Parashat Vaerah has within it seven of the 10 plagues, and one of the important lessons that we learn from the plagues is that Pharoah is stubborn.
As much as he is being shown that he’s not in charge, and that G-d runs the world, he looks for excuses and outs. Mesilat Yesharim and the Zohar tell us that Pharaoh is a symbol for the Yetzer Harah. Everybody has a little bit of Pharoah inside of them, so we will learn one of the lessons of Pharoah:
After the plague of the frogs, Pharoah calls to Moshe and Aharon and told them to, “Pray for me and remove them.”
Moshe said, “התפאר עלי -glorify yourself over me.”
Which means- Let me show you what we can do. When you want to get rid of them?
And Pharoah says מחר -tomorrow.
Tomorrow??
Why would Pharoah say that he wants to get rid of them tomorrow?
When you have a terrible toothache and you go to the dentist, Lo Alenu, do you tell him to get rid of it tomorrow? Don’t you want to get it done today or even yesterday?
The commentaries explain that Pharoah suspected that Moshe was a superior magician who somehow knew that the plague was about to end naturally. He assumed that Moshe would expect Pharoah to ask them to pray to end now, in which case it would end on its own and not by Moshe’s doing.
Therefore, by asking for the plague to be gone tomorrow, Pharoah thought he was outsmarting Moshe.
This shows Pharoah’s wickedness and his stubbornness. Even though the plague hurt him, he would rather push off its ends for a day, in order to show up Moshe.
Another case in point: When Moshe said there’d be a plague of the firstborn, he said כחצות- “like (or “around”) midnight” why didn’t he say midnight?
Because maybe the astrologers clocks weren’t all accurate. They all died, but this is what he was worried about?
But human nature is that we’ll always try to find something to grasp at, to enable us to stick to our own opinion. We don’t want to change, so we manipulate things in order to make our approach work.
This reminds me of a pet peeve I have. While learning Shaar Bechina, which is another section of the Hovot HaLevavot, I’m constantly amazed at the wonders of creation, and while looking into the topic, we see that the denial of the evolutionists is mind boggling! How can they believe that the world just evolved?! Just considering the placement of earth and atmosphere is enough to disprove them. Earth is the only planet capable of life, because it’s the exact, perfect distance from the sun.
Life can’t survive on the other planets, (of course because G-d didn’t put life there) because life needs water to survive. Too close to the sun and the water boils away, too far and it freezes. Earth is the only planet that has the capacity to keep water. What a lucky event!! Planet earth has also has a magnetic field around us, that protects us. Planet Earth also has something called gravity- that’s a nice thing to have. If you try to walk on another planet, such as Mars or Venus, a 200 pound person would feel like he’s 480 pounds, because the gravitational pull there is that much stronger. So that’s another invisible miracle to think about. And there are countless things here that stare us in the face. The development of the embryo is mind boggling as well. This little rice-sized kernel has all the chromosomes and DNA and all the programming in it in order to grow into a person- and they think it happens by itself!! When you read how they describe it, it’s like it all happens by itself -how the cells migrate then they become different types of tissue. Heart tissue, stomach tissue, and liver tissue- they all come from the same cells! And then these tissues become organs. These organs work together as systems. The digestive system includes the stomach, liver and intestines which all work together. We also have a cardio-vascular system, nervous system, muscular and skeletal system. All of these organs are working together and all of these systems are working together, and it all happened inside of your mother’s womb. By itself?? How absurd!
Why can’t they see the truth? The answer is, because Pharoah is inside every one of them, and inside every one of us. We have to be aware of that. It’s hard to admit that G-d is in charge of the world, but that’s our job- to get through that barrier of Pharoah that’s inside of us and see G-d in creation, and see God in our lives.
That was the purpose of Yetziat Mitzrayim, and that’s why we must remember it every single day. We have to remember the ten plagues, and we say Zecher L’Yeziat Mitzrayim, because we need this message and this lesson daily.
Have a wonderful day and a Shabbat Shalom.