Fwd: Blood before Frogs

Va'eira WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 6 25 TEVET, 5776 ב"ה וְשָׁרַץ הַיְאֹר צְפַרְדְּעִים וְעָלוּ וּבָאוּ בְּבֵיתֶךָ וּבַחֲדַר מִשְׁכָּבְךָ וְעַל מִטָּתֶךָ וּבְבֵית עֲבָדֶיךָ וּבְעַמֶּךָ וּבְתַנּוּרֶיךָ וּבְמִשְׁאֲרוֹתֶיךָ (שמות ז, כח) And the river will swarm with frogs, and they will emerge and come inside your home and your bedroom and upon your bed, and inside the homes of your servants and among your people, and into your ovens and your kneading troughs. (Shemos 7:28) Blood before Frogs G-d's battering of the Egyptians began with the waters of the Nile River turning into blood. Next, G-d smote Egypt with a plague of frogs, which swarmed from the waters of the Nile into the Egyptians' homes, bedrooms and kitchens. The Torah's name for Egypt, Mitzrayim, shares a common root with the Hebrew word meitzar, constraint. Accordingly, the Ten Plagues that brought down the mighty Egypt represent the steps we must take to break out of our personal Egypts as well—the internal limitations that hinder and restrain our service of G-d. The first two plagues both involved water. In the spiritual Ten Plagues, water, which is cold by nature, symbolizes an attitude of coolness—detachment and indifference. The first plague, in which the waters of the Nile were transformed to warm and life-giving blood, thus symbolizes that we must imbue our service of G-d with warmth and excitement. In contrast, the second plague, in which creatures of the water, frogs, swarmed everything related to Pharaoh and Egypt—and particularly, their hot ovens—symbolizes that bringing down our internal Egypts requires developing a coolness and disinterest in material passions and pleasures. Now, under normal circumstances, ridding ourselves of competing loyalties—symbolized by the Plague of Frogs—would be the first step we need to take before attempting to live a life devoted to G-d and G-dliness. We see, however, that the Plague of Frogs was not the first plague but the second; the Plague of Blood preceded it. The order of these two plagues teaches that even before we have succeeded at cooling down our material passions, we must already infuse our Torah and mitzvos with fervor and enthusiasm. The light and warmth of our passion-filled mitzvos will assist in dispellingany dark and undesirable passions that remain. —Likkutei Sichos, vol. 1, pp. 123-125 Sponsor a Lightpoints email A project of Or Hachassidus ביוזמת ולזכות הרה״ח הרה״ת ר' ישעי' זושא ווילהעלם שליט״א להצלחה רבה לו ולכל משפחתו בגו״ר

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