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HASHEM said to
Moshe, “Say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch forth your hand over
the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, over their canals, over their
ponds, and over all their bodies of water, and they will become blood,
and there will be blood throughout the entire land of Egypt, even in wood
and in stone.’ ” (Shemos 7:19)
Say to Aaron: Since
the Nile protected Moshe when he was cast into it, it therefore was not
smitten by him, neither with blood nor with frogs, but was smitten by
Aaron. — Rashi
And Aaron stretched
forth his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and
covered the land of Egypt. (Shemos 8:2)
HASHEM said to
Moshe, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch forth your staff and strike the dust of
the earth, and it shall become lice throughout the entire land of Egypt.’
“(Shemos 8:12)
Say to Aaron: It
was inappropriate for the dust to be smitten through Moshe since it had
protected him when he slew the Egyptian and had hidden him in the sand.
[Therefore,] it was smitten through Aaron [instead]. – Rashi
Why was Aaron the
one to deliver the first three Makos/Plagues on Egypt? Rashi spells it
out very clearly. Moshe was saved by the waters of the Nile when he was
placed there in a miniature Teva and discovered by the daughter of
Pharaoh. The earth saved Moshe when he smote the Egyptian who was abusing
a Jew and he buried him in the sand. The premise is, as the saying goes,
“Don’t throw a rock into a well that you drank from.”
There is a gigantic
question waiting to be asked here. The Nile is a river, a moving body of
water. The water that saved Moshe is long gone and the plot of earth that
saved him and helped cover up his deed was in a completely different
place, and what would the water care and what would the earth mind if
Moshe himself delivered the blow that launched the plague. Water and
earth do not have feelings.
A few years ago, a
young boy threw some garbage out of the second-floor window of the
Yeshiva. It was not well received down below.
My assistant
principal spoke to the boy. He landed an important message and it made a
strong impression on the boy and on me. He asked the boy, “Why did the
Teva, the Ark of Noach need to have three floors? One was for the people
on the top and the animals in the middle and the bottom level was for
garbage. Why did they need that bottom floor for garbage? It would have
been a much more luxurious, sweet smelling, and spacious trip for all if
the garbage was just thrown out of the window. Why didn’t they just throw
the garbage out of the window? The world was completely flooded and being
washed with the hot waters of the flood. It would not have soiled the
earth in any noticeable way. Why not throw it out the window?!” That was
his question!
The answer he gave
was, “If they would have thrown the garbage out of the window, then it
would have negatively impacted their character.” The new world would be
built by sloppy and careless people. It’s not the environment but them at
risk of being damaged.
The Sefer HaChinuch
offers most often as the reason for a Mitzvah the principle, “HaAdam
Nifal Achar Paulosov” – “A person is affected by whatever he does”. I saw
a statement like this, “It is easier to act your way into a better way of
feeling than to feel your way into a better way of acting.”
The Alter from Kelm
explained that we are impacted by what we actually do and not by what we
are theoretically doing. He recommends that a doctor should invest his
spare time doing acts of kindliness because although he is helping people
with his medicine, his experience all too often involves afflicting. He
can become cruel and callous.
A student of the Chofetz
Chaim was offered one of two seats in a Polish bank. In one seat he would
be receiving deposits and at another he would be cashing checks. The
Chofetz Chaim advised him to rather be handing out money to people on a
daily basis because then he would be exercising the muscle of giving.
Even though at the other seat he is theoretically helping people save
money but by taking cash all day every day he would become a taker. Yes,
Moshe would be helping with each hit but at what cost?!
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