Parashat Bo – Let There Be Dark

The plague of darkness was unlike the rest of the nine plagues.  With each of the other plagues, God used some instrument to wreak destruction (blood, locusts, hail, death, etc.) upon the Egyptians.  With the ninth plague, however, God elected to remove something, namely light.

In scientific terms, darkness is defined as the absence of light.  Darkness is primordial; it is cold and chaotic.  It is not something that can be touched or felt or tasted or heard.  Of all our senses, only our eyes perceive darkness, and only then for what it is not.

We need only review the opening verses of Torah to know that in this respect, at least, science and religion appear to be in complete agreement:

Now the earth was astonishingly empty, and darkness was on the face of the deep …	וְהָאָ֗רֶץ הָֽיְתָ֥ה תֹ֨הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ וְח֖שֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵ֣י תְה֑וֹם..
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.	וַיֹּ֥אמֶר ה יְהִי־א֑וֹר וַֽיְהִי־אֽוֹר
And God saw the light that it was good, and God separated between the light and between the darkness.	וַיַּ֧רְא ה אֶת־הָא֖וֹר כִּי־ט֑וֹב וַיַּבְדֵּ֣ל ה בֵּ֥ין הָא֖וֹר וּבֵ֥ין הַחֽשֶׁךְ:

Let’s examine the “darkness” that the Egyptians experienced using this pre-creation darkness as the benchmark:

The Lord said to Moses, “Stretch forth your hand toward the heavens, and there will be darkness over the land of Egypt, and the darkness will become darker.”	וַיֹּ֨אמֶר הֹ אֶל־משֶׁ֗ה נְטֵ֤ה יָֽדְךָ֙ עַל־הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם וִ֥יהִי ח֖שֶׁךְ עַל־אֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרָ֑יִם וְיָמֵ֖שׁ חֽשֶׁךְ:
So Moses stretched forth his hand toward the heavens, and there was thick darkness over the entire land of Egypt for three days.	וַיֵּ֥ט משֶׁ֛ה אֶת־יָד֖וֹ עַל־הַשָּׁמָ֑יִם וַיְהִ֧י חֽשֶׁךְ־אֲפֵלָ֛ה בְּכָל־אֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרַ֖יִם שְׁל֥שֶׁת יָמִֽים:
They did not see each other, and no one rose from his place for three days,	לֹֽא־רָא֞וּ אִ֣ישׁ אֶת־אָחִ֗יו וְלֹא־קָ֛מוּ אִ֥ישׁ מִתַּחְתָּ֖יו שְׁל֣שֶׁת יָמִ֑ים

The Biblical text evokes a kind of isolation.  It was a solitary confinement created not by prison cell walls but by a darkness so complete that people dared not move from their place out of fear of the pitch-black unknown.

Ibn Ezra’s commentary on the intensity of the darkness is particularly insightful.  Commenting first on the length of the plague, Ibn Ezra notes:

ולא ידעו שהי’ ג’ ימים, אלא על פי ישראל שהיה להם אור

The Egyptians [lacking sunlight] did not know that the darkness lasted for three days, but we know that it was three days long because the Jews had light in their neighborhood.

Time is what began when God uttered His first creative command, יְהִי־א֑וֹר, Let there be light.  When God removed this light from the view of Egypt, He Caused them to experience the utter aloneness of the dark pre-universe, when time was immeasurable and therefore meaningless.It is simply impossible to judge time without either a clock or light.  The Jews in Goshen could measure these three days only because they had light.  The Egyptians, however, deprived of light, were also unable to perceive time.  This lack of awareness of time was not merely a collateral consequence of the plague of darkness.  It was, as we shall see, an integral part of the plague itself.

Ibn Ezra, often the rationalist, tells us that he knows this total darkness from his personal experiences at sea:

Out at sea a darkness (heavy fog) can descend, such that man cannot distinguish between day and night.  This phenomenon can last for five days, as I have personally experienced many times.

והנה בים אוקינוס יבא חשך עב, שלא יוכל אדם להפריש בין יום ובין לילה, ויעמוד זה לפעמים חמשה ימים. ואני הייתי שם פעמים רבות:

Not only does Ibn Ezra put a rational spin to a Divine Miracle, but he also (quite wittingly) explains another quirky aspect of the Egyptian darkness:

How thick was the darkness?  Our Sages declared: it was as thick as a dinar (coin), as the text states: “VaYamesh Choshech” (the darkness will become darker), means that the darkness was palpable.

כמה היה אותו החשך? רבותינו אמרו: עבה כדינר היה, שנאמר: וימש חשך – שהיה בו ממש

This midrash employs a linguistic pun, connecting the hard to translate verb ‘VaYamesh’ with the like-sounding word ‘mamash’, which means “of substance”.  According to this midrash, the darkness of Egypt was not merely the absence of light but rather something tangible, something that could be experienced by the sense of touch – like the mist of sea-fog.

The Sages of late antiquity provided a more supernatural explanation of this darkness: מֵהֵיכָן הָיָה הַחשֶׁךְ הַהוּא?, “From whence did the darkness come”, asks the midrash (Sh’mot Rabbah 14:2).  Various possibilities are offered, including this response, from Rabbi Nechemiah:

It was the darkness of Gehenom …	מֵחשֶׁךְ שֶׁל גֵּיהִנֹּם…
And the darkness that covered the pre-universe, this too is Gehehom, and it was the same darkness that God brought upon the Egyptians	וְחשֶׁךְ עַל פְּנֵי תְהוֹם, זֶה גֵּיהִנֹּם. הֱוֵי אוֹמֵר חשֶׁךְ שֶׁבָּא עַל הַמִּצְרִים מִתּוֹךְ גֵּיהִנֹּם הָיָה.

We usually think that death is the opposite of life but it is not; death is merely the absence of worldly life, just as darkness is the absence of ordinary light.  “Gehenom” is really the experience that is the most-opposite that of life.  Gehenom is, in Rabbinical tradition, a kind of post-life purgatory for the less than righteous soul.

Turning back to the three-day duration of the plague of darkness, we are struck by the fact that this was the precise amount of time that Moshe had asked Pharaoh for when he requested (demanded) a long overdue spiritual retreat.  The midah k’neged midah (measure for measure) punishment inflicted by God on the Egyptians jumps off the pages of the Torah!

Put another way, Bnai Yisrael wanted three days of Divine Light.  As punishment for refusing this reasonable request, Pharaoh and his people were forced to endure three days of utter darkness, horrible, lonely sense-less, timeless, darkness.

Lest there be any doubt that the plague of darkness was God’s Way of letting the Egyptians experience the lonely-chaos of pre-creation, we should remember that even after God brought forth light, and earth, grass and trees, fish and beasts, and (finally) created Man, He was not yet satisfied.

And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man is alone; I shall make him a helpmate opposite him.”

ויֹּ֨אמֶר֙ ה אֱלֹהים לֹא־ט֛וֹב הֱי֥וֹת הָֽאָדָ֖ם לְבַדּ֑וֹ אֶֽעֱשֶׂה־לּ֥וֹ עֵ֖זֶר כְּנֶגְדּֽו

With each step of creation, God was pleased, and proclaimed “It is Good”.  But after He formed man, God saw only a solitary, lonely person, fully formed but helpless.  This was “not good”.  While our verse in Genesis speaks about the coupling of mankind, it is, in fact, far more global.  Mankind is a social being, who requires love, and friendship, and company and community to survive.

God deprived the Egyptians of more than light.  In making the Egyptians feel so utterly alone, He deprived them of what it meant to be alive.  It was, as Rashi explained,

Thick darkness in which they did not see each other for those three days…

חשך של אופל שלא ראו איש את אחיו אותן שלשת ימים….

Rashi adds that the verb ‘VaYamesh’ means “doubling”, such that there was, in fact, six days of darkness.  The first three days were mere night-time; the last three days were infinitely worse.

Again, we see that the Sages saw the plague of darkness as the undoing of creation[1], for the six days of creation were (also) built on two sets of three days, with the 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th days shining light, improving upon, and completing the work of the 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd days respectively:

Day 1: light & dark, day & night	–>	Day 4:   The stars, the sun and the moon
Day 2: sky & sea	–>	Day 5: sea creatures and birds
Day 3: Land & vegetation	–>	Day 6: animals and mankind

Pharaoh sought to separate the Jews from their God and husband from wife.  This was more than unnatural, and unholy.  This evil stood in contrast the very purpose of creation.  As punishment, God sent the Egyptians back the moment before creation, when there was no light, or time or universe to experience.  For a brief few days that must have felt like an eternity, the Egyptians tasted life devoid of the blessings of God’s creation.  They experienced the profound and unnatural loneliness of being separated from their senses with which the world is perceived, from their loved ones, from time and space, and from anything remotely Divine.

This is the darkness and curse of Gehenom that is the opposite of what it means to be alive.  It is a life of despair, without any light, love, prayer, and hope.

The cure is as simple as the punishment is harsh.  Open the shades and let love and Torah illuminate the way.

Shabbat Shalom!

[1].  Rabbi Avi Miller pointed out to me that each of the 10 plagues can be seen as undoing an aspect of creation.  See, e.g., http://thetorah.com/invoking-creation-in-the-story-of-the-ten-plagues/