This seems difficult to understand. Why didn't Hakadosh Baruch Hu want to send the angels to finish off the firstborns of Egypt? Moreover, couldn't He have sent some coronavirus into their noses and finished off their oxygen in a few minutes? Why specifically did Hakadosh Baruch Hu Himself in His glory need to deal with this task?!
The Midrash uses a striking parable to explain the depth of Bnei Yisrael’s significance to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. The parable is that of a Kohen's Terumah which falls into a cemetery. He faces an impossible choice. He cannot become impure, yet he cannot abandon what is holy to him. So, he decides it is better to become impure once, recover what is precious and then purify himself, than to lose it forever. This mirrors what happened with Bnei Yisrael. Our ancestors were the Terumah of Hakadosh Baruch Hu yet they found themselves surrounded by death and impurity in Egypt – a place of idolatry, filth, and spiritual contamination. When Hakadosh Baruch Hu saw this, He did not abandon them. He descended Himself to save them from the hand of Egypt, willing to enter that place of impurity because what was at stake was too precious to lose. And once He brought them out, He called upon Aharon to purify them, making atonement for the Mikdash and restoring what had been soiled.
The Yedei Moshe asks why Hakadosh Baruch Hu could not have struck the Egyptians through an angel. The Chida then raises a difficulty with the Midrash’s parable; the parable is not comparable to the thing itself, for a Kohen cannot save his Terumah without the ability to become impure, but Hakadosh Baruch Hu could take Bnei Yisrael out with miracles and wonders – so, why would He need to enter Egypt?
The Zohar Hakadosh addresses this question directly and offers two answers. We’ll begin with the second one, which teaches us something profound about Hakadosh Baruch Hu's nature. The Zohar asks: Could Hakadosh Baruch Hu not have simply sent an angel to strike down the Egyptian firstborn, as He did in Ashur (Assyria)? Why did He need to go Himself?
The answer is this: Egypt was so defiled and filthy that it was beneath the dignity of a holy angel or seraph to enter there! Hakadosh Baruch Hu said, "I and not an angel" – only He could do what needed to be done. An angel cannot act from a place of absolute holiness the way Hakadosh Baruch Hu can. When He speaks from His place of holiness, it is immediately done, and by executing this vengeance Himself rather than through a messenger, Hakadosh Baruch Hu demonstrated His greatness and refused to allow anything holy to be defiled by contact with Egypt's corruption.
The Zohar also gives another reason: the plague targeted only true firstborn sons. But in Egypt, with its complex family structures – women who had married multiple men – determining who was truly a firstborn was impossible. Only Hakadosh Baruch Hu, who knows the deepest truth of each soul, could distinguish between a firstborn and one that was not. This knowledge belonged to Him alone, and therefore He had to descend into Egypt Himself.
This seems difficult to understand and raises a difficult question. If only Hakadosh Baruch Hu can distinguish between a firstborn and one that is not, why could He not teach the angels to make this distinction? Why did He need to descend to Egypt Himself and bear this burden?
The Chatam Sofer pushes the question further: Why would Hakadosh Baruch Hu even care if only the firstborn of mothers died? Why did He need to strike down everyone called a "firstborn" regardless of mother or father?
The Vilna Gaon offers a striking insight. Moshe Rabbeinu's name is not mentioned in the Pesach Haggadah (though he appears only in passing; with his name appearing in the Pasuk וּבְ משׁ ֶ ה עַ בְ דּ וַ אֲ מִֽ ינוּ בּ ַ ה' וַ י). The reason is that Makat Bechorot was not performed through Moshe. This plague was the culmination of Yetziat Mitzrayim and since Moshe did not execute it, he was not mentioned in the Haggadah.
Yet the Torah itself records something puzzling. After the makka of darkness, it says: וּמֹשׁ ֶה וְאַהֲרֹן עָשׂוּ אֶת כָּל הַמֹּפְתִ ים הָאֵל: And Moshe and Aharon performed all these wonders before Pharaoh.
Why does the Torah need to tell us this now, when we already know that Moshe and Aharon performed the makkot? Rashi explains that the Torah repeats "And Moshe and Aharon performed all these wonders" to connect it to the section that follows – Kiddush HaChodesh, the laws of sanctifying the new month. One might wonder: why is Aharon suddenly brought into the Mitzvah of Rosh Chodesh? The answer is simple. Since he performed the plagues together with Moshe Rabbeinu, he received a bonus – the section about Kiddush HaChodesh was stated together with him.
The Ramban offers a different explanation. The Torah states that Moshe and Aharon performed all the wonders to mark the completion of all their actions. They had announced to Pharaoh Makat Bechorot, but in the actual death of the firstborns, Moshe and Aharon had no role. This Pasuk summarizes everything they did accomplish (directly).
