This Torah portion speaks of the final three plagues that G-d brought upon the Egyptians which finally freed the Jews from Egypt. A common thread in these three plagues is that they all had an element of darkness in them. The Torah tells us that the dense swarm of locust darkened the land of Egypt. Then came the plague of darkness – upon which we will expand shortly, followed by the final plague, the slaying of the firstborn which occurred smack in middle of the night, precisely at midnight.
The plague of darkness lasted for six days; the first three days consisted of absolute darkness in which the Egyptians could not see but they were still able to move about. The following three days, the darkness was so dense and thick that the Egyptians were unable to move from the position that they were in at the moment the plague intensified.
The nature of the plague allowed the Jews to freely search the Egyptians’ property and locate their hidden jewels and treasures. When Moshe implored the Jews to ask the Egyptians for their riches before they left Egypt, the Egyptians claimed to have no such riches. The Jews then disclosed exactly where their riches were and the Egyptians so impressed by the integrity of the Jews that they hadn’t taken anything during the plague, eagerly lent them their riches.
The Torah tells us that there was light in all the Jews dwellings. The Medrash tells us that this light accompanied the Jews wherever they went.
I read an enlightening article by Rabbi Efrem Goldberg of Boca Raton Synagogue. He asks, what is the difference between a room that is filled with darkness and one filled with light? Is there any change to the room itself? Whether the light is on or off in the room, the furniture, the layout of the room, the placement of the door, and the height of the ceiling remain the same. The only difference between the light being on or off in my room is my perception, my ability to identify and see the reality, the truth and that which was right before me all along.
The Chidushai Harim, a Rebbe of the Chasidic dynasty of Ger, homiletically explains the description of the plague of darkness where the Torah states, “Each Egyptian didn’t see his brother.” The ultimate darkness is when a person does not recognize the need of his fellow and offer assistance. To contrast this idea, the Torah tells us that despite the darkness the Egyptians were experiencing, the Jews were completely enveloped by brightness. Our vision is always clear, to see and act to help, when another is in need.
Furthermore, perhaps the Torah is telling us that a Jew has the ability to clearly see people, ideas, and miracles through the light that G-d blessed us with during the plague of darkness. The light that accompanies us is the light of Torah. King Solomon in Proverbs states, Torah is Ohr – light. There is an everlasting spiritual light that accompanies each of us with every word of Torah we study. The pure and authentic Torah we study is absorbed within us and enlightens us to have a positive perception of others, to make proper decisions, to help us understand the trueness of G-d, and leads us to trust and believe in G-d.
There is question whether darkness is a creation in itself, or is it just a lack of light? In our morning prayers, we recite blessings over G-d’s creations. Within the blessings it states, ‘Who creates darkness,” which apparently seems that darkness is a creation rather than absence of light.
However, commentators explain that when we say in our prayers G-d created darkness we are referring to the original darkness during the six days of creation. However, once the world was set into motion, the darkness of night is due to the absence of light.
You may ask, what difference does this make, darkness is darkness no matter how it works? Well, when we are discussing it in the context of Torah – we just earned eternal light for studying a facet of G-d’s holy Torah!
