Biblical Quantum Kabbalah: human actuation of future events based on their free-willed choices, in Karmic parallel to their actions.
Egyptian Karmic Retribution: Why these Specific 10 Plagues?
They were retribution in kind for Egyptian transgressions [each is “mida kneged mida”].
Moses is told that God has hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and the hearts of his servants, in order that God will be able to make more miracles, so that the Jews (and the rest of humanity) will be able to tell their children for posterity what had happened, and they will know “that I am God”.
How do these miracles convey this message, and why is it an important message?
Because they were all karmic, “mida kneged mida”- retribution in kind for transgressions - (of the Egyptians) and therefore a warning (as recorded in the Bible, to all humanity) that there are consequences to one’s behavior. The ten plagues, in the order of their occurrence, and the Karmic reason for them:
- The Egyptians cast the Jewish children in the Nile, and as punishment the Nile river was turned to blood (symbol of death).
- Though the Jews were a minority, the Torah reports that (in the perception of the Egyptians) “the land was full of them” [1:7] “Vatimaleh ha’aretz otam”. As punishment: the Torah tells us explicitly and in many statements that the frogs were indeed everywhere. [In fact, it says regarding the Jews that the more they were opressed the more they multiplied, and the sages taught that the frogs did the same - they started as one frog but the more they were hit the more they multiplied].
- The Egyptians hated the Jews and viewed them as insects, and the Torah uses terms to describe the Jews which reflect reports this perception [1:7,12] “Vayishritzu”, so the Egyptians were afflicted by lice.
- The Torah warns the Jews after leaving Egypt not to be like the Egyptians: not to engage in bestiality; as a result of their perversion the animals were afflicted by a plague (virus?) [similar to the situation before the Flood] This is why the animals stricken even though it was their masters the Egyptians who were guilty of enslaving the Jews.
- The magicians attempted to show Pharaoh that he need not listen to God’s command since they could duplicate the miracles and plagues. In fact they attempted duplication on their own initiative therefore as a result a plague of boils was sent, and the Torah specifically mentions that it was so intense that the magicians themselves succumbed [9:11]; (the other plagues did not necessarily affect the individual, but by definition boils did).
- Pharaoh ordered the Jewish midwives to kill the male children, and they refused, using the excuse that the Jewish women gave birth on their own, like wild animals ‘Chayos Hena’ [1:19]: as punishment for forcing the Jewish women to give birth in secret or alone like wild animals, or because they force the midwives to make the comparison with wild animals, the Egyptians were plagued by wild animals.
- The Torah tells us that Pharaoh (and presumably all the Egyptians) ‘forgot’ Joseph who had saved their entire agriculture, all their crops, and so the hail was sent to destroy the crops (to ‘remind’ them).
- The Jews were considered disgusting to the Egyptians, like insects, and the Egyptians would not consent to eat bread at the same table as the Jews. The only kosher insect-like animal is the locust, and so a kosher food item the Egyptians would truly find disgusting, the locust, was sent to crawl into every open space including their pots.
- The Torah considers the Egyptians to have been abominators, due to bestiality and other forbidden sexuality; due to the latter they were punished with the Darkness (In this connection see 10:23 in the Hebrew).
- Pharaoh refused to free the Jewish People, whom God told Moses (Moshe Rabbenu) to refer to as “my first born son” [4:22]. God’s first message to Pharaoh, given to Moses before he arrived back in Egypt from his exile, was that since Pharaoh did not free God’s first born son – the Jewish People – his own would die [4:23] and so God sent the plague of the firstborn. Interestingly, the message was at the very outset, but the plague it referred to was at the very end.
Through these plagues Pharaoh and the Egyptians, and the Jews and others, were eventually able to understand that the Egyptians were being punished according to their own deeds, and this led all to understand the existence and nature of God.
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