The first of the Ten Plagues is blood. The water in the Nile and around it was transformed into blood. Of all the plagues this one is the most miraculous in that it involves the transformation of one material into another. And for that matter, it was the transformation of a non-organic element—water—into an organic mixture—blood.
To better appreciate what this transformation involved spiritually, let us introduce one of the most basic and useful partzufim (models). The Mishnah states, “There are seven liquids: dew, water, wine, oil, blood, milk and bees’ honey.” These seven liquids prepare an object, particularly a seed, for receiving impurity (t u m’a h). Since there are seven liquids, it stands to reason that we should correspond them to the seven lower sefirot, from loving-kindness through kingdom.
The complete correspondence is as follows:
- loving-kindness-chessed – water
- might-gevurah – wine
- beauty-tiferet – dew
- victory-netzach – milk
- acknowledgment-hod – blood
- foundation-yesod – oil
- kingdom-malchut – honey
Let us explore this partzuf:
Water corresponds to loving-kindness a clear connection that appears numerous times in the Torah’s inner dimension. Abraham is the archetypal soul of loving-kindness and its inner driver of love. Given that loving-kindness corresponds to both love and water, we learn that just as plant life grows with water, so people grow with love. Indeed, Abraham himself is associated with water in the liturgical prayer for rain, “Remember the father [Abraham] who was drawn after You [God], like water.”
Wine is normally associated with the sefirah of understanding, which is situated above might on the left axis, since wine brings joy (when consumed properly). The wine that brings joy is the red wine and the sefirah of might is associated with red as well.
Dew is particularly connected with Torah, as the sages say, “He who engages with the words of Torah, the dew of Torah enlivens him.” It is well known that the pillar of Torah is the middle axis of the sefirot, and that the Torah itself specifically corresponds wo the sefirah of beauty (tiferet).
Milk is associated with infants. In Torah it is the most important nutrient for a growing baby. The greatest growth spurt occurs during the first two years of life, a time that the sages describe as best for nursing milk. Just as water, situated above milk, is a catalyst for growth, so milk is the best food for the infant’s growth.
Blood, like wine, is red and therefore belongs on the left axis, just below wine. In Kabbalah, oil is associated with the foundation of the father principle (Abba) and so we correspond it to foundation. Finally, honey corresponds to the sefirah of kingdom. One of the beautiful allusions to this correspondence is that the initials of “honey” in Hebrew spell the names of David and Batsheba, with David the archetypal soul of the kingdom.
From Water to Blood
Now we can use our correspondence and note that transforming water into blood means moving from the sefirah of loving-kindness into the sefirah of thanksgiving (הוד). This represents the resounding echo of gratitude and acquiesence, which one should feel upon being the recipient of an act of lovingkindness. This is alluded to by the initial of the word “blood,” which is the letter dalet (spelled ת ל ד), which is explained elsewhere to be an acronym for “know how to give thanks”.
In life there are particularly extreme cases when a person is required to acknowledge the ultimate benevolence of God in face of personal disaster. Such was the position of Aaron when two of his sons, Nadav and Avihu, were killed while serving in the Tabernacle because they introduced a foreign source of fire to the altar. The Torah describes Aaron’s reaction as: “Aaron remained silent.” Aaron clearly acknowledged that for all his love for his sons, God was just and benevolent. But the Hebrew word for “remained silent”, which is grammatically related to blood.
When God commanded Moshe and Aaron to transform the Egyptian waters into blood, he instructed that it be Aaron who actually perform the transformation. The sages explain that Moshe could not smite the waters himself, as he was the recipient of their kindness when as a babe he was floated down the Nile in a small ark. So, in a certain sense even the fact that the plague was inflicted by Aaron and not by Moshe reflects the sincerity of water turned into blood, or thanks being given in return to kindness.
When kindness is above and beyond measure, people sometimes say “I owe you my life.” This idiom also expresses how blood, and owing blood, symbolic of lifeforce and vitality, or becoming “blood brothers,” is considered an appropriate due in return for kindness.
- Mishnah Machshirin 6:4.
- Yalkut Shimoni Devarim §824.
