Parshas Bo [Torah portion: Exodus 10:1 to 13:16] tells us of the final three of the ten plagues that God inflicted upon the Egyptians before the exodus of the Jewish people from Egypt. The second from last plague was the plague of darkness, in which the entire land of Egypt experienced a supernatural darkness.
In a famous medrash, the Sages tell us that in addition to functioning as a punishment for the Egyptians, the plague of darkness also served to hide an event that God did not wish the Egyptians to witness. The medrash states (Shemos Raba 14:3, also see Tanchuma, Va'era 14, and Tana D'Vei Eliyahu 7):
Why did He bring darkness upon them? Blessed be the Name of the Holy One, blessed is He, for there is no favoritism before Him, Who delves deep into the [human] mind and examines [their] thoughts: For there were sinners (פושעים, Rashi here has רשעים, “wicked people”) in Israel who had patrons among the Egyptians, and they had wealth and honor there, and they did not wish to leave. God said, “If I bring a plague upon [these sinful Jews] openly and they die, the Egyptians will say, ‘The same thing that is happening to us is also happening to them!’” Therefore He brought the darkness upon the Egyptians for three days, so that [the Jews] would be able to bury their dead, and their enemies would not see.
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Author: Eliezer Abrahamson
Keywords: Jewish community, Community, Excommunication, Ban, Egyptian darkness, Separation, Plague of darkness, Egyptian plague, Plagues Egypt
Bible reference(s): Exodus 10:21-22
Source: “Bo—Do Not Separate from the Community,” Olive Seedlings.
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