A teaching of the Rebbe on the parsha adapted for children
Parashah Vaeira describes the beginning of Israel's liberation from Egypt. For the Egyptians to send the Children of Israel, G-d needed to punish them with the Ten Plagues. All the stories in the Torah are astonishingly accurate in their purpose, as the word Torah, derived from the word horaah, teaching, teaches us how to carry out our service to G-d.
What teaching for our service to G-d can we learn from the plagues of Egypt?
To liberate the Children of Israel, G-d could choose the path he wanted, the reason why he chose that path to punish with the Ten Plagues was precisely necessary to break Egypt and its pride. The Torah, from the word horaah, teaching, teaches us through the story of the exit from Egypt that we must “punish our inner Egypt”, the Yetzer HaRah, so that we can get rid of it and serve G-d “in Har Sinai” actually fulfilling the Torah and its mitzvot.
First we have the "plague of blood", transforming the river of Egypt, the cold waters into blood, which symbolizes warmth and vitality, since the Yetzer HaRah tries to "cool" us in our service to G-d, diminishing the greatness of the miracle or cooling the joy and vitality in the fulfillment of Torah and mitzvot. He must receive the plague of blood! Introduce vitality and warmth, until all the cold waters are transformed into living blood!
The second plague was that of frogs. The frog symbolizes the maximum of coldness! It is an animal that spends its entire life in water and draws its vitality from it. The purpose of the plague of frogs was that, just as the frog is cold and water, it jumped into the dwellings of the Egyptians with mesirut nefesh and they chilled them. The Torah teaches us that the second plague was to break Egypt; it is to cool the heat and the enthusiasm of the Yetzer HaRah that torments this world. Treat it coldly and nonchalantly and don't give it too much importance.
To transcend and be successful in our service to G-d, David HaMelech in Tehillim teaches us that there are two simultaneous mental attitudes to act: "Turn away from evil and do good." The plague of blood, do good, adding vitality and enthusiasm in the fulfillment of the Torah and its mitzvot, which will inevitably add to its fulfillment. The plague of frogs, turn away from evil and avoid giving way to the Yetzer HaRah, thus subjecting it by limiting its influence, which will inevitably lead to avoiding sins, thus hastening the arrival of our righteous Mashiach, soon in our days.
