An artist once sold his paintings for the price of three eggs. One day, a wealthy man took note of the quality and asked, "How much does it cost?" The artist replied, "Guess the price." The prospect buyer responded, “20,000 shekel,” to which the artist responded, “Exactly! That's the price!" This was a significant amount compared to what he had been receiving before, and he happily pocketed the money. However, the artist quickly realized that the bounty was a sign he had arrived in a place that did not know art, other than that it was worth more than three eggs. So, he picked up and set off for Paris, the renowned center of arts and culture. Setting up his stand in front of a prestigious museum, he awaited the reactions of passersby. One person stopped and marveled at his work, exclaiming, "A new Van Gogh is born!" The routine was the same as before: the person asked how much the painting cost, and the artist allowed them to make the first appraisal. This time, the offer was no less than 200,000 Euros! Despite never having heard such a number before, once again the artist responded, "Boom! That's the exact price!" Starting with just three eggs as payment, the artist had now reached a point where he was able to command a substantial sum for his work and become a wealthy man.
Rav Flam says, if Hakadosh Baruch Hu would have performed miracles in Denmark, nobody would have grasped them and they’d simply nod in response and yell, “Bravo! It’s Moshe the Magician!” They’d have offered the equivalent of three eggs. But He performed the miracles in Egypt, the epicenter of magic and sorcery, and to get to the point of having the local experts declare אֶצְבַּע אֱלֹהִים, He first started out with smaller miracles, just like the artist started with offers of three eggs, a jug of milk, and 20,000 shekel, before reaching the true and optimal price.
The Ritzbah says, the Gemara (Gittin 56b) recounts that after Titus destroyed the Beit Hamikdash, he returned home to Rome by boat. The boat was hit by a large wave – it was before the days of the Houthis, yimach shemam, causing trouble on the waters – and was on the verge of breaking up. Titus thought he was about to die, so he boldly challenged Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Based on the punishments Pharoah and Egypt received on the water, Titus conjectured that Hakadosh Baruch Hu only had power over water, and instead invited Him onto dry land to wage battle. Hakadosh Baruch Hu obliged, and once on land, a tiny gnat was all it took to neutralize Titus – entering through his nostril and picking at his brain for seven years, causing him great discomfort and debilitation. Similarly, the Ritzbah says, when Moshe performed the first two makkot on water, everyone acknowledged there was no god that ruled over the water other than Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and they said, “Let’s see what he can do on dry land!” Hakadosh Baruch Hu acquiesced and showed them, through tiny bugs on land.
וַיַּעֲשׂוּ־כֵן הַחַרְטֻמִּים בְּלָטֵיהֶם לְהוֹצִיא אֶת־הַכִּנִּים וְלֹא יָכֹלוּ וַתְּהִי הַכִּנָּם בָּאָדָם וּבַבְּהֵמָה׃ וַיֹּאמְרוּ הַחַרְטֻמִּים אֶל־פַּרְעֹה אֶצְבַּע אֱלֹהִים הִוא וַיֶּחֱזַק לֵב־פַּרְעֹה וְלֹא־שָׁמַע אֲלֵהֶם כַּאֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר ה'׃
The sorcerers did likewise with their magic art. They tried to bring forth lice but they could not, and there were lice on man and beast. The sorcerers said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of G-d;” but Pharaoh’s heart remained hardened, and he did not listen to them, as Hashem had spoken.
The Torah says, the Egyptian sorcerers attempted to copy the plague of lice but either could not bring them forth from dust or get rid of them (Rashi). One opinion says (Sanhedrin 67a), it was because the origin of the lice was smaller than the size of a barley, and magic does not work on such small particles. The Egyptians couldn’t fake the trick either, as transporting tiny particles from another area was also impossible.
Da'at Zekainim and Chizkuni answer the question as well, and in doing so reveal why it was that Bnei Yisrael also had lice at the time. Given it was the earth’s dust particles that each transformed into lice, quite a bit of space was needed regardless of what type of egg and whether size medium or large. Some say the mounds of lice reached one amah, and others say two amot in height – that is nearly a full meter of lice, requiring people to swim through them just to get around! They explain the meaning of the pasuk as the sorcerers failing to remove the lice because the lice covered the earth’s entire surface and had lodged between their feet and the ground, and sorcery could only be performed when the sorcerer’s feet were planted firmly on the ground. When their feet were not planted directly on the earth – whether they stood on a chair or on a deep mound of lice – their power disappeared. (Note: even in the Nile, nobody was safe. The Ba’al HaTurim says the lice followed anyone trying to escape into the water!)
How does this impact Bnei Yisrael and lead to there being lice in Goshen where they resided? Rabbi Eliyahu HaKohen M’Izmir says, if there were no lice in Goshen, the sorcerers would have simply grabbed their briefcases and headed to the suburbs to perform the trick, as their feet would be planted directly on lice-free ground. He goes on to comment on Yaacov Avinu requesting burial in Eretz Yisrael, and insisting it not be in Egypt, connecting the dots to the lice that were indeed found in Goshen as well.
Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer adds one additional explanation. From the plague of kinim onward, the Egyptians no longer enslaved Bnei Yisrael by forcing them to make bricks. Bricks were manufactured using fine sand, coarse sand, clay, cement, gravel, and water – but once all the sand turned into lice, it became impossible to make any more bricks, and thus Bnei Yisrael were dismissed from their work. And similar to the earlier explanation of the sorcerers not traveling to Goshen to perform their magic, had the sand of Goshen not turned into lice, Bnei Yisrael would have been directed to import it to Cairo in order to keep producing bricks. Thus, we can conclude Goshen was filled with kinim as well, and the plague of kinim served as the significant moment in which the sorcerer’s recognized Hakadosh Baruch Hu and Bnei Yisrael’s enslavement came to an end.
Rabbotai, why did Pharoah not ask for the kinim to be removed? They were there a full week, and unlike the previous plagues, Pharoah didn’t say a word about them. This question is asked by Rav Sholom Schwadron in his sefer, Lev Shalom. He answers, Pharoah saw that he promised to let Bnei Yisrael go after the plague of frogs, yet despite not following through on his word, nothing happened to him. He figured all was good, and simple lip service was enough to get out of a jam, without any need to act. But Pharoah was punished for that. Kinim came in a form unlike the previous plague, and Pharoah would not even be able to ask for its removal, thus teaching him the impossibility of making shallow promises. Lice was a double plague. With each of the other makkot, the Egyptians were punished and Bnei Yisrael spared. It hurt them and their ruler twice seeing this. When it came to kinim, however, Pharoah sent his officers to check on the status of Bnei Yisrael and they reported back that Goshen was infected with lice too. Pharoah smiled and figured status quo was fine – he’d be okay suffering and not asking for mercy. There are some people who just cannot bear to see another benefit and would rather throw money away than see it in another’s hands. Not seeing Bnei Yisrael benefiting during kinim was priceless for Pharoah. But what he was really being shown was that even control over his own actions and requests was not in his hands.
We’ll conclude with one more idea related to אֶצְבַּע אֱלֹהִים. This detail is a full shiur topic in its own right given this is the first occurrence of the word אֶצְבַּע in all of Torah, and first instances define the deep significance of a word. The next instance is during Matan Torah, when the luchot are defined as being לֻחֹת אֶבֶן כְּתֻבִים בְּאֶצְבַּע אֱלֹהִים, and the word appears only one additional time in the retelling of Matan Torah in Sefer Devarim (plus one more time in Nach). Using the אֶצְבַּע (index finger) is how jobs were distributed to kohanim via lottery at the Beit Hamikdash, and it is what we use to point to the Torah as it is lifted following its reading. אֶצְבַּע Is not simple topic but one we’ll deal in depth another day.
In sefer Tehilati Yisapeiru, Rav Yehuda Foss says the sorcerers of Egypt declared it was אֶצְבַּע אֱלֹהִים on the day of Rosh Hashanah, just like Yosef was released from prison and anointed Hakadosh Baruch Hu as Melech on that day. The Chida writes that they used that term, rather than yad, which seems even more powerful (יָד חֲזָקָה), because it is an acronym for: אֵ' ין צְ' רִיכָה בְּ' דִיקָה ע' וֹד – no additional verification needed. They were 100% sure. They took themselves out of the game and retired at that very moment.
The words אֶצְבַּע אֱלֹהִים contain four names of Hakadosh Baruch Hu within. The letters א and צ together equal ninety-one, the same total as the two primary names of Hakadosh Baruch Hu (א-לוהים & י-ה-ו-ה) added together, symbolizing Din and Rachamim together. The final two letters in אֶצְבַּע are ע and ב, representing the Shem Mem-Bet, the sacred forty-two letter name of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. We have a total of four names: three names in אֶצְבַּע, plus a fourth in אֱלֹהִים itself.
וּמֹשֶׁה בֶּן־שְׁמֹנִים שָׁנָה וְאַהֲרֹן בֶּן־שָׁלֹשׁ וּשְׁמֹנִים שָׁנָה בְּדַבְּרָם אֶל־פַּרְעֹה׃
Moshe was eighty years old and Aharon was eighty-three years old when they spoke to Pharaoh.
The Chatam Sofer says, their ages together equal 163 – the same numerical value as אֶצְבַּע. Miriam was eighty-six years old, the same numerical value as אֱלֹהִים. Hakadosh Baruch Hu was apparent to the sorcerers via His messengers, and they indicated to Pharoah that the trifecta of Moshe, Aharon, and Miriam, brought about the plague of kinim.
We entered the month of Shevat (שְׁבָט) and we now pray the acronym of שֶׁנִּתְבַּשֵּׂר בְּשׂוֹרוֹת טוֹבוֹת comes true. We went through so much pain and suffering during the previous month, and so much blood was spilled. We know full well that מִדַּת הַדִּין מְתוּחָה – severe judgement – hovers over us at present, and this is אֶצְבַּע אֱלֹהִים in front of our very eyes. Yet, we need to recognize that אֶצְבַּע אֱלֹהִים consists of both Hakadosh Baruch Hu’s attributes: Din and Rachamim. As we enter Shevat, we need to remind ourselves how our Parsha opens with the language of Midat HaDin but then closes with Midat HaRachamim.
May Hakadosh Baruch Hu have Rachamim on His children and end all our suffering. May He deliver a refuah shleima to all the injured in body and soul, and success to the hands of all those fighting for us. May He return all the captives to their families in health and peace, and may this month see the arrival of Mashiach Tzidkeinu, Amen.
