“Moses extended his staff toward the heavens and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down to the ground, and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt” (Exodus 9:23). “Moses extended his staff toward the heavens.” These plagues – three by Aaron, three by Moses, three by the Holy One blessed be He, and one by means of all of them. Blood, frogs, and lice, which were on the earth, were by Aaron.
Hail, locusts, and darkness, by Moses, because they were in the air, as Moses had control over the earth and the heavens. Swarms, pestilence, and the plague of the firstborn by the Holy One blessed be He. And boils were by all of them.5See above, Shemot Rabba 11:5. “And the Lord [vaY-H-V-H] sent thunder and hail.”
Every place that vaY-H-V-H is stated, it is He and His heavenly court, as it is stated: “And the Lord [vaY-H-V-H] remembered Sarah” (Genesis 21:1), He and His advisory council. And the Lord [vaY-H-V-H] sent thunder and hail, He and His advisory council. “And fire ran down to the ground.” They were sentenced to the judgment of the wicked in Gehenna.
If he was sitting, he was burned by the hail;6There was“fire flaming within the hail” (Exodus 9:24). if he was standing, he was burned by the fire. “There was hail, and fire flaming within the hail, very severe, that there had not been in Egypt since it became a nation” (Exodus 9:24). “There was hail, and fire flaming within the hail” – a miracle within a miracle. Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Neḥemya, one said: Like the seed of a pomegranate, whose pit can be seen from the outside; and one said: Like that lantern in which water and oil are mixed as one, and the fire burns within.
To what is this matter comparable? To two hardened legions that were fighting each other. Eventually, the time arrived for the king’s war, and the king made peace between them, and they performed the king’s mission together. Fire and hail are hostile to each other, but when the time for the war with Egypt arrived, the Holy One blessed be He made peace between them and they struck Egypt.
That is: “There was hail, and fire flaming [mitlakaḥat] within the hail.” What is mitlakaḥat? It means “to take the dead [met lakaḥat].” After the hail would strike him, the fire would take him and burn him.
“The hail struck throughout the land of Egypt, everything that was in the fields, both man and animal; and the hail struck all the vegetation in the fields, and broke every tree of the fields” (Exodus 9:25). “The hail struck throughout the land of Egypt.” The hail fell and it was arranged in piles surrounding their livestock, so they were unable to go out. An Egyptian would come with a knife and slaughter [one of] them and a bird would descend upon it from above and eat it, as it is stated: “He consigned [vayasger]7Vayasger can also mean to hand over to be imprisoned. their cattle to the hail, and their livestock to fiery bolts [lareshafim]” (Psalms 78:48).
What is “and their livestock lareshafim? These are birds, as it is stated: “As the sparks [uvnei reshef] fly upward” (Job 5:7). “And the hail struck all the vegetation in the fields, and broke every tree of the fields” Midrash Tehilim.> “He killed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with frost [baḥanamal]” (Psalms 78:47). Rabbi Yehuda bar Rabbi Shalom said: What is baḥanamal?
It came [ba], rested [ḥana], cut [mal]. Rabbi Pinḥas said: It would descend like an axe and would hew the trees. “Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, there was no hail” (Exodus 9:26). “Only in the land of Goshen” – why was it spared? It is because its patron protected it; that is what is written: “Where the children of Israel were, there was no hail.”