Aharon – Moshe’s Chief of Staff
Sent by Hashem to Pharaoh, Moshe was asked who this “Hashem” was that he spoke of. To prove Hashem’s greatness, Moshe performed miracles. The first was that he commanded Aharon his brother to cast his staff down and it turned into a snake.
Unimpressed, Pharaoh called his magicians and they, too, cast their staffs down and they became snakes. Then the Torah tells us that Aharon’s staff swallowed up the other staffs.
The Gemara tells us this was a miracle within a miracle because it was AFTER Aharon’s snake reverted to being a staff that it swallowed the others. While a snake might swallow something, a stick generally doesn’t. Also, the way of black magic is that once the spell wears off, the enchanted item reverts back to what it was previously. When the snake turned back into a stick, the power should have been spent. Instead, the staff still “magically” swallowed the staffs of the Egyptian magicians (try saying that five times fast!) Perhaps, though, there was another, more subtle message in the staff swallowing the others.
Pharaoh asked who Hashem was, as if he’s never heard of Him. This miracle should have jogged his memory. When did we find an inanimate object swallowing another? Was it not in Pharaoh’s dream when the seven thin stalks swallowed the seven robust ones? Even if it was a different Pharaoh, this was a piece of Egyptian history. It was well-known that Hashem had sent Pharaoh a message and through it, Yosef saved the people.
When Yosef appeared to interpret the dream, he said, “G-d will answer the peace of Pharaoh.” When Aharon’s staff swallowed the others, it was as if to say, “Do you remember the last time a branch swallowed a branch? At that time, you listened and you were saved. If you don’t listen now, you will be destroyed.”
Sometimes Hashem’s messages are very subtle, and directed just at a single person. But Pharaoh refused to listen, choosing instead to ignore what he knew to be correct. Bad choice.
