Be A Chameleon

After the מכה of ברד Moshe tells Pharaoh that he will pray for the hail to be removed.  The Torah then recounts that the flax and barley were destroyed for they were already ripened.  However, the wheat and rice weren’t smitten for they didn’t fully grow yet (10:31-32).  Why is this important to know, and why is this fact placed in the middle of the conversation between Moshe and Pharaoh? [See the Ramban’s explanation.]  Rav Ezrachi explains that Moshe was giving a message to Pharaoh.  The plants which stood strong and were stubborn they were smitten.  It was the crops which were soft, which could bend before the hail which survived (see Rashi.)  Pharaoh, take a lesson from the crops and realize if you are so stubborn you will crumble.  It the ability to bend to the situation that will save you. Letting us go will be for your benefit, it is because you bend to the situation that you will survive.

Rashi cites the midrash (8:2) that one frog came up from the Nile and as the Egyptians continued to hit the frog it multiplied into many frogs.  If the Egyptians saw that the continuities hits kept on producing many frogs, why didn’t they stop?  They thought whacking the frog would get rid of the frog.  Since the Egyptians were convinced that this was the way to get rid of the frog they refused to give up hitting it.  They were stuck in their way of thinking and despite results to the contrary they wouldn’t change.  The root of the word Mitzrayim is maytzar-boundaries.  This inability to change was at the core of the nature of the Egyptians.  They couldn’t find the ability to give up on their way of doing things despite the tragic results.

The Even Ezra says that the sorcerers of Egypt after the מכה of the lice recognized that there was a Godly force affecting Egypt.  However, they refused to recognize that there was a force that wasn’t bond by the laws and rules of nature.  Egypt required rigid borders and they couldn’t tolerate a God that didn’t have to fit into the rules.  This is the difference between the name ש-י and  הו'.  The name of Shakia is the name used to express boundary מי שאמר לעולמו די, Hashem stopped creation so that the world wouldn’t keep on expanding.  This was the name expressed to the avos, however, this wasn’t enough in the Exodus, but we had to recognize the name of הו', there is a god that can break the rules of nature.               

The Exodus from Egypt was to leave these boundaries.  We can learn from the parsha that sometimes it’s necessary to change gears in order to obtain better results.  The stubbornness of the Egyptians led to their downfall and it’s the opposite which brings redemption.  The true redemption is not to feel constrained to one path, but rather to be able to chart a new coarse when it’s necessary.