[Avodah] Kama Maalot Tovot Lamakom Aleinu?

[Arie Folger]

RAM wrote:
> In Shemos 8:15, Par'oh's chartumim said that the plague of lice
> was caused by "the finger of G-d". The Hagada presumes that this
> "one plague to one finger" ratio stays constant for all ten plagues.
> But the truth seems to be that we know the ratio for lice and for
> cattle, but we know nothing about the other eight.

Sorry to sound heretical, but I really don't think we are reading the
drash of R' Yossi haGelili right. As you have shown, we can't really
take it literally, because it clashes with some other verses. However,
I don't think that RYHG and the other Tannaim in that aggadeta are out
to tell us how many makkot they were. In fact, what the heck does it
mean that there were fifty, two hundred or two hundred and fifty
makkot at the sea? The ten makkot are ten because they are distinct in
time and typology, but the whole Qeriat Yam Suf lasted a day!

Instead, I think it is a mistake to read the whole thing literal. The
Torah does not imply the math. When the Torah reports that Moshe said
heineh yad HaShem hoyah bemiqbekha asher bassadeh, OTOH, it is meant
to be contrasted with the statement of the 'hartumim. Moshe emphasized
G"d's involvement in the makkot, while the 'hartumim only begrudgingly
accepted the power of that Great G"d of Israel (they had surely not
come around yet realizing that  their whole pantheon of idols was
totally powerless, worthless and mere falsehood - instead, they must
have believed they encountered some new god, rather powerful, but no
different from the myriads of those they already had. So they only
conceded etzba' E-lohim.

When R'YhG makes his derasha, he is not really interested in what the
'hartumim thought, nor in the math. The math, I am rather convinced,
is a didactic tool, to teach that the revelation inherent in the
miracle of the splitting of the sea far surpassed that of the ten
plagues in Egypt - raata shif'ha 'al hayam mah shelo raah Ye'hazqel
Ben Buzi.

R'Aqiva and R'Eli'ezer (?) accept R' Yossi haGelili's teaching, but
want to stress an additional point, that the makkot weren't suddenly
here suddenly gone, but rather had stages of intensity, every makkah
was a process, as was the Splitting of the Sea (juxtaposition of
several verses will show that to be obvious in the text, 'al pi
feshuto).

So LAD there is really no question, except for the usual, age old
question of how to read aggadah.

Kol tuv,
-- 
Arie Folger