“I will then stretch forth My arm over Egypt... bringing great chastisements. The Egyptians will recognize that I am God, when I raise My hand over Egypt”
Parashat Va’eira describes the first 7 of the 10 plagues with which the Almighty smote the Egyptians. The number 10 is well-known to be linked with some of the most important concepts in Torah. The number 10 is associated with holiness, as the verse states in reference to the commandment of tithing one’s flocks, “The tenth will be sanctified.” Based on two other verses that mention the word “congregation” (הָדֵע), the sages learn that a gathering of 10 Jews constitutes a quorum for holiness.
So, when searching for the most important (or well-known) 10’s in the Torah we find that there are 3 such sets of 10 items.
THE 10 COMMANDMENTS, THE 10 SAYINGS OF CREATION, THE 10 PLAGUES
Undoubtedly, the most important set of 10 in the Torah are the Ten Commandments, given to the Jewish people at the climax of the Exodus of Egypt and first described in parashat Yitro (they are enumerated a second time in parashat Va’etchanan in the Book of Deuteronomy). Another most important set of 10 in the Torah are the Ten Sayings of creation. God created the world by speech, as it were. Describing creation as an act of Divine speech is a very powerful image discussed in length in various commentaries and especially in Kabbalistic and Chassidic writings, but even before explaining what exactly Divine speech might be, the sages note that there are 10 instances in Genesis where God is found to speak; verses that contain the words, “God said” (יםִהֹ־לֱר אֶאמֹּיַו). The first explicit saying (or utterance, as it is sometimes called) is found in the very first act of creation, “God said, ‘Let there be light.’”
Even though there are 10 sayings, the first one, according to the sages is the very first word of the Torah, “Bereishit” (יתִׁאשֵרְּב). Obviously, unlike the next 9 sayings, this one is not explicit. Still, the first word is considered a saying adding another dimension to the notion of what God’s speech might be. In any case, the world was created with 10 sayings.
The third set of 10 in the Torah, that plays a central role as an intermediate between creation and the giving of the Torah, are the plagues with which God smote the Egyptians. One of the principles of the realm of holiness is that whenever two concepts are opposite, connecting them requires an intermediate. In the case of Creation and the Giving of the Torah, both in terms of narrative and in conceptual terms (as we shall see), it is the 10 plagues that acts as an intermediate between them. Let us see how.
With the 10 sayings of Creation, God created nature. The Ba’al Shem Tov teaches us that one of the purposes of meditating or contemplating the wonders of nature is to help us reach a state of equality with all that was created. The sages divide all of creation into four kingdoms: the mineral kingdom, the vegetable kingdom, the animal kingdom, and the human beings. But, even though human beings are the highest kingdom of creation, as part of nature, we are merely another type of creature created by God, and relative to God Himself, we are just as important as anything else that was created. Upon contemplating God’s wonders revealed in Creation, a human being is meant to reach a state of existential equality with everything else. The Ba’al Shem Tov would say that I, the human being, and the ant, or the plant or whatever else exists in creation, we are all equal. We are all God’s creatures, and all enjoy the same reason for our being. In this sense, we are all at the same level and were created with a single purpose, a universal purpose that is true of everything created: to serve God.
Every creature, every part of creation serves God to the best of its ability. In this sense not only is man not higher than any other creature, but because we have free choice, we can be worse than the ant, or the plant, or the rock, because they would never act contrary to the will of the Creator, but it is no secret that man does do so.
To put it more experientially, meditating upon the 10 sayings of creation helps us attain a state of complete humility. This state can also be described as an experience of submission, (הָעָנְכַה) before the Creator and all of creation. Humility and submission are experienced when we realize that the one, common denominator of everything that God created, is to glorify or honor the Creator. In this sense, we are all equal. In fact, the sages add that since man was created last, in a certain sense, he is the lowest level of creation. The simple reasoning is that if we see creation as following a course of causality then whatever is created first is a cause for that which comes after it and the cause is always higher than that which is caused. So even though we usually view the six days of creation as related to one another like rungs on the ladder of complexity, with the simplest parts coming first and the most complex last, when viewing it as a series of causal events, man being the last creature to be created owes his existence to everything that preceded him.
