Darkness: Precursor to Redemption

Parshat Bo

Rabbi Avi Billet

The three plagues of Parshat Bo can be summarized in one word: Darkness. The locusts "covered the entire surface of the land, making the land dark." (10:15) The plague of Darkness speaks for itself. And the Death of the Firstborn takes place around midnight (12:29), in the darkness of the shadows of the night. Death, as those of us who have experienced loss know, is the ultimate darkness.

            

Though only the last plague, by design, was meant to take life, all of these final plagues brought either a physical or psychological darkness upon Egypt's citizens.

            

And so the irony of the Israelites' experience comes through in one oft-quoted verse, "And for all of the children of Israel, there was light where they lived." (10:23) Many commentaries follow the classic approach that while the Egyptians experienced the Plague of Darkness the Israelites – even when walking among Egyptians – had light. They could thus see where valuables were hidden during the plague of Darkness in order to ask for them in the moments preceding the Exodus (12:35).

            

Others interpret the verse homiletically. The contrast of darkness to light is not hard to understand as a deeper metaphor. For example, the Or HaChaim writes, "The wicked are covered with darkness, whereas the sun shines upon the righteous, as Devorah said at the conclusion of her song (Shoftim 5:31), 'May Your enemies perish… but they that love Him (should be) as the sun when it goes forth in its might.'"

The Midrash Tehillim (22) calls Mordechai and Esther a contradiction – they were a light for Israel but darkness for the nations of the world. How could they serve as light and as darkness at the same time? The experience of darkness in Egypt is proof that there is no contradiction. There could be darkness for one side while the other side has light. The Midrash concludes with a message of Isaiah (60:1-2), "Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has shone upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and a gross darkness the kingdoms, and the Lord shall shine upon you, and His glory shall appear over you." Apparently, even when darkness pervades, there is hope for light to shine through.

Bamidbar Rabba (5) defines the phrase of the Israelites having light as the verse in Nachum 1:7: "On a day of trouble He is cognizant of those who trust in Him." The light the Israelites experience in their dwellings, in other words, is God's cognizance of them.

            

This is a perfect segue to the insight recorded by the Yalkut Shimoni, who also concludes quoting the verse from Nachum.

"God differs from a human king who might display collective punishment. When the human king experiences rebellion, he sends in his troops and destroys everyone, good and bad people together. But God saves the righteous – he treated Hanokh, Noach, and Lot differently than he treated their generations. Instead of including them in the collective destructions, they were saved. Similarly, look at the darkness heaped upon Egyptians as compared to the light the Israelites experienced. Death of the firstborns had its antithesis with the sanctification of the Israelites' firstborns. 'On a day of trouble, He is cognizant of those who trust in Him.'"

God's awareness of the people and their suffering and even their innocence or goodness, then, is the indicator of their best chances to survive and experience a personal redemption.

In his commentary, Abravanel explains what he sees as the "reason" for each plague, each coming as a form of 'measure for measure' for how the Israelites had been treated.

The 9^th plague was Darkness because the entire exile was a parable to darkness. On the other side, the redemption is compared to light (as per Isaiah 9:1 – 'The people who walked in darkness, have seen a great light; those who dwell in the land of the shadow of death, light shone upon them'). Those who had caused the extent of the exile were therefore judged with darkness while the Israelites had light.

Every person, every community, the State of Israel, and even all of world Jewry experiences periods of darkness. But even the bitterest darkness can include its antithesis of light, the promise of a better future that is merely lurking in the shadows, waiting for the darkness to fade. The light may be out in the open, or it can burn bright inside our souls. It is the light of His cognizance – His cognizance of us, as well as our cognizance of Him. If we prepare properly and have awareness of our task in this world, then we will see the fulfillment of "and for all of the Children of Israel there was light in their dwelling places."

In his commentary on Parshat Pinchas, after mentioning the light of the Israelites as an image of the time of redemption, Rabbi Jacob Skili (Torat HaMincha) concludes saying, "May the Blessed One, for the sake of His great mercy, take us out of this exile which is compared to night [and bring us] to light, as he lightens our eyes with the arrival of the redeemer – our eyes will see it and our hearts will gladden."

Amen.