This week, in Torah, we read of the first set of plagues. According to midrash, all of the plagues were silent except one.
וַיֵּצֵ֥א מֹשֶׁ֛ה וְאַהֲרֹ֖ן מֵעִ֣ם פַּרְעֹ֑ה וַיִּצְעַ֤ק מֹשֶׁה֙ אֶל־יְהֹוָ֔ה עַל־דְּבַ֥ר הַֽצְפַרְדְּעִ֖ים אֲשֶׁר־שָׂ֥ם לְפַרְעֹֽה׃
י
Then Moses and Aaron left Pharoah’s presence, and Moses cried out to God of the matter of the frogs which had been inflicted upon Pharoah. (Ex.8:8)
The text above says that Moses cried out to Pharoah עַל־דְּבַ֥ר (al dvar) on the matter of the frogs. The word Dvar means ‘matter’ or ‘thing’ but it also means words or speech. Thus, the midrash suggests that the plague of the frogs was bad not only because frogs were everywhere (‘frogs here, frogs there, frogs were jumping everywhere…’), but also because they were so loud, using their unique speech to torment the Egyptians.
‘Our teachers of blessed memory said: The destruction caused by the frogs didn’t suffice for the Egyptians. The sound of the frogs was more harsh than the plague. They would enter into their bodies and cry out from inside them, as it says, regarding the devar of the frogs, that is the dibbur, speech, of the frogs…’ (Midrash Tanhuma Vaera 6)
According to the midrash, the worst component of the plague of frogs was its sound. Interestingly, the way that it characterizes what was so terrible about the noise was that it penetrated the Egyptians, literally or figuratively, entering their bodies and emerging from them. First, the Egyptians themselves would absorb the source of the noise, the frogs themselves, and then hear the frog’s croaking coming out of their own throats, as if the voice of the frog was their own.
With the frogs inside them, the Egyptians cried out with the same despair as the Israelites who cried out to God. The plague was not to annoy the taskmasters. God wanted them to embody the despair of the Israelites.
Dena Weiss points out that ‘The plague of frogs was designed to make the Egyptians listen to the people who they thought of as frogs and to hear them screaming. The irony and the tragedy is that it was easier for the Egyptians to be disturbed by the noise made by frogs than it was for them to hear the cries of the actual human Israelites who were suffering at their hands.’
Only when we truly hear the pain of another, and empathize with their suffering, can we understand that we are all connected. No one should be treated as less than human, demoralised and ignored.
This Shabbat may our ears open to hear the cries of others.
May our homes be filled with rachamim, compassion, for each other.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Marcia Plumb
