WHY WERE THERE TEN PLAGUES IN EGYPT?

(Reposted because of changes I made)

In the Torah, in the book of Shemot (Exodus), in the parashahs of “Va’eira” and “Bo,” the ten plagues are documented.  These are often seen as punishments upon the Egyptians for their having enslaved and mistreated the Children of Israel.  

But commentators have noted that it could have been a much quicker and just as effective a process if only the tenth plague – slaying of the first born – was sent.  Many interpreters of the Bible claim that compelling Pharaoh to release the Israelites was only a secondary byproduct of these miraculous events.

The professed objective by many Torah commentators was highlighting to the nascent Jewish people God’s importance and power in the world.  After recognizing such greatness, the Children of Israel would forever desire to follow God’s rules.  That seeing these apparent miracles performed on their behalf would ingrain in them a deeply held sense of their fealty to God.

Later in the Torah, and elsewhere in Jewish liturgy (the Passover Haggadah and other sources), we are reminded of these “signs and wonders” that the slaves witnessed.  As the Egyptians suffered from these ten terrible plagues, the Children of Israel slept calmly in the Land of Goshen.     

We really do have to be reminded of these events.  After all, they happened to someone else, not to the Hebrew people.

Humans learn, change, and grow from their own experiences, not by observing others have impactful encounters.  There was no meaningfully lasting transformation of the Israelites as a consequence of the plagues.  Lack of trust in God was evident at the Sea of Reeds (Red Sea), where the expressed temperament of fear and anger was prominent.  This event occurred only days after these supposedly transforming plagues.   

God “assumes” that this strongly seen sequence of miracles, God’s “signs and wonders,” is enough to get people to change.  The plagues were awesome occurrences, arguably altering the physical world.  God created the earthly realm to be able to introduce spiritual power into it.  This experience should convert the skeptic and the ignorant.  

For most, these miracles impacted little.  This is not surprising.  We all witness the hardship and misery that goes on in the world.  Very few rise above themselves as a result.  we go on with our lives.

Until we are directly affected.

Being a 100% spiritual entity ever, the Deity “sees” interactions between the earthly and heavenly worlds as incredibly worthwhile.  After all, the Godly experience does not include the material universe.  The spiritual and physical stand side by side as bridges grow to bind them together.    

Indeed, as noted in previous blogs, the celestial benefits by associating with the mundane.  I believe this mutual benefit is truly the purpose of creation.  Bringing the earthly and heavenly powers together adds an important dimension to each.

The plagues in Egypt were a contrivance by the Creator to jumpstart the spiritual growth of the Hebrew nation.  They were then charged to bring the light of the Divine into a limited material existence, thereby completing the work of creation.  Observing God’s power over nature should have been earthshaking.

But it was not.  Threats, promises, and dreams affect some individuals, but rarely drive societal change.  As the Torah narrative reveals, the freed Jewish people start complaining about their freedom almost immediately.  The impact of the plagues is gone as soon as they feel any discomfiture.

People are much more likely to change from experiences than from observation or learning.  Growth does result from everything in life.  Seeing a wondrous occurrence can cause an epiphany and fantastic insight and change.  Studying can produce a similar result.  But the example of the Torah narrative illustrates that widespread and lasting change requires greater personal impact.

We have to FEEL to be transformed.  Emotional epiphany is much more powerful than intellectual.   Seeing the Grand Canyon in Arizona from the rim or observing roaring river rapids from the shore can instill wonder.  But hiking down into the Canyon or rafting through those waters will be life-altering.

Active experience trumps passive observation.  That is because we are physical beings in a physical world.  We respond best to immersion in the teaching.  God’s “assumptions” that the plagues would instill deep-rooted changes is more based on God’s nature than ours.  

God would “prefer” that the Jewish People could have learned and grown from the observation of the effects of the plagues on the Egyptians.  God “wanted” the Jews to be so consciously focused on the Plagues that they would undergo permanent spiritual change.

While the Plagues were disrupting the lives of the Egyptians, the future Jewish people experienced only the absence of these calamities.  There is no lesson to be learned from that.  Things were calm and uneventful in Goshen.

Better to have sent an uplifting counterbalance.  While suppressing the oppressor, the tormented could have felt miraculous relief.  While bringing misery to the tyrant, the slave could rejoice from Heavenly generosity.

The purpose of the miraculous period would have been more intuitively served if a plague on Egypt was accompanied by a gift on Goshen.  Consider the following suggestions:

1. While Egypt saw red blood, a cool sweet spring could spout for Israel.
2. As frogs attacked one, the other might find nourishing fish jumping from the river into their hands.
3. While lice attacked the taskmasters, insect bites on the slaves rapidly healed.
4. Wild beasts besieging the country is offset by a parade of tame support animals (camels, horses, etc.) coming to aid the harvest in Goshen.
5. Egyptian livestock dying from an epidemic as Israeli animals heal quickly from their illnesses.
6. Painful boils grow on the tyrannical as common skin rashes and discolorations disappear on the oppressed.
7. When hail assaulted one, the other enjoyed refreshing breezes and gently nurturing rainfall.
8. The plague of locusts flying into Egypt was accompanied by natural predators appearing to devour nuisance pests in Goshen.
9. As darkness overwhelmed the natives, Israel enjoyed a dancing Northern Lights exhibition that brightened the night.
10. While the plague of the firstborn ravaged the Egyptians, the apparently terminally ill among the Jews recovered.

All of these could be interpreted as extreme examples of naturally occurring phenomena.  Or they could all be seen as miraculous.

The effect of living through these amazing events while witnessing polar opposites abusing their enemies would be profound and powerful.  Having nothing happen to them prepared the slaves for nothing.  They were sent out by Pharaoh who could no longer resist the force and destructiveness of the punishments visited upon his people.

Ultimately, immersion in events like the revelation at Mt. Sinai and the building and occupation of the Tabernacle in the wilderness served as epiphanic catalysts.

But even these momentous manifestations of the DIvine in their lives failed to produce an enduring connection to the heavenly plane.  The intended recipients of this sublime largess were still spiritual infants, having been slaves only weeks before.  Like children, they were focused on their material needs and desires.  Mature acceptance and incorporation of ethereal objectives takes time.  Inevitably, God and Moses understood that gaining sophistication and refinement are prerequisites to profound acceptance of heavenly powers.  Only time can confer these attributes.  Unavoidably, wandering for 40 years in the desert became the antidote.     

Thus, the ten plagues served as a stimulus to attain freedom.  It was also a transition period when the Egyptians were occupied with their own woes.  Most importantly, these plagues remain throughout history as a memory of God’s role and power in freeing a people from slavery.  It is central to the Passover Holiday celebration (the Seder) that is observed yearly to commemorate the birth of a people.