The Ten Plagues about which we begin reading this week have always bothered me. If God’s intention was to redeem the Israelite people from Egyptian slavery then He could have just taken them out without inflicting any plagues on the Egyptian people. Even if God deemed it necessary to punish the Egyptians for enslaving the Israelites for so long then perhaps a few plagues would have been sufficient. But why ten? Furthermore, in inflicting so many plagues, it almost seemed as though God was being unnecessarily harsh, almost vindictive. But then came October 7 and it all suddenly began to make sense.
After Hamas brutally raped, burned, and murdered over 1,100 innocent Israelis, including women, children and elderly, and then kidnapped another 250, Israel had no choice but to respond with a display of force the likes of which the enemy could never have imagined. It had to show that it was a “sleeping giant” and that, once awakened, will stop at nothing to ensure that such atrocities could never happen again. For months, the IDF carried out relentless operations and IDF soldiers fought valiantly, neutralizing tens of thousands of Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists, and eventually gaining the upper hand. Despite these successes, however, there were no signs that the enemy was backing down.
Thus, the IDF and the Mossad proceeded to deal a series of blows that were no less devastating than the plagues that God inflicted upon the Egyptians. Chief among them were the brilliantly planned and executed attack on the handheld pagers and the walkie-talkies that simultaneously killed dozens of Hezbollah terrorists and injured another 1,500, and the elimination of virtually all of the Hezbollah and Hamas military and political leadership, capped by the assassination of the mastermind of the October 7 massacre, Yahya Sinwar. It was these attacks, along with the persistent and heroic efforts of the IDF throughout the entire region, which pushed Hamas into a corner and forced them into a deal to release our hostages in return for a ceasefire.
Nevertheless, there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Hamas will use this ceasefire to re-arm and regroup for its next assault on Israel. Thus, we must come to terms with the necessity of resuming our military campaign against Hamas after they release our hostages, and of inflicting upon them one blow after another until they can no longer pose a threat.
All this is reminiscent of Pharaoh who, after seeing relief at the end of each plague, hardened his heart and seized the opportunity to continue and oppress the Israelites (see Exodus 8:11). This also helps explain why God had no choice but to continue inflicting plague after plague on Pharaoh and the Egyptians until they would finally agree to let the Israelite people go, and then later meet their own fate in the waters of the Sea of Reeds.
Thus, October 7 taught me, and should teach all of us, a sad and unfortunate truth. Sometimes there are people so cruel and vicious, and so persistent in their desire to oppress and kill others no matter what the cost, that the only solution is a series of plagues to destroy them and to wipe them off the face of the earth.
Shabbat Shalom.