Parshat Bo
by Rabbi Avi Billet
The Plague of Darkness comes upon Egypt without warning, and the Torah describes it in this way.
21 God said to Moshe, “Stretch your hands toward the heavens, and there will be darkness on the land of Egypt, and the darkness will be tangible.” 22 And so Moshe stretched his hand heavenward, and there was a thick darkness in all of the land of Egypt for three days. 23 No person saw his fellow, and no person rose from his place for three days, and the for the children of Israel, there was light in their dwellings.
שמות פרק י (כא) וַיֹּ֨אמֶר יְקֹוָ֜ק אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֗ה נְטֵ֤ה יָֽדְךָ֙ עַל־הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם וִ֥יהִי חֹ֖שֶׁךְ עַל־אֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרָ֑יִם וְיָמֵ֖שׁ חֹֽשֶׁךְ: (כב) וַיֵּ֥ט מֹשֶׁ֛ה אֶת־יָד֖וֹ עַל־הַשָּׁמָ֑יִם וַיְהִ֧י חֹֽשֶׁךְ־אֲפֵלָ֛ה בְּכָל־אֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרַ֖יִם שְׁלֹ֥שֶׁת יָמִֽים: (כג) לֹֽא־רָא֞וּ אִ֣ישׁ אֶת־אָחִ֗יו וְלֹא־קָ֛מוּ אִ֥ישׁ מִתַּחְתָּ֖יו שְׁלֹ֣שֶׁת יָמִ֑ים וּֽלְכָל־בְּנֵ֧י יִשְׂרָאֵ֛ל הָ֥יָה א֖וֹר בְּמוֹשְׁבֹתָֽם:
A few questions stand out. In other plagues, Moshe is told either to stretch his hand or staff, and he, in turn, always uses his staff. This time, he is told to stretch his hand and he stretches his hand (!). Why? How many days of darkness were there – 3 (and verses 22-23 are referring to the same 3 days), or 6, and the verse speaks of two different 3-day periods? If the darkness was thick, wouldn’t telling us that people did not see each other for 3 days be superfluous?
Or HaChaim addresses some of these questions in his commentary, noting that the darkness was a spiritual entity (base on Tehillim 18:12), and thus had to be treated with respect. This could only be achieved with the soft touch of the hand, rather than through the waving of a stick.
Or HaChaim quotes a Midrash that the darkness came from Gehinnom, which he takes to suggest that there were actually two kinds of darkness: the first set of three days in which people could not see one another, and the second set of three days in which people could not rise from their place.
Continuing with his explanation of the light that the children of Israel had, he quotes another Midrash that describes how in the world the come the wicked will be enveloped in darkness, whereas the righteous will be illuminated by His light.
Whether there were 3 days of one kind of darkness and 3 days of another kind, or there were only 3 days altogether which are described in two different ways, there is room to suggest that there are different ways the Egyptians experienced darkness. A pshat understanding would simply follow a translation that the darkness was intense and inhibited both sight and movement. Understandably, the “thickness” of darkness inhibiting movement is hard for us to imagine, unless we can imagine a Hamsin (some kind of sandstorm) or a very difficult humidity that simply zapped all the strength out of the Egyptians (neither of those are pshat, and I am not suggesting that’s what brought darkness). At the same time, this would all be irrelevant if the comments of Or HaChaim are meant for us to understand that this darkness was other-worldly. But the degree of the darkness bringing an inability to see and move is exactly what the text says.
Another kind of darkness is a darkness some people experience when sitting on the pit of despair, namely a darkness of Depression.
According to the Mayo Clinic, the following are signs of Major Depression Disorder.
• Feelings of sadness, tearfulness, emptiness or hopelessness
• Angry outbursts, irritability or frustration, even over small matters
• Loss of interest or pleasure in most or all normal activities…
• Sleep disturbances, including insomnia or sleeping too much
• Tiredness and lack of energy, so even small tasks take extra effort
• Reduced appetite and weight loss or increased cravings for food and weight gain
• Anxiety, agitation or restlessness
• Slowed thinking, speaking or body movements
• Feelings of worthlessness or guilt, fixating on past failures or self-blame
• Trouble thinking, concentrating, making decisions and remembering things
• Frequent or recurrent thoughts of death, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts or suicide
• Unexplained physical problems, such as back pain or headaches
While I am not arguing that all of these applied to the Egyptians, surely some of them did. Pharaoh may have been stubborn and may have had a hardened heart but he was likely experiencing some of these symptoms as well.
For all purposes, the plague of Darkness was the last plague from which people could emerge and say “Pharaoh, enough is enough. How far do you want this to go? Do you want people to die? Everything else has happened to us, and that seems to be the logical next step!” We have seen such arguments coming to Pharaoh from his own people over the course of the plagues. Sometimes Pharaoh listens, and sometimes he does not. He has offered for Israel to leave on a number of occasions, but he has also walked back those offers when the terms of agreement weren’t to his liking, or when plagues that seemed to be driving his allowance for Exodus came to their conclusions. But at least, until now, Egypt could recover from the plagues as none of them caused the mayhem that a plague of death would cause.
Darkness was certainly real, but there is the other element of darkness, an ominous feeling, a premonition perhaps, that this darkness is a prelude to a different kind of darkness, one from which there is no return. It is that feeling that is contributing to people’s inability to get up and move. They know their king is stubborn. They know he is not letting Israel go. They have seen what the God of the Hebrews is capable of, and they are licked. They don’t want this fight anymore. But what could they do? The people were so controlled, so owned, they could not mount a revolution and overthrow the Pharaoh. They had to roll with the punches that God was throwing their way, and with the inability to challenge Pharaoh any more than through simply asking “How long will you allow this to go on?”
Depression is real. It can be debilitating, it can cause a person to feel unable to do simple tasks, and sometimes can prevent a person from even getting out of bed for days or weeks at a time. It is not something a person can “snap out of” or “get over” – sometimes real intervention, help, a plan, goals are needed in order to get a person to a place of balanced equilibrium.
The important thing is to recognize it, to accept it as a reality, and to seek help in order to begin to heal and to get to a place where recovery is on the horizon.
We often ask people, “How are you?” and we don’t stick around to hear the answer. Or, if the answer is anything other than “I am great! Thank you!” we are not interested in hearing it. Good friends can see through the “front” that some people put up when they’re actually not OK and might have the guts to say “You don’t seem OK. What is going on?” If we can tap into that pain – which is sometimes identifiable, but sometimes unclear as to its source – we may be able to help someone who seems helpless, someone who really needs intervention but does not know where to turn.
As a mohel, I sometimes encounter parents who are extremely anxious about the bris. I often tell them that their anxiety and moodiness is quite identifiable, and will be over after the bris, when you see your baby is fine. And that is just about how it always goes!
Were it only that easy to know what is bothering people, what causes their bouts with anxiety or Depression, it would be a much simpler world – with simple solutions to what are sometimes big challenges, but never insurmountable.
Some people experienced varying degrees of Depression in the immediate aftermath of October 7 in Israel, wondering and worrying over what the future of the Jewish people in Israel can actually look like with barbarous enemies living on their doorstop, more out-in-the-open than ever about their goals and ambitions of seeing every Jew removed from Israel in one form or another. Some may have sought intervention, some managed to pull through, and many may still need assistance in coming round the corner from those terrible days and personal feelings.
In the case of Egypt, the Depression people may have felt was beyond out of their hands. They were at the will and whim of a stubborn dictator who let his own ego get in the way of concern for his people and what he was doing to their own prospects for the future. Did all of Egypt deserve the fate of the plagues, especially the coming Plague of the First Born? It is hard to know with certainty. But as in modern warfare, the way an enemy capitulates and gives up is when leadership no longer has the support of the people, because the civilian population has been vanquished and no longer wish for the fight to go on. The Egyptian population were helpless and suffered as a result. Their Depression couldn’t be treated – it was a lead in to the almost-worst-plague imaginable (worse would have been even more death than “only” the firstborn, unless the “firstborn” was the absolute worst because of how antiquity valued the firstborn and its stance as being representative of the fate of a nation).
May those who experience this modern plague of Darkness find healing, and may those who are watching a friend or loved one cope and find healing be sensitive and supportive through that process.
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