After Midnight

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11 years ago
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in Sobol Says

After Midnight: 1970 smash cover hit by Eric Clapton, featuring the lyrics "We're gonna find out what it's all about...After Midnight."

Eight (or even nine) plagues were clearly not enough for the Egyptians and their pig-headed potentate Pharaoh, so Hashem tells Moshe

One more plague shall I bring upon Pharaoh and Egypt; after that he shall send you forth from here. When he sends forth, it shall be complete-he shall drive you out of here. (11:1)

Armed with that information, and instructions in-hand, Moshe confronts Pharaoh one last time and says (11:4-5)

So said Hashem: "At about midnight I shall go out in the midst of Egypt. Every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die."

The term employed by the Torah for the above bolded words-KaChatzos-is the subject of much debate in the Gemara Brachos, which is the source for Rashi's commentary on this passuk. After first attempting to prove that the term means "at midnight," Rashi is compelled to bring the stronger opinion, which translates the word as "about midnight"

But our Rabbis have interpreted it as "at about midnight." They state that Moshe said "at about midnight," which means "close to it," either before or after it, and he did not say "at midnight," lest Pharaoh's astrologers err (in their calculation of the precise time of midnight), and say "Moshe is a liar."

Wow! That's hard to believe! After all the never-before-seen miracles and plagues that Hashem, through His messenger Moshe, had performed in Egypt, would there even be a question as to accuracy?! Obviously this shows the ridiculous nature of the Egyptians: that despite the miraculous marvels and prodigious plagues experienced by them, they were poised to pretend it was nonsense. Such is the nature of mockers and scoffers; they are willing to defy all logic in order to deny the obvious.

The question, of course, is how does Chazal know that? It stretches the imagination to think that even the Egyptians would be in such denial at this point; everyone has their limitations. This question becomes even more powerful if we hearken back to the seventh plague (hail), brought at the end of last week's parsha. Conveying Hashem's warning, Moshe says (9:17-18)

You still tread upon My people, not to send them out. Behold at this time tomorrow I shall rain a very heavy hail...

Hey, what happened to worrying about their inaccurate assessments of time, which may lead to scoffing?! Clearly Moshe gives them a precise time for that plague, without concern for error-based mockery. Why was it such a concern for the final plague? Even more incredibly, assuming we can justify the angst over the agnostics, why was Hashem willing to acknowledge such a response? Who cares if they believed or not at this point? If they did, great; if not, they were all going to die soon anyway.

Prior to clarifying the concerns we just raised, let us consider another seeming anomaly. In perhaps the most famous aspect of our most famous evening in national history, Hashem commands Bnei Yisroel to daub their doorposts with blood (a mix of the blood from their Korban Pesach and their circumcision), in order that He "pass over" those houses when killing all the firstborn of Egypt. The actual text of the command, however, is somewhat troubling (12:13)

The blood will be a sign for you upon the houses where you are; and I will see the blood and I shall skip over you...

Well, which one is it? Was it a sign for us, or for Hashem? If Hashem commanded us to smear the blood so He would pass over the house, then how exactly was that a sign for us? Even more troubling, is the Rashi on that passuk

And The Blood Shall Be a Sign For You-a sign "for you," but not a sign for others. From here [we see] that they only put the blood on the inside.

What was the point of that? What was the value in our applying the blood on the inside of the doorpost? It certainly bolsters the viewpoint that the sign was for us, but why would we need the sign for Hashem to pass over?

Perhaps we can suggest that the Torah is conveying a powerful lesson in sensitivity and inter-personal relationships, with an emphasis on "knowing your audience." More importantly, it is highlighting the Jews' emphasis on "internals" and their belief in Hashem, in contradistinction to the Egyptian focus on externals and their total lack of beliefs.

Regarding the seeming contradiction that we highlighted above-whereby Moshe precisely predicted when the hail would fall, but equivocated when the final plague would commence-we can resolve the inconsistency by reading the Rashi on the words "at this time tomorrow," that Moshe said in regard to the hail

[This means] at this time tomorrow. [Moshe] made a scratch on the wall for [Pharaoh, and said to him] "Tomorrow when the sun will reach this point, the hail will descend."

In other words, Moshe essentially made a sun-dial, and was able to show Pharaoh with absolute certainty exactly what time the hail would begin. Moshe knew that Pharaoh was a chronic non-believer, since the plagues had little effect on his willingness to concede Hashem's Divinity, but Moshe was confident in making a precise prediction, because he could provide Pharaoh with unmistakable external proof that the timing was exact, thus limiting Pharaoh's ability to scoff and deny. However, Moshe was unable to provide such proof when it came to the final plague. Why? Because it was happening at midnight, and the sun don't shine at midnight! Therefore, it was important he not provide Pharaoh with any openings for denial, since this was to be the finale. This was to be the moment when Pharaoh finally said "Rise up, go out...and serve Hashem." (12:31) In order for that to happen, in order for the defeat of Egypt to be absolute, whereby even the scoffers acknowledged Hashem, Moshe could not leave them with any ability to deny; he knew his audience well.

By contrast, imagine what the Jews were feeling at this time. We may have thought that the plagues were more about G-d's desire to seek vengeance and destroy the Egyptians for denying His existence, than they were about saving us. We may have felt happy and relieved, but not necessarily special. Although the plagues had consistently distinguished between Jews and Egyptians, always striking them while sparing us, one plague may have upended that understanding: the plague of darkness.

As we know, many (if not most) of the Jews were killed in that plague (according to Rashi, 80% of the Jewish population died in that plague!). Thus we may have started getting a sense that Hashem wanted to destroy everything, rather than saving us. Hence when we put blood on our [inner] doorposts, and we saw through our display of faith in Hashem that he saved us from the destruction going on all around us, that blood on the inside of our doorposts became a sign for us-that Hashem loved us. That He had customized for us a way that we would be saved. We needed no external proofs for that. As the Jews huddled in their houses staring at that blood, hearing chaos and destruction going on all around them, they knew. They knew Hashem loved them; they knew they would be saved.

That may very well be the lesson that the Torah seeks to teach us with these episodes: know your audience, and know it well. Be sensitive to it. For the Jews it was the internals, and solidifying their belief in Hashem. For the Egyptians it was about the externals, and blocking their ability to deny Him. Thus they needed unshakable, objective, external evidence, or else they would deny. Hence Moshe needed to tell them "at about midnight, which means 'close to it,' either before or after it," since anything more would have allowed them to believe less.

For the Jewish nation, however, once they beheld Hashem's great love for them, confident that His primary focus was to save them, and that punishing the Egyptians was only secondary, the exact "timing" of the final plague was not that important. For they already "found out what it's all about," even if it happened......AFTER MIDNIGHT!

Good Shabbos.

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