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The ten plagues that hit Egypt took place over ten months. They progressively destroyed Egypt and convinced Pharoah that he had no choice but to let the Jews go. But the ninth plague – darkness – had ramifications that went beyond the plague itself. Two things happened. One; it was dark for the Egyptians, but wherever the Jews went it was light. This enabled the Jews to enter the Egyptian houses and identify articles that they would later take with them when they left Egypt (more on this later). Two; eighty percent of the Jews perished during the ninth plague. Even though its purpose was to convince the Egyptians that the Jews must leave Egypt, the plague also separated the Jews who were eager to leave from those who had no interest in leaving. Those who weren’t interested in leaving remained in their places during the plague of darkness and perished.
How do we know all this? The verse regarding the plague of darkness in our Torah portion (Bo) says, “One person could not see the other, and no-one arose from their place for three days, but for the Jews there was light in their dwelling places” (Ex. 10:23). The Midrash (Shemot Rabba 14:3) expounds; “During the three days of darkness, the Egyptians looked favorably at the Jews, and loaned them things. The Jews entered the Egyptian homes and found gold and silver objects and clothes. [Later], when the Jews wanted to borrow the articles, and the Egyptians said ‘we have nothing to loan you,’ the Jews responded, ‘We saw them in such-and-such a place.’ The Egyptians reasoned, if the Jews wanted to lie, they could have taken them during the days of darkness and we wouldn’t have noticed. Since they already saw them and didn’t touch them without our consent, they won’t hold on to them, and so the Egyptians loaned these objects to the Jews. In so doing, they fulfilled the Torah prophecy that the Jews would leave Egypt with much property. This is why it says, ‘For all the Jews, there was light in their dwelling places;’ it doesn’t say ‘in Goshen’ [where the Jews lived], but ‘in their dwelling places,’ because wherever the Jews went, light would follow them and illuminate all that was in the barrels, closets and hidden recesses [of the Egyptian houses].”
Rashi (on Ex. 10:22), whose task it is to explain the simple meaning of the text, seems to paraphrase the Midrash, “Why did G-d bring upon them the plague of darkness…so the Jews could search for and find all of their belongings and when they left Egypt they asked for the belongings. When the Egyptians replied that they had no such thing, the Jews said, ‘I saw it in your house in such-and-such a place.”
Although at first it appears that Rashi’s explanation is similar to the Midrash, with a bit more investigation we see this is not the case. First of all, the Midrashic interpretation goes beyond the simple meaning of the verse, which only says Ӆbut in their dwelling places there was light.” To interpret as the Midrash does, that the light followed the Jews into the Egyptian homes is to go beyond Rashi’s mandate, which is only to explain the simple straightforward meaning of the verse. But, more importantly, Rashi brings his explanation as commentary on the previous verse (Ex. 10:22), “And there was tremendous darkness…three days.” He does not mention the verse (10:23) which says “and for all the Jews there was light in their dwelling places.”
From this, we can infer that according to Rashi, the “illumination” of verse 23 applied only to the Jewish homes in Goshen, and not to wherever the Jews went. For Rashi, there was no miraculous light in the homes of the Egyptians. That the Jews could see in the homes of the Egyptians was a natural result of the plague of darkness itself (which applied only to the Egyptians), and not of any miraculous illumination following the Jews into the houses of the Egyptians. Obviously Rashi understood the plague of darkness differently from how the Midrash understood it.
We can summarize the differences as follows; the Midrash understands the plague as a miraculous event divided into two parts;
1) By the Egyptians, there was darkness.
2) By the Jews, there was light, wherever they went.
Rashi, however, understands the plague differently. According to Rashi, there was one event – darkness for the Egyptians. The purpose of the darkness was to enable the Jews to enter Egyptian houses and find the articles to be removed (ultimately, the Egyptians voluntarily gave the objects to the Jews during the exodus, in their haste to see the Jews leave). That the Jews could see inside the Egyptian houses was not miraculous; it was simply because the darkness applied to the Egyptians and not to the Jews. In other words, the miracle was not that the Jews could see, but that the Egyptians could not see. The Jews existed within the natural realm, wherein it was possible to see. It was only the Egyptians who could not see. (What we learn in the following verse – that there was light in the houses of the Jews – is a separate issue. That simply comes to tell us that the plague of darkness did not touch the Jews, just as in a previous plague, the hail did not effect the Jews, but only the Egyptians).
Why do Rashi and the Midrash understand the plague differently from one another? Rashi understands that the plague constituted preparation for a mitzvah, a commandment of the Torah. That mitzvah was to go out of Egypt “with a lot of property.” Having only recently emerged from slavery, the Jews did not possess many personal belongings. Their only was to achieve wealth was to receive it from the Egyptians, and of course if was out of question to remove it from them by force. Therefore, G-d arranged a situation, through the plague, wherein the Egyptians gave up their wealth voluntarily and gave it to the Jews. However, there is a general principle that a mitzvah cannot be fulfilled by way of a miracle. The purpose of a mitzvah is to uplift and elevate the natural world, uniting it with the One above, while a miracle is an act of G-d from above. As an act of G-d, a miracle does not permeate and transform the natural world; it merely acts upon and impinges upon it from Above. Therefore, according to Rashi, it was necessary for the process to take place naturally and not miraculously. Furthermore, not only the mitzvah itself, but also the preparation for the mitzvah had to take place naturally. That is why Rashi learns that the Jews’ ability to see in the Egyptian homes was not a miraculous event, but a natural result of the plague of darkness, which existed for the Egyptians alone.
The Midrash, however understands that this whole process took place before the Torah was given, and therefore it does not have the same status as a mitzvah coming from the Torah. It was therefore possible, according to the Midrash, that even the entrance into Egyptian homes was miraculous, enabled by a special light that followed the Jews wherever they went. Furthermore, it is possible that the Midrash did not see the process of receiving gifts from the Egyptians as preparation for a mitzvah. Rather, the gifts were a sort of reward, clad in a natural garment, in order to facilitate the prophecy, “and afterward they shall go out of Egypt with much property.” Accordingly, the content of the event was not a mitzvah, but rather “reward from Above.” Hence, the Midrash does not hesitate to see the entire event as a miraculous process from Above.
The Torah does not come to merely narrate stories. It comes to teach. There must be a lesson from both Rashi and from the Midrash for us, in these final days of exile before the meshiach (Jewish messiah) arrives. And that is that even these days, in the thickest spiritual darkness of exile, the One above arranges for the Jews to serve Him in a miraculous way. The service itself isn’t miraculous, since mitzvot must be fulfilled within the bounds of nature, as mentioned above. But, the circumstances that enable us to serve Him are totally beyond nature, allowing us to do what the Torah wants, without any disturbances. The One above arranges events to enable us to serve Him without distraction, just as (according to Rashi), He arranged for the Jews to enter the homes of the Egyptians to prepare for the exodus. Similarly, He arranges for us to make a good living yet also find time to learn and do mitzvoth. This is even more obvious from the point of view of the Midrash, for whom the entire process of receiving gifts from the Egyptians was miraculous. Certainly, this was not a “one-off” event, occurring only once in history before the exodus from Egypt. It continues to occur, allowing more and more Jews to receive enough physical sustenance to fulfill mitzvoth and learn, bringing the ultimate arrival of meshiach that much closer, that much faster.
From Likutei Sichot of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, ztz’l, vol. 31, pp. 46-52 Rabbi David Sterne, Jerusalem Connection in the old city of Jerusalem