“...and the staff of Aharon swallowed their staffs” (7:12)
Hashem commanded Moshe and Aharon to appear before Pharaoh. Hashem informed them that Pharaoh would demand that they provide a “mofes,“ ”wonder,“ to validate their claims that they were messengers of a higher authority. Aharon cast down his staff, and it turned into a snake. Pharaoh summoned his sorcerers, who replicated Aharon’s actions. The Torah relates that “Aharon’s staff swallowed their staffs.“ What is the conflict being waged between Aharon and the sorcerers? What message is Aharon sending Pharaoh and his sorcerers?
The Talmud refers to this episode as a “miracle within a miracle.“ Rashi explains that Aharon’s staff swallowed the sorcerers’ staffs after it transformed back into a staff.
The Maharsha has difficulty with Rashi’s interpretation, specifically with why, according to Rashi, this was a ”miracle within a miracle.“ The snake changing back to a staff was the first miracle, and the staff subsequently swallowing the sorcerers’ staffs was the second miracle. Should this not be described as a ”miracle after a miracle“?
The Maharsha suggests that the miracle was that the staff of Aharon did not expand after swallowing all the other staffs. This is the Talmud’s interpretation of a “miracle within a miracle.“ The Maharsha’s interpretation not only disagrees with Rashi’s comments, which make no allusion to this miracle, but is not hinted at in the Talmud, either.
It appears that Hashem was performing a powerful miracle for Pharaoh’s sake. If the purpose was to impress Pharaoh, why did Aharon’s staff swallow the sorcerers’ staffs, implying that all the staffs transformed back from being snakes? A staff swallowing a living creature would make a greater impression. Would it not have been a greater miracle for Aharon’s staff to swallow their snakes? If, in fact, Aharon’s staff did swallow their snakes, and the Torah only refers to their snakes as staffs because that is what they originally were, then it is possible that Aharon’s staff never transformed back from being a snake, either.
How would the Talmud know that the miracle was that Aharon’s snake in staff form swallowed the staffs of the sorcerers? The Midrash states that the ten plagues that Hashem miraculously brought upon the Egyptians corresponded to the ten utterances through which Hashem created the world.
What emerges from the Midrash is the understanding that a miracle is not an illusion or a change in man’s perception. Rather, a miracle that involves a transformation in the nature of an object actually creates the change, a new act of creation. A staff that becomes a snake actually becomes a snake. Sorcery can make a staff display snake-like qualities, but the ”snake“ is actually a staff. Aharon’s snake reverting to being a staff is itself a new miracle. The staff being capable of swallowing the Egyptians’ staffs is the second miracle. This is truly a miracle within a miracle. The Torah identifies the Egyptians’ snakes as staffs, for that is all they ever were. Their display of snake-like qualities was only an illusion. Pharaoh and his sorcerers were being taught that their abilities were only illusory, having no basis in reality. Only the Creator of the world, Who is the ongoing source for all existence, has the ability to recreate that which already exists and give it a new reality.
HEBREW ACADEMY OF CLEVELAND
RABBI YOCHANAN ZWEIG
