Hashem said to Moshe, “Come to Pharaoh.” (Shemos 10:1)
Here Moshe Rabbeinu is commanded to go to Pharaoh, yet the verse says, “Come to Pharaoh.” Chazal explain in the Zohar on this verse that Moshe Rabbeinu was afraid to go to Pharaoh, so Hashem said to him, “Come with Me.”
The question is why, when it came to makas arbeh, the plague of locusts, did Moshe Rabbeinu need special help from Hashem in order to go to Pharaoh? Why was he suddenly afraid?
Early Torah sources say that Moshe’s fear stemmed from the fact that seven plagues had already gone by. The number seven expresses nature, whereas the number eight expresses the supernatural, that which is above nature.
Moshe saw that seven makos didn’t make Pharaoh budge. In other words, nothing related to the natural world was capable of moving him. Pharaoh must be connected to lemaalah min hateva, to the supernatural. Moshe was thus afraid to fight him, and Hashem needed to come with him, so to speak.
Since Pharaoh is in truth the Yetzer Hara, we can learn from here that the Yetzer Hara has supernatural power. This explains why Chazal say:
If Hakadosh Baruch Hu would not help a person, he could not overcome the Yetzer Hara.
This is why Hashem said to Moshe, “Come with Me to Pharaoh.” Only by means of Hashem’s Torah, which is the antidote to the Yetzer Hara, can a person defeat the Yetzer Hara.
1 Rambam, Igeres Hamusar.
2 Kidushin 30b.
