Parashas Va'eira

The Sedra starts with Elokim Speaking to Moshe and Telling him That He " Va'eira , " - " Appeared " To Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov as El Shaddai , where " Dai , " means 'Sufficient , " Where HaShem Created Creation with limits of that Creation , by the Laws of Nature and how far those Laws extend , but now that HaShem Was Showing Mercy To His People , He Would Now Extend those normal Laws of Nature , Revealing His Magnificence , Show all , That He Is The One And Only Creator , which is also an act of mercy , for it gives the people the opportunity to come on to the right path and Follow Him , for their own Good and so , " A-donai - HaShem , " refers now to HaShem's Attribute of Mercy , Which He Would Now Make Himself Known As , By Extending Beyond the Laws and Limits of Nature , Through the Wonders of the Plagues , He Would Perform .
HaShem Here , in Shemos 6 : 6 - 7 refers to four specific actions HaShem Will Do for us Jews , " I Shall Take you out ; I Shall Rescue you ; I Shall Redeem you ; I Shall Take you to Me as a people , " and so , on Pesach night at the Seder , we thus have four cups of Wine . In the next verse , HaShem Tells us That , " I Shall Bring ... and I Shall Give , " and this fifth pronouncement , some say is commemorated by the other cup of wine for Eliyahu Ha Navi , where we look toward the Messianic Era , where we will live safely in our own Land of Israel ( also mentioned in this next verse I refer to ) .
HaShem Tells Moshe to " Come " speak to Pharaoh to send the Children of Israel from his land . The word " Come " is used and not " Go , " for Pharaoh is still a king and must be respected as such , with politeness and not aggressive orders . The family line is then given of Moshe and Aharon , back to the Tribe of Levi , showing their genuineness from this line . Aharon married Elisheva Bas Amminadav , sister of Nahshon , from the kingly Tribe of Yehudah . Torah also Tells us that one of Aharon's four sons Elazar married a daughter of Putiel ( which Ramban refers to as being either Yisro or Yosef ) , and this union brought a very holy son called Pinchas , who was the only one , that HaShem Made a Kohein by his holy actions , due to his own actions of standing up for the honour of HaShem and his teacher Moshe , in the Book of Bamidbar . Moshe was 80 and his brother Aharon was 83 , when they went unto Pharaoh and asked him to let our people go . Moshe gave Aharon his staff and Aharon cast down the staff before Pharaoh and Pharaoh's servants , and HaShem Turned it into a snake . Pharaoh mocked them and told them that they are charlatans that come to a place of magic and perform and try and sell their magic and that he won't be taken in by tricks . Moshe responded that it is exactly for that reason that they perform by HaShem such an action , for the Egyptians would thus be able to appreciate it . Pharaoh called his wise men and they did likewise . Aharon's snake ate up the others . Bilaam , was that day present and mocked Moshe , to an advisor , saying that such an action is not such a great feat , and if they really want to show how good they are , let them have their staff consume the other staffs , and so , Aharon again threw the staff down and Moshe's staff , ate up the other staffs , as a staff , and this is why Torah says that Aharon's staff swallowed their staffs , in Shemos 7:12 , but Pharaoh's heart was stubborn and so , did not heed HaShem .
Every morning , Pharaoh would go down to the Nile to bathe . So HaShem Told Moshe to meet him there the next morning and again tell him to let the people go . Each Plague that HaShem Sent was in sets of three , where in each set of three , only for the first two , would Pharaoh get a warning and the third one , not . Also , our Rabbonim tells us that the warnings would be for three weeks and each plague lasted a week . No matter how Pharaoh would order his men not to let Moshe and Aharon in , they would somehow , with the Help Of HaShem , still get in to speak to Pharaoh . So Moshe was there waiting for Pharaoh when he arrived and Pharaoh , scolded Moshe for disturbing him , for Pharaoh wanted to enter the River with nothing on and told Moshe to wait until he had finished bathing , which Moshe politely did . HaShem Commanded Moshe to hand the staff to Aharon , to start this Plague , for Moshe felt that he should not smite a River that protected him as a baby , when he was in the basket , and so Aharon stretched out the staff and struck the water in the presence of Pharaoh and his servants and all the water turned to blood . This first Plague , was a punishment for the Jewish babies that were thrown into this very Nile and also for the Jewish children that this Pharaoh slaughtered ( 150 in the morning and 150 at night for seven nights ) , for his bath . Also , the Egyptians made the Jews serve with rigor and the taskmasters beat them mercilessly , so their sweat conjealed with their blood that dropped on the floor , in slavery . The entire Land of Egypt stank , as the Egyptians used mock the smell of the Jews with the smell of the brick pits . Stones and Wood , even in Pharaoh's Palace bled blood as did every drop of water become Blood to every Egyptian . But the Jews had clean and pure water . If an Egyptian came to Goshen and took water , as soon as it touched his or her hand , it instantly became blood . Even the saliva in the mouth of the Egyptians and their urine became blood . If their eyes watered , it became blood . Their very sweat was tainted with blood . Only if the Egyptians came to buy water from us , did it remain water . The Chartumim - Necromancers of Egypt were also , through their powers of Tum'a Impurity , able to turn small amounts of water into blood and so Pharaoh's heart hardened . The Necromancers - Chartumim were totally impure . We see this within the Hebrew word for them for , within the word " Chartumim ," is the word " Tamei " - " Impure . " Egypt's disputes of border with Ethiopia were now settled , for , though the River Nile was a long river going through Africa , only the part that was in Egypt , turned Red with Blood .
HaShem Sent Moshe to Pharaoh to tell him to let us go and serve HaShem , for should he refuse , HaShem Would send Frogs throughout the boundary of Egypt , again , this Plague making clear to Egypt , what was their boundary . The word " Frog " - " Tzefardeah ( which means ' to fit in ' ) " named by Adam Ha Rishon , was as prophetic as all his namings of the animals , for he foresaw that the Frogs would one day ' fit in ' to the ovens and bodies of the Egyptians , for HaShem's Sake . This Plague was a punishment to the Egyptians , who used to make the Jews collect all kinds of hideous and dangerous creatures , some far away , so that our Jewish men would be kept away from their wives in an attempt to stop our growth and so , Frogs en masse growth , descended upon Egypt . Again HaShem Said To Moshe that Aharon was to stretch his hand with the staff over the Rivers and canals and reservoirs and so , raise up frogs over the land of Egypt . This too was a punishment from throwing our Jewish babies into the River . As soon as this was done , HaShem Caused to come out of the River a single massive Frog . We see this in Torah in Shemos 8: 2 where the word Frog here is in the singular . This particular monstrous Frog , obviously had a mission in mind , for it started to walk up directly toward Pharaoh's Palace . The Egyptians came out with sticks and started to try and hit it . Some of the Egyptians that were trying to strike it , this massive monstrous frog ate , and others it killed and with every blow struck on it , millions of Frogs came out of its mouth . These Frogs attacked Egyppt , going into everything . The Egyptians tried to close up and board up their homes , but to no avail , as the Frogs came up through the floor boards . This was a terrible Plague . The Frogs continued to croak and go into the Egyptians' food and even bodies , not giving them a moment's rest , just as the Egyptians had not given us a moment's rest in slavery to breath . The Frogs even went into their beds and bit at the Egyptians from outside and inside their bodies , even castrating the men - a punishment for the Egyptians trying to stop us having children . The Frogs Croaked from within their bodies that they would only leave when HaShem Would have Moshe remove them . Some of the Frogs put their own lives in danger by jumping into the ovens and those Frogs were saved . The Necromancers of Egypt were also able to bring up a few Frogs , but couldn't remove them . Each time the Egyptians hit the Frogs , hundreds others would appear in their place . Pharaoh called Moshe and Aharon , begging that the Frogs be removed . Moshe asked Pharaoh when he wanted them removed , and he answered trying to trick Moshe , thinking the Plague would be expected by Pharaoh to be removed the same day , so Pharaoh said " Tomorrow , " and so it was , thus making them all suffer an extra day . Moshe didn't do this Plague either for again the Nile that had covered him Through HaShem , had helped save him . Moshe and Aharon left Pharaoh's presence and entreated HaShem and the following day , the Frogs died and were piled up , four heaps ( some say ten ) to a household . Those that had jumped into the ovens for HaShem's Sake , survived and returned to the River . The land stank from the dead Frogs , as a punishment to the Egyptian's complaints and mocking the Jews for the smell of them from the brick pits . Pharaoh again heardened his heart . So up until the fifth Plague , HaShem Still Gave Pharaoh an opportunity to repent and stop this , but Pharaoh didn't and so , that is why the more Pharaoh changed his mind and hardened his own heart , the more HaShem Gave him the hard heart he kept choosing , but Pharaoh at all times still could choose to let us go . The next and Third Plague came with no warning , and this also Aharon and not Moshe did , for it included the very dust that had tried to help protect Moshe , when he had killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand and the dust and sand had helped to try cover his action . So HaShem said to Moshe to have Aharon stretch out Moshe's staff and strike the dust of the land and it would become lice in Egypt on man and beast . This was a punishnent for the Egyptians that used to make the Jews sweep dust in Egypt , a never ending pointless task . Also , the Jews in the slave pits were not permitted to wash and so , contracted lice and this was a return attack back on the Egyptians . The Lice never stopped biting , and so the Egyptians cried out in pain . They couldnt even rest . Exactly what they did to us . The Plague of Lice , stopped us from being slaves , for their was no sand to make bricks , only lice . This is also why Yaakov didn't want to be buried in Egypt , as the dust around there was to become Lice . Pharaoh called his Chartumim , but they couldn't do this , making dust into lice , for their negative Tum'a powers don't hold strength against anything smaller than a barley-corn and so these necromancers had to admit defeat and say " This is the Finger of G-D . " Evil magic has no power over such a small thing as dust , for as it says in the Gemorrah , that the smallest size that can contract Tum'a is a barley-corn , so their Tum'a - Impurity , would not work on it . Again , Pharaoh wanted it stopped , but his heart was again hardened .
Pharaoh thought if he went earlier to the water , he could avoid Moshe , but HaShem Had Moshe be there earlier , to again ask for us to leave , warning him of the fourth Plague of Wild Beasts . Again another Plague that would only affect Egyptians , while we were left alone .
HaShem Sent a swarm of wild beasts upon Egypt . And Egypt and its people were completely under attack . If we look carefully at Shemos 8:17 , it says clearly that HaShem Sent the swarm of Wild beasts and also " and even the ground upon which they are . " This meant that HaShem didn't only send Wild Beasts , but actually uprooted entire forests , the place where the wild beasts lived , and Miraculously dropped it on Egypt , so the Egyptian homes suddenly found themselves in the midst of a forest of wild beasts , that attacked and killed them at every opportunity , as the Egyptians had done to us . This was a punishment for the Egyptians sending us to far away lands to catch wild dangerous animals , thus keeping us away from our wives and putting us in the position to be killed , wanting to try stop our growth . No matter where the Egyptians hid , it didn't help , for even sea creatures and Octapi and giant squids came out of the water , climbed up on their rooves and pulled up their roof covering . If Egyptians walked with their babies next to a Jew , the Jew was left alone , while a wolf would come and take one of their babies and a bear , would grab the other . Pharaoh summoned Moshe and Aharon and begged for the Wild Beasts to be removed , saying we could bring offerings to HaShem , but only in Egypt . Moshe told him that we will offer the sheep , that Egypt worships and the Egyptians would stone us . So Pharaoh said we could go , but not far off . Moshe prayed to HaShem that the Swarm be removed , but as soon as it was , Pharaoh again hardened his heart .
HaShem Sent Moshe to Pharaoh to warn of the Fifth Plague as an Epidemic that would hit the animals of the Egyptians , a punishment for the Egyptians not allowing us to tend our own flocks and for trying to steal our livestock , as they would graze some of their livestock near ours in Goshen . Now there would be no doubt whose was whose . This Epidemic would hit the livestock in the fields . But ours would be unharmed . And so , the next day , the Epidemic hit and killed the Egyptian's livestock . Again , when this was removed , Pharaoh's heart hardened . So the Sixth Plague came without warning .
HaShem Had Moshe and Aharon each take handfuls of furnace soot in their two hands . Miraculously , Moshe would then hold his own two and Aharon's two hanfuls in his one hand and throw it so high that it would go up to Heaven , leaving the Earth's Atmosphere ( a miracle for soot can't be thrown high at all ) and it would turn all the dust , before Pharaoh , into boils , the Sixth Plague . These boils were unlike anything that had ever hit anyone , for inside they were soft and outside they were crusty , so that no matter what the Egyptians put on them as a salve , it never helped , for what would soften the crusty part , added to the wetness inside and what would harden the wetness , inside , would harden the crusty part even more , thus causing them more pain and discomfort . The Egyptians were known , at the time for their permanent make -up techniques , far more modern than other nations , which they would then use as a way to idol worship , so here , HaShem Was Ruining the very skin they tried so hard to fashion , for their idol worship , the very skin they thanked their idol deities for , that HaShem Alone As The One And Only Creator , Had Created . The Egyptians couldn't even stand and so , this was punishment for them making us wait on them and standing all the time , never letting us rest and even stop to scratch an itch . The Necromancers were so hit by the Plague that they couldn't even stand before Pharaoh and so , they all died in this Plague and were never mentioned again in Torah .It was also the necromancers of Egypt , that had also advised Pharaoh , to throw the Jewish boys in the Nile to try stop the coming of Moshe . Again when this Plague was removed , Pharaoh's heart hardened .
HaShem Asked Moshe to " Come to Pharaoh " much earlier , so Pharaoh couldn't avoid it , no matter how much or how early he tried . Moshe pointed to Pharaoh's sundial and made a mark on it that at that exact time the next day , HaShem Would Send a very heavy Hail against Egypt and warned them to take their Livestock under shelter . Those that did , were saved . HaShem Instructed Moshe to stretch his hand toward Heaven and so did HaShem Send the Seventh Plague of Hail at the exact moment that Moshe had marked on the sundial . This was no ordinary Hail . Such a Hail had never been before . Each block of Hail was massive , four- hands full large . The bottom of the Hail , was pure hard ice and the middle was Ice in which its centre was fire and the top of each Hail stone was pure fire , each one sharp as a razor , cut down trees and people that were outside . Everything that was outside was struck and died . Only the Jews in Goshen were safe . Even if an Egyptian tried to hide among Jews in Goshen , as they had done in the past , when they tried to catch out the Jewish Mothers giving birth , so as to kill our babies , in the previous Pharaoh's time , the Hail Miraculously appeared in the houses and sliced the Egyptians to pieces , but the Jews were left unharmed . Here , two opposing forces of Fire and Ice , were coming together to work together for the Sake of HaShem . Pharaoh sent for Moshe and Aharon and he finally admits his sin and that HaShem Is The Righteous One and that he and his people are wicked . Pharaoh begged Moshe to entreat HaShem To Have the Hail Removed . Moshe mentions that he would leave the city to pray to HaShem , for the city was filled with idols and was certainly not a pure place to pray to HaShem , for the Hail to go . Our Rabbis tell us that Moshe had actually built a little hut just outside the city , where he would go to pray and this little huts place , in our day's time was actually made into a little Synagogue . So Moshe went out of the city to entreat HaShem , and as soon as he stretched out his hands , the Hail stopped . Even the Hail on its way down , was suspended in mid air and never fell . Some of this Hail actually fell on our enemies later on in history and the rest will fall on Gog and Magog , at the End Of Days . As soon as Pharaoh saw it had stopped , his heart became strong and stubborn again and he did not send out the Children of Israel , as HaShem Had Told Moshe that he would do , and so , Does HaShem , If He Sees a person refuses to veer from the evil and wrong path , after giving them many opportunities to do so , eventually Let's them carry on in that path and so bring themselves down . So ends the Parsha .
As we see , this Parsha is aptly named " Va'eira , " - " Appeared , " for HaShem Shows Himself through His Wonders that He Performed here . In HaShem " Va'eira , " - " Appearing , " we are to Fear Him . The word " Fear " - " Yarei " in Hebrew is within the word " Va'eira " for we are to Fear HaShem and Obey Him Always . Before these Plagues , HaShem Was Known As " El Shadai , " For He Had Set Limits on Nature in His Creation . Here , HaShem Went Beyond those limits , in Making Nature do and act in ways it never does , and so , HaShem In His Mercy for His People , Would Now also be Known as " HaShem A-donai " Who Goes beyond those Limits He Sets as rules for Nurture , In Order To Save us . How can we not Fear His Awesomeness And Power Beyond Power Beyond Power . Within this " Ve'eira " is the Word " Ohr " - " Light , " for HaShem Fills His Creation With His Light , especially When He " Va'eira " - " Appears , " and even when He Hides Himself , we are to do His Mitzvos and Follow His Torah and thus release His Holy Sparks of " Ohr " - " Light " and Thus Reveal Him , Having Him " Va'eira " - " Appear , " to us , In Love . The word " Va'eira " comes to 208 in Gematriah , which adds up to 10 , the number of Pronouncements HaShem Made in Creating Creation , and the Number of Commandments at Har Sinai . So each Time HaShem " Va'eira " - " Appears " and Reveals Himself To us , whether it be in the form of Tests , or an actual Vision , or even His Beautiful Soft Voice Talking to us from within , we are to Let His Light come out of us and know that He Loves us and Has Taken The Time to Show us Something . So , we must look deeper within each happening and know that we are here to serve HaShem , not just ourselves . HaShem Does Nothing for Himself . All He Does and Creates , is purely for and with His Love For us . So When He Reveals Himself to us , we need to listen . The pathway to Him , is through His Holy Torah , in which He Reveals Himself . Hashem Reveals Himself to us within every Holy Word of Torah , if we only learn It and look deeper into every Word Of His Holy Torah . This is one of the reasons that HaShem Wants us to Learn Torah , for in Revealing Himself Within Each Holy Torah Word , HaShem Is Thus " Va'eira " - " Appearing " To us and so He Is Thus Coming Closer To us , For HaShem Wants a Closer Relationship With each and every one of us That He Created . Torah is also for us to climb higher Spiritually and better ourselves and grow and Torah brings us closer to HaShem . When we listen , HaShem " Va'eira " - " Appears " to us With Love In So Many Ways . So , His " Va'eira " - " Appearing " as I mentioned , is like the Beauty of His Creation and also the Giving of His Ten Commandments , and so , the way to heal the wrongs we have done and put Creation , back from where we took it from , and from where it was heading , is to Keep those very Commandments and all of His Torah Revelation to us , and then , we can await , His Long- Awaited " Va'eira " - " Appearance " within The End Of Days Of Olam Habah with HaShem's Love .
I wish HaShem With Ever Deep Love , A Most Beautiful , Special and Sweet Shabbos Kodesh With Deepest Love and to all my fellow Jews and all of Creation , a very Beautiful , Special and Sweet Shabbos Kodesh with love .