness just darkness no danger to life so he doesn't bunch and of course the final plague when the first born are dying that's for sure danger to life and their power completely completely gives in and says get up and leave my nation and the jewish people go serve hashem just like you said and you can even take your sheep and your cattle just like you said just leave okay that's another pattern that we see when there's a danger of life to life that the powder gives in when there is no danger to life then power is is more stubborn and another thing we have to pay attention is who does the plague who performs the plague some plagues are performed by aharon some by hashem some by moshe and some by moshe aron some by moshe and hashem so we have different variations for example the first plague moshe and hashem do together our bed grasshoppers moshe and hashem do it together darkness moshe alone does it and of course the the death of firstborn hashem does it alone um okay that's it that's it for now some commentators compare the 10 plagues to the 10 statements through which the world was created i'm not going to go into it now some compare the 10 plagues to the 10 commandments and how there is a correlation between each plague to a commandment or to a statement of bereshit and some compare the 10 plagues to the 10 tests of avraham because of the number 10 there must be a correlation and i'm just going to mention the last plague the death of the firstborn that directly corresponds to the last test of avraham where he had to sacrifice his own son and okay that's it now let's actually start the the parsha you see that these these plagues were not random they were thought out it's all in a direct punishment to paro and all to teach something about hashem and how he runs the world and all to show the jewish people that paro has no power show paro himself to embarrass him and to show the egyptians the paro has no power okay now we're on page 319 in the earthquake hashem spoke to motion said to him i am hashem i appeared to avraham to itzhak unto yaakov as el shaddai is one of the names of hashem however with my name of hashem i did not make myself known to them the reason why hashem is saying this is because last week's torah portion finished with moshe complaining question moshe says hashem why did you send me over here i i came and i tried to help them but it only made it worse hashem it would be better if you didn't send me and hashem said soon you will see what i'm going to do to paro and now hashem rebukes motion says moshe i allowed you to see much more than i allowed to see avraham yakov i revealed my essence to you much more than i did to them to them i only revealed my power my might but i did not reveal to them my essential and i did not reveal to them that i promised and i deliver i only promised to the forefathers but they never saw the outcome of the promise but to you moshe i reveal much more i appear to you with my name of of uh of uh uk and also to you i'm going to show that i deliver on my promises i told you the to go to egypt to save the jewish people i told you jewish people are going to believe in you you went the jewish people believed in you you went into paros palace and you threatened him and nothing happened to you i protected you and now you will see what's going to happen now we continue verse five i have heard the groan of the children of israel whom egypt enslaves and i have remembered my covenant therefore tell them i am hashem and now there are four languages of redemption for which we drink the four cups of wine on pesach i shall take you out from under the burdens of egypt number two i shall rescue you from their service number three i shall redeem you with an outstretched arm and will create judgments number four i shall take you to me for a people you shall be my nation and i shall be a god for you and you shall know that i am hashem your god who takes you out from under the burdens of egypt and now comes the fifth language of redemption which we don't mention on pesach because this is for this is safe for future and i shall bring you to the land about which i raised my hand to give it to avraham it's now we'll go to page 321 verse 9 moshe again challenges hashem moshe's uh i'm sorry moshe spoke accordingly to the children of israel but they did not listen to motion because of shortness of breath and hard work moshe came to jewish people and said don't worry until now it was worse from now on it's going to be better and hashem again appeared to moshe and said come speak to power king of egypt and he that he must send the jewish people from his land and now moshe challenges hashem and says behold the children of israel have not listened to me how will paddle listen to me and i have sealed lip lips i don't know how to talk properly and hashem spoke to motion iron and commanded them regarding the children of israel and regarding regarding paro king of egypt to take the children of israel out of the land of egypt hashem reassures moshe and he tells him yes it's true paro will not listen to you but nevertheless i'm giving you the command and you're obligated to follow you will go to paro again and again and again like this ten times and warn him at the end he will send the jewish people so hashem gives moshe command not to give up not to abandon his mission um verse 14. sorry verse 4 14 until next page go through the brief genealogy of the the um eldest children of uh leia in order until we get to levy is the forefather of motion and then once we get there we will speak about moshe's family and aaron's family and and with that will conclude um this is just to remind us or let us know who are moshe and adam because from now on until the end of torah moshe and aaron are going to be the the main characters so these are the heads of their father's house houses because once we mention take the children of israel out of egypt now let's speak about the children of israel a little bit until we get to motion around and then we'll concentrate on them until the end of torah sons of reuven and at least the children of reuven sons of shaman sons of lady now we're in page on verse 16. these are the names of the sons of lady in order of their birth gershon and levi lived for 137 years so levi had three children gershon who are the sons of gershon now on page 323 lived for 137 years now we go to children of mirari mushi okay we start with the genealogy and now we go to the family of motion verse 20 amram moshe's father took his aunt your heaven moshe's mother as a wife from here we see that uh for some reason amram married his aunt we know that a nephew is not allowed to marry an aunt how did amram marry your heaven his aunt an uncle is allowed to marry a niece and nephew is not allowed to marry an aunt so one of the answers is that before the torah was given the jewish people the forefathers followed the torah voluntarily but in in in extra cases in the extreme situations they were allowed to do as they see fit and not follow the total for example we know that uh we're not allowed to marry two sisters at the same time or or in the lifetime of each other but jakob married two sisters so he did he kept the torah voluntarily but when he was forced to marry two sisters he did so here also amram married his aunt why he decided it's urgent i don't know but for some reason he decided that it must be so he foresaw that she is his bashir his um soul mate so he married her and he had a haron and moshe miriam is not mentioned but miriam was the oldest um and then aaron moshe abram lived for 137 years sons of izar a mentioned sons of wizaila mentioned and now who did ahron mary verse 23 took daughter of amin nadav sister of nakshon as wife who was from the tribe of yehuda and then we go to verse 25 el azar son of aaron took for himself from the daughters of poutier putiel is another name for you troy putil as a wife so moshe married zipporah yitro's daughter and elazar moshe's nephew married supporters sister so now surprisingly moshe and eliza his nephew are brother brothers in law and now we meet pinchas for the first time pinchas is the grandson of aharon later pinhas is going to become things once we got to motion aro we stopped there and verse 26 says this was the aharon and hashem said take the children of israel out of egypt according to their legions now we go to verse 30. another objection of motion moshe said before hashem behold i have sealed lips so how shall paro listen to me and hashem replies verse one chapter seven hashem said to moshe see i have made you a master of power and arun your brother shall be your spokesman don't worry paro will be forced to listen to you because you're his master and don't worry you will be able to speak because aaron is going to be your speaker your your spokesman which means moshe would quietly tell aaron what to say and aaron with his loud voice would pronounce it to paro now we go to page 325 verse 3. but hashem warns motion i shall harden paro's heart this means that after the first few plagues when parole showed that he's stubborn hashem took away his freedom of will hashem hardened his heart left to himself paro would already break down and allow jewish people to leave but hashem said i want you to be a little bit stubborn a little bit longer why in order that i shall multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of egypt i want to continue punishing the egyptians to give them their due and i want to continue doing miracles so that the jewish people learn who i am they were enslaved they thought that i forgot about them and i want to prove to them that i exist that i still am in charge of the world and i still care for them and i will still protect them and punish anyone who hurts them so i need power to be stubborn therefore verse 4 says power will not heed you and i shall put my hand upon egypt to smite them and then i shall take out my legions my people the children of israel from the land of egypt with great judgments and even egyptians shall know that i am hashem when i stretch out my hand over egypt to smite them verse 7 moshe was 80 years old and aro was 83 years old they spoke verse eight hashem said to motion aren't saying when para speaks to you provide a wonder for yourself prove to me that you're for for real make a miracle say to aaron take your staff and throw it down before paddle it will turn into a snake so they came to paro and aaron threw down his staff and it turned into a snake paro also called his wise men and sorcerers and the necroman did the same thing with their incantations they threw their staffs and they all became snakes now there are so many snakes crawling on the palace floor however the staff of arun swallowed their staffs this was to show that aron has an upper hand not only that the commentators say that it's the staff that swallowed other staffs which means after the staff turned after this after all the snakes turned back into the sticks aaron's stick attacked other sticks and ate them up but verse 13 on page 327 the heart of power was strong and he did not heed them as hashem has spoken now comes the first plague blood hashem said to motion parasite is stubborn he refused to send the people no problem go to paro early in the morning behold hiko goes out to the water to urinate stand opposite of him on the riverbank and say to him now in verse 16 hashem the god of the hebrews has sent me to you saying send out my people that they may serve me in the wilderness but behold you have not heeded up until now so says hashem through this shall you know that i am hashem that i exist behold with the staff that is in my hand i shall strike the waters that are in the river and they shall change to blood the fish life that is in the water shall die and the river will become foul and hashem is the one who should do it and all the water in the nile turned into blood as well as there shall be blood throughout the land of egypt even in the wooden and stone vessels all water that was in the vessels that they saved in the river and all the water sources turned into blood as i said earlier underground water did not turn the blood but all surface water turned into blood verse 21 the fish life that was in the river died and the river became foul egypt could not drink water from the river and the blood was throughout the land of egypt page 329 the necromancers of egypt did the same by means of their incantations and paris heart was strong and he did not hit them the question is why did the egyptian uh sorcerers need to make more blood like there was not enough blood for them and plus where did they get water to make blood look how far they went they had to pay jewish people to get some water and after they paid for it they wanted to prove they can do the same thing and then they turn that water that they just bought to blood verse 24 all of egyptians dug round about the river for water to drink from here we learned that the water that they dug out they could drink verse 25 seven days were completed after hashem struck the river every plague continued for seven days and then there was a uh seven day break and then there were seven days of warning so the whole set was three weeks so the the plagues took uh a few months to to to continue to to happen now the second plague verse 26 hashem said to moshe come to power and say to him this time in the palace so said hashem send out my people that they may serve me behold i shall strike your entire boundary with frogs the river shall swarm with frogs and they shall ascend and come into your palace and into your bedroom on your bed and into the house of your servants and of your people and into your ovens and into your kneading bowls and into you and into your people which means they entered their innards and all your servants will your will the frogs ascend and here there is danger to life the inside the the body so verse 4 in in chapter eight paro summon motion aaron said in treat hashem that he remove the frogs from me and my people please pray on my behalf to your god and i shall send out the people that they may bring offerings to hashem now on page 331 so moshe said glorify yourself over me which means try and test me for when should i treat for you and your servants that that the the frog should leave which means i can pray and hashem will do it but you might claim all the frogs left by themselves tell me the exact time when you want the frogs to leave and you will see the frogs will disappear at that exact moment and paro said tomorrow again paro is willing to suffer for for another 12 hours suffer for the entire night just to test motion because he said if i tell motion now maybe moshe knows the trick that's why he came to because he can do it now i'm gonna tell moshe tomorrow at a certain time and moshe said as you say frogs will depart from you and your houses only in the river they shall remain and you will know that there is none like hashem our god moshe cried out to hashem concerning the frogs in verse 9 hashem carried out the word of moshe and the frogs died verse 10 they piled them up into heaps and heaps and the land stank which means after the frogs died their carcasses stayed on the land the egyptians piled them up and it smelled throughout the land but paro saw that there was a relief and he kept making his heart stubborn he did not keep his promise here we see that in these two plagues paro makes his heart stubborn he himself the third plague lies hashem said to moshe say to aaron now there is no now there is no uh warning stretch out your staff around and strike the dust of the land it shall become lights throughout the land of egypt verse 15 the sorcerers set up it is a finger of god because they tried to do the same with their incantations but they couldn't so here they admitted paro this is no simple magic this is the finger of god but paro's heart was strong and he did not hit them now the fourth plague hashem said to moshe what's the fourth plague wild beasts aro arise early in the morning and station yourself before paro behold he goes out to water again the same pattern this is the second set the second of the three um plagues and again go out to the river and tell him so said hashem send out my peoples that they may serve me now on page 333 for if you do not send out my people behold i shall incite against you and your servants from your people in your houses the swarm of wild beasts and the houses of england will be filled with the swarm and on that verse 18 on that day i shall set apart the land of goshen upon which my people stand that there shall be no swarm there there were no wild animals in the land of goshen where the jewish people are so that you will know that i am hashem in the midst of the land as i mentioned at the beginning the second set of plagues is there to show that not only hashem exists but also he's involved in our life i'm hashem in the midst of the land i shall make a distinction between my people and your people tomorrow this site will come about i'm involved in every detail i can make differentiation between one human being and another human being i'm very uh pinpoint accuracy verse 20 hashem did so here hashem does the play and a severe swarm of wild beasts came to the house of power and the house of his sermons and throughout the land of egypt the land was being ruined because of the swarm and there is a danger to human life so part of summoned motion aaron said go bring offerings to your god in the land but he said in the land i agree you should serve god but do it in the land of egypt moshe said no it's not proper to do so so if we offer the deity of egypt to hashem behold if we were to slaughter the deity of egypt in their sight willingness stone us how do we serve god by slaughtering animals animals are idols of egyptians it's not nice that we should kill egyptian god in front of them we will go on a three-day journey into the wilderness and bring offerings to hashem our god as he will tell us so paro again promises and says i will send you and you will bring offerings to hashem your god in the wilderness just please don't go far and also pray for me paro is what's called the personality disorder borderline he's one way one one day he's telling them yes one day he's telling them no and moshe calls him out on that he says verse 25 behold i leave you and i shall entreat hashem and the swarm will depart from power only let pao not continue to mock by not sending out the people to bring orphans to russia marshall tells him it's continuing again and again you're promising and you break your promise make sure you don't do that again verse moshe left para's presence and pray to hashem hashem did in accordance with moshe's word and he removed the swarm of wild beasts verse 28 but paro made his heart stubborn even this time and he did not send out the people [Applause] now on page 335 the fifth plague epidemic devon hashem starts to motion come to paro into his palace and speak to him hashem the god of the hebrews send out my people that they may serve me because if not verse 3 the head of hashem is on your livestock now somebody is asking a very good question why did moshe tell paro that they will go into the desert for only three days why did he lie so the answer is that hashem gives people a test that they can pass hashem does not test people with more than they can handle paro would not be able to handle sending the jewish people out for good as we spoke in the about in parashat shemot paro was so scared to lose his reputation and the reputation of the the egypt as a country that it was uh impossible for him to agree he would rather die than allow a nation to leave egypt but for three days it's within within his uh um freedom of choice it's difficult but he can he can uh make that choice so hashem will not give him a choice that he will fail for sure and the first few for plagues paro had a choice only when he proved it again and again that he's stubborn that hashem took the freedom of will away from him but at the beginning hashem couldn't give him a test that for sure he will fail that wouldn't be fair okay now some more questions and by the way you know to answer your questions by the way that's what happened in the end paro sent them thinking they will only go for three days because imagine even after the plague of the firstborn he still only let them go for three days why because they went for three days three days into the desert and paddle waited for them for another three days and they didn't come back three days there three days back and didn't come back so para saddled his horse his chariot and he ran after the jewish people and on the seventh day he reached them which means in one day power the egyptians traveled where the jewish people traveled for six days and when he was convinced that the jewish people are not planning to come back he ran after them so that's another answer why hashem said only three days because he wanted power to run out with his whole army and to drown in the reed sea the sea of reeds okay yes at the beginning paro had free will later he lost his free will okay now we're in the the fifth plague epidemic the hand of hashem is on your livestock that are in the field on horses donkeys camels cattle and all the flock a very severe epidemic and again verse 4 says hashem shall distinguish between the livestock of israel and the livestock of egypt and not a thing that belongs to the children of israel will die verse 6 hashem carried out this word the next day and all the livestock of egypt died and of the livestock of the children of israel not one died yet paro's heart became stubborn and he did not send out the people for for five um plagues paro hardens his heart himself for the last five or for the last four hashem hardens his heart and the question is being asked why hashem punishes the animals and the answer is that there is no punishment to animals animals exist only to serve people and one way to serve people is to work for them like dogs horses cows they serve people by pulling carriages carrying weight giving milk wool another way to serve people is to be slaughtered and to provide people with meat and another way to serve people is to provide people with lessons like over here that the animals are dying not for no reason they're dying to fulfill their mission to teach paro and egyptians a lesson yes uh someone is asking good question was potter blind or something why would he assume the jewish people will come back they're taking all their possessions all their animals all their children elders and they're leaving imagine you bring a moving truck and you're moving out and you think you're going to come back and the answer is that yes he was so scared in the middle of the night when uh his own first-born son died and his nephew died and his brother died and this and that everybody's dying in panic he told them to to go okay now sixth plague boils shrimp no warning this time verse 8 hashem said to moshe take for yourselves handful of furnace suit the ashes from the furnace and let moshe hurl it heavenward before potter's eyes so imagine they come to paro's palace with handfuls of ash moshe is holding handful and aron aaron piles his handful on top of moshe's handful and moshe takes the whole four handfuls into one hand and he hurls it up verse nine it will become dust over the entire land of egypt and that pile of ash cover the entire egypt and it will become boils erupting into blisters on man and beast throughout the land of egypt and that's what they did and verse 11 the necromancers could not stand before moshe because of the boils verse 12. now we have the unique case where hashem interferes in free will this happens very rarely hashem strengthened the heart of paro and he did not hit them as hashem had spoken to moshe this is the first time when potter loses his free will but for the first five plagues he had his free will now the seventh plague hail verse 13 hashem spoke to moshe now this is the third set of three plagues and again the warning is by the river the second warning is by the palace and third no warning arise early in the morning and station yourself before paro page 337 and say to him so sad hashem the god of the hebrews send out my people and they may serve me for this time i shall send all my plagues against your heart upon your servants upon your people so that you shall know that there is none like me in all the world and now hashem says i could have killed you and your people verse 16 however for this i have let you endure in order to show you my strength and so that my name may be declared throughout the world the only reason why i keep you alive because you are going to be my instrument my tool to teach the entire world and to teach the jewish people forever verse 17 now hashem speaks to paro you still tread trample upon my people not to send them out behold at this time tomorrow i shall reign and have a very heavy hail such as thou there has never been in egypt from the day it was founded until now and now hashem gives him a way out how can you avoid it gather in your livestock and everything you have in the field all the people slaves and the animals that are found in the field that are not gathered into the house the hail shall descend upon them and they shall die so paro says hashem says to paro i'm threatening you but i'm giving you a choice a chance to save yourself and your servants and your animals bring them into the house verse 20 whoever among the servants of power feared the word of hashem even among egyptians there were those that feared god chased his servants and his livestock in to the houses and whoever did not take the word of god to heart left his servants and life stuck in the field okay now verse 23 moshe stretched out his staff toward the heaven and hashem sent thunder and hail and fire went earthward verse 24 there was hail and fire flaming amid the hail very happy such as that had never been in the entire land of egypt from the time it became a nation the hail struck in the entire land of egypt now on page everything there was in the field from man to beast all the grass of the field the hail struck and every tree of the field it smashed only in the land of goshen where the children of israel were there was no hail again hashem made the distinction between the jewish people and the egyptians to show that he is in charge and that he is in control of all phenomena of nature verse 27 para admits his guilt and begs for hill to stop and promises to send about the people power sent and summoned motion out on and said to them this time i have sinned hashem is the righteous one and i my people are the wicked ones seems like paro is a baltis such a great teshuva repentance please pray pray to hashem that there there has been an overabundance of godly thunder and hail i shall send you out and you shall not continue to remain verse 29 moshe said to him i will leave the city and i will spread out my hands to hashem in prayer and immediately the thunder shall cease and the hail will no longer be so that you shall know that the earth is hashems as far and as for you and your servants i know that you are not yet afraid of hajj's god so moshe already know what knows what's going to be hashem is taking has taken over power's heart and um he is already telling him don't worry you're not going to let the people out the the flags and barley were broken because they were already in their stock they already grew but wheat and spelt were not broken because they ripen later they were still soft they're small and even though the hill hit them they just bent but they did were not broken verse 33 moshe went out from paro from the city and he stretched out his hands to hashem in prayer the thunder and hail seized and the rain did not reach the earth even that rain that was already falling down the hail it stopped in mid-air verse 34 paro saw that the rain the hail and the thunder seized and he continued to sin and he made his heart stubborn he and his servants para's heart became strong and he did not send out the children of israel as hashem has had spoken through motion with this we conclude parashat va era and we finish the seventh plague um in the next week's torah portion we'll have the final three plagues culminating with the plague of the firstborn [Music] and that's when finally hashem will allow the jewish people to leave someone is asking why there were 10 plagues the 10 as we explained is a significant number it shows the that hashem is in charge of the world just like hashem created the world with 10 statements so too hashem is in charge of the world now uh now another interesting question came in why we here of two staffs one is the staff of aharon and one is the staff of moshe yes and in fact there were two staffs the staff of aaron is that same staff that later in torah will blossom and turn into an almond tree and the staff of moshe this is the midrash says was the staff from the times of adam and they were both they were both um used to make miracles like the expression the uh miracle wand it it comes from these two staffs of motion around with which they performed miracles um there's a lot to speak about these staffs we're going to meet them again many times throughout the torah there will be also punishment that's going to come through moshe's staff because he's going to misuse it by striking the rock but but everything in its time thank you for listening have a good night and shabbat shalom [Music] you