Biblical Parallels Index – Shemot 7-11/0

Biblical Parallels Index – Shemot 7-11

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Overview

This index is meant to help the reader explore Biblical parallels, be they two accounts of the same event, stories with similar motifs and themes, or units of text which are linguistically similar and perhaps alluding one to the other. The page includes links to tools that aid in comparison, primary sources that touch upon the parallels, and summaries of and links to articles which analyze them in depth.

Hardened Hearts

Paroh is the first of three people or groups of people of whom Hashem says He will harden their hearts. The other two are Sichon (Devarim 2:30) and the Canaanites (Yehoshua 11:20). Comparing the various narratives might help one understand both what is meant by the expression and how to deal with the theological problem of Hashem's apparent removal of free will in these stories.

Tools

• See Makbilot Bamikra for a list and links to of all the verses which speak of Hashem hardening someone's heart.

Articles

• See Hardened Hearts for analysis of the wide range of different commentators’ approaches to the hardening of human beings’ hearts in Tanakh. Some propose that, at times, Hashem removes an individual’s free choice, in order to bring about punishment. This is justified either due to the gravity of their sins, the fact that they used up their opportunities to change, or because, as idolaters, they were simply not bequeathed the gift of repentance. Others interpret the Biblical text to imply that free choice is never lost.

• See And I Will Harden The Heart of Pharaoh, by R. Yaakov Medan, for a unified interpretation of the hardening of the hearts of Pharaoh, Sichon, and Canaan.  He suggests that in all three cases the characters never fully lost their free will.

Moshe's Missions

The prophetic mission Hashem gives to Moshe in Parashat Vaera is somewhat parallel to that given in Parashat Shemot. The doubling makes one question both why it was necessary for Hashem to repeat the mission and where, if at all, the second mission differs from the first.

Tools

• See Makbilot BaMikra for links to the various verses which speak of Moshe's mission.
• To compare the two sets of chapters, see the Tanakh Lab.

Articles

• See R. Ezra Bick’s article, איך מושיעים את ישראל, for comparison and contrast of the mission as presented in Shemot 6-7 and in Shemot 3-4.  R. Bick notes that the second mission contains a new emphasis on Moshe’s message to the nation of Israel, and on the manner in which Hashem intends to change the nation’s slave mentality.  
• See R. Yaakov Medan's article, קורות משה עד יציאת מצרים, and more recently,  ולא  שמעו אל משה", בתוך: כי קרוב אליך (תל אביב, 2014): 86-90", who suggests that thirty years had elapsed between the encounter at the burning bush and the mission of Chapter 6-7.  Though the second mission is not fundamentally different than the first, it is addressed to a new generation.

Plagues as Reversal of Creation

There are several inverse parallels between the plagues and the description of the world's creation. The Biblical narrative might be hinting that the plagues were meant to represent a destructive reversal of the act of creation in order to highlight that the God of Creation is the God of the Exodus:¹

Tools

• Concordance – Concordance searches reveal that there are several phrases found almost solely in the creation and plague narratives:
• Variations of the phrase "מִקְוֵה הַמַּיִם" appear only three times in Torah,² two of which are in these narratives (Bereshit 1:10 and Shemot 7:19)
• The root "שרץ" appears in only four contexts in Bereshit and Shemot: the story of creation (Bereshit 1:20, 1:21), the story of the Flood and the re-creation in its wake (Bereshit 7:21, 8:17, 9:7), the description of the population growth of Israel in Egypt (Shemot 1:7) and the plague of frogs. Throughout, the word is associated with creation and destruction. The two usages in Shemot might suggest a measure for measure punishment: the Egyptians’ revulsion at the nations proliferation is punished with the revolting plague of multiplying frogs.

Primary Sources

• In its list of significant events associated with the number ten, Mishna Avot 5:1 states that Hashem created the world with ten utterances, while Mishna Avot 5:4 Avot 5:4About the Mishnaspeaks of the ten plagues. Drawing off these sources, later commentators suggest that the two sets of ten correspond to one another. See Maharal Gevurot Hashem 57, Tzeror HaMor and R"E Ashkenazi, who maintain that each plague corresponds to one of the ten utterances through which the world was created and was aimed at destroying one of the foundational elements.

Articles

• See Purpose of the Plagues for discussion of various approaches to the choice of plagues and the ultimate goal of bringing them. Among both those who say they were punitive and those who maintain that they were educative, there are those who suggest that they therefore served to undo creation (either to instill belief in God, the true Creator, or to highlight how the Egyptians deserved that the evil society they created to be totally undone.) 
• See Z. Zevit, "Three Ways to Look at the Ten Plagues: Were They Natural Disasters, a Demonstration of the Impotence of the Egyptian Gods, or an Undoing of Creation?" BR 6 (1990): 16-23, 42 who suggests that the ten  plagues were chosen specifically because they corresponded to aspects of the word's creation and could thereby teach both the nation and Egypt that Hashem is the Creator.
• See Darkness Deciphered, by Shira Smiles, for an analysis of the plagues as a reversal of creation.
• See “All Are Considered Blind”, by R. Aaron Lopiansky, for analysis of the purpose of the plagues as a reversal of creation, with an emphasis on the plague of darkness and the religious message of the plagues.
• See The Microcosm Manifest in the Makkot, by Aryeh Krischer, for analysis of the order of the plagues in relation to the order of creation.

Leaving Egypt with Great Wealth

The fact that the nation of Israel left Egypt with great wealth is mentioned in several places in Tanakh.  The repetition highlights the centrality of the event  and the significance that Hashem attached to it., but also the moral question of whether "despoiling Egypt" was just.

Tools

• Makbilot BaMikra – Makbilot BaMikra points out that the promise of leaving Egypt with great wealth (Shemot 11:2-3) echoes the promise to Avraham (Bereshit 15:14), and is mentioned as well in Shemot 3:21-22, Shemot 12:35-36, and Tehillim 105:37. 

Articles

• For analysis of the morality of taking wealth from Egypt with discussion of the approaches of a wide range of commentators to the question, see Reparations and Despoiling Egypt.  Many exegetes suggest that the vessels were given as gifts and not as loan, obviating the moral question.  Others view them as renumeration for years of slavery, compensation for expropriated property, or as spoils of war.
• For another analysis of the purpose of leaving Egypt with wealth, see R. Yaakov Beasley’s Slavery for Profit?  R. Beasley discusses several of the above mentioned interpretations³ and also explores the possibility that taking the vessels served as a means for the Israelites to achieve emotional closure.

¹ Some of the connections between the stories include:

• The plague of blood lasted for seven days (7:25), alluding to the seven days of creation.
• The different elements of creation are alluded to in the plagues: water (7:19, 7:28), earth (8:12-13), animal life (8:20, 9:3), heavens (9:10), vegetation (10:15).
• Man’s blessing of dominion over the natural world (Bereshit 1:28) is reversed as the natural world becomes a source of uncontrollable disaster.
• The plague of darkness reverses God’s first act of creation, the creation of light. Moreover, whereas God separates between light and darkness in the creation story (Bereshit 1:4-5), light and darkness coexist during the plague, with the Egyptians experiencing darkness while the Israelites have light (Shemot 10:23).
• The plague of the death of the firstborn is a reversal of the creation of man.
• The repeated mentions of Hashem’s distinguishing between the Egyptians and Israelites (Shemot 8:18-19, 9:4, 9:6-7, 9:26, 10:23, 11:7) hearken back to the many acts of distinction made in the story of creation (1:4, 1:6, 1:14, 1:18).

² To see concordance results, in the Mikraot Gedolot on Shemot 7:19, highlight the phrase "מִקְוֵה מֵימֵיהֶם" and choose concordance from the drip-down menu.

³ He, too, notes that the wealth might have represented a gift, an exchange for Jews’ property that they left in Egypt, or compensation for their work..