“The judgment of the Egyptians [lasted for] 12 months” (Eiduyos 2:10). There is much discussion about what this “judgment” consisted of, and how it could have lasted for 12 months. All agree that the last Makkah occurred on the night of the 15th of Nissan.
The starting point for much of the discussion is Rashi’s explanation of the “seven days” given for length of the plague of blood (Shmos 7:25); “the plague was active for a quarter of a month (the seven days mentioned in the verse) and [for] three [quarters of the month] he (Moshe) warned them (about the plague).” If each plague lasted for one month, and there were 10 plagues, the “judgment of Egypt” should have only lasted 10 months, not 12.
Why are there two additional months that are considered part of the “judgment of Egypt,” and what was happening that it qualifies as part of their judgment? Numerous approaches have been suggested to deal with this issue.
Yefeh Toar, commentating on Shmos Rabbah (9:12, the Medrash that Rashi is based on), says explicitly that this Medrash is not consistent with the Mishna in Eiduyos, as according to the Medrash the “judgment of Egypt” must have only lasted nine months (one month each for the first nine plagues; the tenth plague followed immediately after the ninth, so no additional time had passed).
Medrash Seichel Tov is among the commentators who count incomplete months in the number 12. Moshe and Aharon came to Paroh at the end of Iyar in 2447, and the nation left in the middle of Nisan 2448, so when you add those two partial months to the ten complete months in between them, you have a “judgment” of “12 months.”
Among the issues this approach has to deal with is that the “12 months” of the “judgment of the Egyptians” is just one set of “12 months” listed in the Mishna, and the others seem to be complete months without having to count any partial months.
Rav Yaakov Emden (Lechem Shamayim, his commentary on the Mishna) suggests that Moshe went to see Paroh in the middle of Nisan (2447) to ask him to send G-d’s people out, at which point G-d started “sitting in judgment of the Egyptians” and Paroh started to feel G-d’s punishment (as his power was being challenged). A month later (in the middle of Iyar), Moshe went back to Paroh, which was when he and Aharon did the snake/stick switch (Shmos 7:10). After another month (in the middle of Tamuz) the process of the first plague began when Paroh was warned it was coming if he didn’t back down. By adding two months before the first plague and explaining why they were considered part of the “judgment of Egypt,” our issue has been resolved.
Seder Olam uses Iyar as a reference point in his timeline because that is when the straw Paroh made the Children of Israel start to collect straw (Shmos 5:7) which is available in the fields. Paroh added this task right after Moshe’s first trip to see him. Seder Olam says that Moshe spent a week trying to get out of being the person to take the nation out of Egypt, meaning that he left the “burning bush” with only a week left in Nisan, not halfway through it. And he went back to Midyan to get his family and take leave of his father-in law (Shmos 4:18-20) before heading to Egypt, which had to take more than one day. All of this occurred before going to Paroh, meaning that Moshe didn’t see Paroh the first time until the very end of Nisan (at the earliest), which fits with the “straw season” being in Iyar. Although this removes the possibility of there being exactly 12 months from Paroh’s first refusal to send the Children of Israel out until they actually left Egypt, if we include the drowning in the sea as part of their “judgment” (which is quite reasonable), we are off by only a couple of days.
The Vilna Gaon, in his commentary on Seder Olam, says that “the plagues of Egypt [lasted] 12 months,” per the Seder Olam does not literally mean “the plagues,” as the 12 months started from the time G-d spoke to Moshe at the burning bush, which Seder Olam says was during the time of Pesach. (The Ga’on brings a couple of proofs that Seder Olam could not have meant that the actual plagues lasted 12 months.) Therefore, even though attributing the discrepancy between the Mishna and the Medrash to a difference of opinion avoids having to attempt a reconciliation, the attempt to understand what the Mishna meant by “the judgment of Egypt” is much more inviting than just sweeping the issue aside.
Other Issues and Timelines
Other issues with this approach that need to be resolved are the Medrashim (e.g. Bamidbar Rabbah 11:2) that say Moshe disappeared for three months after he saw Paroh the first time before going back to see him the second time, as well as the fact that a month is not needed for the tenth plague (Rabbi Emden only accounts for two “missing months,” not three). However, if the plagues started a month later (in Av), and we move the “snake/stick” scene to shortly before the first plague, we have a three-month interval between Moshe’s first visit to Paroh and his second.
Medrash HaGadol (7:25) is among the sources who say that even though each plague lasted for a month, there was a week in between one plague and the warning of the next one. First Moshe would warn Paroh about the upcoming plague for (approximately) three weeks, then the plague would last a week (to complete the month), then G-d would wait a week before sending Moshe to warn Paroh about the next one. If we take away the week between the ninth and tenth plagues (since they came back-to back), and don’t give the tenth plague its own month (since the nation left the next day), we are still one month short. Nevertheless, if we don’t need a three-week warning before the third, sixth and ninth plagues either (since the Torah doesn’t mention Moshe going to Paroh before these plagues), we now have three months plus an additional week that we can assign to Moshe’s disappearance. Some (e.g. Or Hachayim on Shmos 7:25) say that when Paroh asked Moshe to remove a plague, that plague didn’t last the full week. If that plague’s “month” was thereby cut short, and the week between plagues started right away rather than waiting until the previous plague would have ended, the extra week above and beyond the three months attributed to Moshe’s disappearance could easily be accounted for.
Seder HaDoros has Moshe’s three-month disappearance coming after the first plague. By adding three months to the nine months of the first nine plagues, the “12-month judgment” started with the first plague and ended after the tenth plague. However, the first plague couldn’t have started until, at the earliest, the very end of Nisan 2447 (accounting for the week spent by the burning bush, the trip to and from Midyan, the first two trips to Paroh (made before the third trip when Paroh was warned about the first plague, see Shmos 7:14-17), and all that happened in between those first two trips (such as adding to the chores of the slaves, the complaints to Paroh about it, the complaints to Moshe for making things worse, and Moshe’s complaint to G-d for making it worse, see 5:6-23), while the tenth plague hit in the middle of Nisan 2448, leaving us about a half a month short of 12 months. Additionally, Moshe’s three-month disappearance can be easily explained if it occurred after his first trip to Paroh made things worse (the Medrashim that mention his disappearance are discussing this time period). But why would Moshe disappear for three months after the plagues had already started?
[Some Medrashim (e.g. Shmos Rabbah 5:20) have Moshe disappearing for six months, not three. It is obviously much more difficult to make this time frame work if each plague lasted a month and we are limited to a 12-month period of time. (Medrash Seichel Tov says that according to this opinion the plagues started in Shvat — hence its name, which connotes a stick of retribution — with each plague lasting a week, i.e. ten plagues in ten weeks.)]
The most straightforward timeline is the one put forth by Yefeh Toar. Moshe agreed to go to Paroh after a week-long discussion at the burning bush, a discussion that started on what would become the first day of Pesach. The “12 months” of the “judgment of the Egyptians” started after Moshe agreed to go and ended when G-d “threw the [Egyptian] chariots and horseman into the sea” a week after the nation left Egypt. Moshe disappeared for three months after his first visit to Paroh because he was so distraught about things having become worse. Although Yefeh Toar says that each of the first nine plagues last a month (even those where no warning is mentioned in the Torah), it is more likely (as many commentators say explicitly) that there was no warning before the third, sixth or ninth plagues (as each set of three plagues taught a specific message, and once a warning was ignored the first two times for each message, there was no third warning). This gives us an additional nine weeks (or more, if the warnings were longer than 21 days and/or the week of the actual plague was shortened when Paroh temporarily gave in), but it allows for a healthy amount of time for Moshe’s return to Midyan, his first trip back to Egypt, and the time between the “snake/stick” showdown and Moshe being instructed to warn Paroh about the first plague. As long as we aren’t limited to the “12 months” starting with the first plague (and the Vilna Gaon presents a strong argument why we are not), and the “judgment of Egypt” can start when everything was set to begin their punishment (i.e. Moshe agreeing to be G-d’s messenger), there is no contradiction between the formula for each plague being three weeks of warning plus one week of implementation and the “judgment of Egypt” lasting 12 months.
Rabeinu Bacheya's Viewpoint
Rabeinu Bacheya Shmos 10,5, offers another viewpoint:
The plague of locusts occurred in Nissan seeing that during that month the trees start budding and flowers become visible on earth. The plague of hail which had preceded it occurred in Adar. All the ten plagues occurred within one calendar year as we know from Ediot 2,10 where the Mishnah states that the judgments executed upon the Egyptians occurred within twelve months.
The last three of the ten plagues all occurred during the first half of the month of Nissan whereas the previous seven plagues were scattered over a period of eleven months. It would follow then that each of the previous plagues lasted for more than the seven days attributed by the Torah to the first plague, i.e. the river turning into blood. The interval between the plagues then would have been 30 days. [possible misprint and should read “21 days” as the author stated in his commentary on 7,25.] On the other hand, from the words: “seven days were completed” (7,15), we learned that the interval between the plagues was seven days. This would have applied to all the plagues so that we could divide the time equally between periods during which there was relief and periods when one of the plagues was in effect. If we were to assume that Moses began his career as a prophet on the 15th of Nissan and that G’d spent seven days persuading him to accept His mission, then these seven days corresponded to the seven days which the Jewish people would celebrate as the Passover holiday after the redemption. [The author had already alluded to these theories in connection in his commentary on 4,10 and 4,18]. Subsequent to the 21st of Nissan, Moses first returned to Midian. He should have proceeded to Egypt immediately, but he had to return to Midian to get permission to be released from his oath to Yitro that he would not leave the country without his permission. This is the reason the Torah had to write (4,18 that Moses returned to Midian and his father-in-law, and having done so that G’d told him in 4,19 to proceed to Egypt.) G’d spoke to him “in Midian,” i.e. He told him “since you swore an oath in Midian you have to be released from that oath in Midian.”
Moses then proceeded to Egypt where both he and Aaron arranged an audience with Paroh when the King told them that he did not know Hashem, etc. All the subsequent developments, including the new decree for the Israelites to provide their own straw could have occurred within eight days until the end of the month of Nissan. According to one Medrash, Moses then went into a retreat for 3 months and was not seen by anyone. This brings us to the end of the month of Tammuz. The plague of blood would have covered the first seven days in Av. They were followed by relief until the end of the month. The plague of frogs and subsequent relief occupied the month of Elul. This pattern continued until the month of Adar when the plague of locusts was decreed. The plague of darkness occurred during the first seven (six?) days of Nissan followed by only seven days of respite. The plague of the dying of the firstborn occurred on the night of the 14-15th of Nissan so that the period from Moses’ experiencing the revelation at the bush until the Exodus was exactly 12 months. The wording in the Mishnah in Ediot that the judgments against the Egyptians extended over a period of 12 months must not be taken at face value then, but the Mishnah meant that from the time when G’d had decreed for these judgments to occur 12 months elapsed until the redemption.
