The Night of the Tenth Plague in Terrifying Detail

Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai taught: Moses did not know the precise hours, the moments, or the times of the night; therefore he said "about midnight" (Exodus 11:4). But the Holy One, blessed be He, knows the hours, the moments, and the times of the night; therefore He enters into it as precisely as a hair's breadth. And who divided it? Rabbi Benjamin bar Yefet said in the name of Rabbi Yohanan: The night divided itself. Our Rabbis said: Its Creator divided it. Here you say, "And it came to pass at midnight" (Exodus 12:29), and there you say, "and he divided himself against them by night" (Genesis 14:15). Rabbi Tanhuma said: The Holy One, blessed be He, said: Your father went forth with Me at midnight, and I shall go forth with his children at midnight. And the Rabbis said: The Holy One, blessed be He, said: Your father went forth with Me from the evening until midnight, and I shall go forth with his children from midnight until the morning. Rabbi Yohanan said: The guardian angel of Egypt falls only by day. And what is the reason? "At Tehaphnehes also the day shall be darkened, when I shall break there the yokes of Egypt: and the pomp of her strength shall cease in her" (Ezekiel 30:18). And it says, "In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan" (Isaiah 19:18). And these are the five cities. Rabbi Hilkiah said in the name of Rabbi Simon: No (Thebes), and Noph (Memphis), and Tahpanhes, and the City of Destruction, and the City of the Sun. No is Alexandria, and Noph is Memphis, Tahpanhes is Daphnae, and the City of Destruction is Heracleopolis, and the City of the Sun is Heliopolis. Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai said: We find that the day and the night are together called "day," as it is written, "And there was evening and there was morning, one day" (Genesis 1:5). Rabbi Joshua son of Rabbi Nehemiah learned it from this: "Even the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee" (Psalms 139:12). The darkness is light before Me, and the night is for the activities of creatures. Thus, on that very day the firstborn of Egypt died. How so? They were struck with the blow of death from the evening and writhed all through the night and died by day. And what is the reason? It is not written here "We are all dead men," but "We are all dead men" [read in the present participle, "we are all dying"] (Exodus 12:33), that is, they were dying and continuing to die. This is what is written, "on the day that I smote all the firstborn" (Numbers 3:13), and there you say, "on the day that I sanctified unto me all the firstborn" (see Numbers 8:17). Say therefore from now on: On the day that the firstborn of Egypt died, on that very day I sanctified unto Myself all the firstborn.