The North Wind at Midnight and Why Egypt Drowned in the Sea

Our Rabbis taught: In all those forty years that Israel was in the wilderness, there was not a day on which a north wind did not blow at midnight, as it is said, "And it was at midnight, and the LORD struck every firstborn." What is the scriptural teaching? It comes to teach us that a time of favor is a real thing. "And he called for Moses and Aaron at night and said, Rise, go out." Pharaoh would go about at night and circle through every market, saying, "Where is Moses, and where does he dwell?" And the children of Israel would mock him and say to him, "Pharaoh, where are you going?" And he would say to them, "I am seeking Moses." And they would say, "He dwells here," and they would mock him, until he stood over him. He said, "Rise, go out from among my people." Moses said to him: Are we thieves? The Holy One, blessed be He, says to us, "You shall not go out, any of you, from the door of his house until morning" (Exodus 12:22). He said to him: Please, I beg you, rise and go out. Moses said to him: Why do you trouble yourself so much? He said to him: Because I am a firstborn, I am afraid that I may die. Moses said to him: Do not be afraid; you are destined for something greater than this. And do not say that Pharaoh alone was pressing them, but all Egypt was pressing them, as it is said, "And the Egyptians were urgent" (Exodus 12:33). The Holy One, blessed be He, said to them: By your lives, none of you will die here, but in the sea. Why did they not all die in the plague of the firstborn but rather in the sea? Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachmani said: With cunning the Egyptians came upon Israel. They said: If we enslave them with fire, their God can bring fire upon us from above, just as He brought upon the people of Sodom; rather, He swore that He would not bring a flood, so come and let us enslave them with water. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to them: I swore that I would not bring a flood again upon the world; by your lives, those men go to the flood, as it is said, "They shall be poured out by the power of the sword" (Psalms 63:11), those men are dragged along and go of themselves to the sea. "They shall be a portion for foxes" (Psalms 63:11). Solomon said, "Seize for us the foxes" (Song of Songs 2:15), as is written in remez 86.