פרשה: וארא · עלייה: חמישי (הוד)

אשר שם לפרעה, which He had brought on Pharaoh. We learn from this that one must be articulate and precise when offering a request in prayer.

ותהי הכנם באדם, the insects remained on man, etc. We would have expected the Torah to say: כל עפר הארץ היה כנים, ותהי הכנים באדם "the whole dust of the earth turned into insects, and the insects remained on man, etc." Why did the Torah reverse this sequence by telling us first that the insects remained on man? We may understand this with the help of an argument between Rabbi Yoseph from Orleans and Rabbenu Tam cited on Shabbat 12 concerning the meaning of the word כנה. Some rabbis hold that what is meant is a black flea, an insect which originated in the dust and which is able to jump very high. Other rabbis hold that these "insects" were white parasites which originated on the clothes people wore. These rabbis prove their point by basing themselves on a statement in Berachot 51 according to which vermin is generated from rags. In order to prevent the reader from making the error that the כנה described here is the so-called כנה לבנה, the parasite, the Torah makes the point that it originated from the dust of the earth. Had the Torah used the version commencing with the words: כל עפר הארץ היה כנים, there could have been no question about the insects originating in the earth. The Torah therefore displayed wisdom by writing ותהי הכנם באדם, to tell us that the insects which were normally generated in dirty clothes now became a plague of intolerable dimensions so that both man and animal suffered from an excessive amount of fleas, etc., each of the variety they were familiar with.

It is also possible that the Torah speaks about both variants of insects. The first category is alluded to in the words: ותהי הכנם באדם ובבהמה, meaning the varieties of parasites man and beast experience on their skin from time to time. This was in addition to the insects which originate in the earth and which are called כנים as distinct from the first variety which is called כנם. If this is correct, our verse does not serve as support for the opinion of Rabbi Yoseph from Orleans, and we would have to accept the view of Rabbenu Tam who proved in the Talmud that the insect known as the white one is a parasite, whereas the other one known as the black one, which is distinguished by its great jumps, is incorrectly referred to as כנה but is in reality a פרעוש. (This is also the ruling of the halachah compare Tur Shulchan Aruch, Or Hachayim ruling 315).

ומלאו בתי מצרים את הערוב, the houses of Egypt will be filled with wild beasts, etc. The reason the Torah repeats the word הערוב, "the wild beasts," is that the houses will be filled with the wild beasts; if the Torah had merely written once: "the wild beasts will fill the houses of Egypt," we would have thought that the purpose of the plague was simply to fill the Egyptians' houses with wild beasts; this was not so, however, as the Torah had already stated: "I will send the wild beasts against you, your servants, your people as well as against your houses;" the obvious meaning is that the beasts were to cause damage and destruction. As it is, the additional message is that the houses would literally be filled with wild beasts.

Another meaning of the words את הערוב the second time could be that had the Torah not repeated these words we would have assumed that the plague would have exhausted its purpose as soon as the houses of the Egyptians had become full of wild beasts; however, this was not the full extent of the plague. There were so many wild beasts that they could not be accomodated even after they had already filled all the houses of the Egyptians. This is why the Torah added: "and also the ground whereon they are."