Parshat Vaera5 min read

Pharaoh Asked Who the Lord Was and the Sea Answered Him

Aaron's rod hit the palace floor. Pharaoh laughed and called it straw brought to a city of magic. He asked who the Lord even was.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. Aaron Cast Down the Rod
  2. You Said Who
  3. Each Scheme Came Home
  4. Who Became the Sea

Aaron's rod hit the palace floor. It lay there in front of the throne, a shepherd's stick in a room built to make shepherds small. Pharaoh looked at it and laughed.

Pharaoh Asked Who the Lord Was and the Sea Answered Him Click for full size

"Moses and Aaron," he said, "what do you imagine? That you have come to mock me? I fear nothing you carry. All of Egypt overflows with sorcery."

Aaron Cast Down the Rod

Before they crossed the threshold, Heaven had already leaned close. When Pharaoh asks for a wonder, say to Aaron, take your rod. So they stood, and Pharaoh smirked, and he asked for the wonder, and Aaron threw the stick down as he had been told.

A fool vents all his spirit. A wise man stills him in the end. Pharaoh emptied his whole mouth into the court. He had the proverb ready. There are fools who carry straw to Afarayim, and fine gold to Rekem. You bring magic to the land that invented it.

The scribes wrote nothing yet. They did not need to. The laugh was the record. The rod waited on the floor for an answer longer than laughter.

You Said Who

The laugh was not the first word. The first word had already left him on another day, when Moses came with a Name and a demand.

"Who is the Lord, that I should heed His voice?" Pharaoh had said. In Hebrew the sneer was a single syllable. Mi (מי), who?

The Holy One answered him in the letters of the boast itself. You said mi. By your life, by that very word you will be struck. Turn mi backward and you spell yam (ים), the sea. At the sea you will learn at last who I am.

You said, I do not know the Lord. Tomorrow you will cry out, The Lord is the righteous one, and I and my people are the wicked. You said, I will not let Israel go. Tomorrow you will seize each one by the hand and beg him to leave.

Each Scheme Came Home

Egypt had already written the schedule of its own plagues, one labor at a time. They wanted Israel as drawers of their water. The Niles turned to blood, and they could not drink. They wanted them laden like porters. Frogs came and scorched them. They wanted them digging in the soil. The dust rose up as gnats.

They wanted Israel to walk their children to market like hired tutors. Then lions and wolves, bears and leopards and serpents came among those children. An Egyptian sent out ten sons. The beasts took them one by one. The Israelite sat the father down and rendered the account with a cold mouth. The lion took one. The wolf took one. Sit, and I will make you the count.

They wanted shepherds for their cattle. Pestilence struck the herds. Bath-attendants to wash them. Boils covered their skin. They wanted to stone Israel. Hail rained from heaven. They wanted vine-dressers. Locusts ate every tree. They wanted to chain Israel in prison. Darkness chained them where they stood. They plotted murder. Their firstborn fell.

Pharaoh still sat on the throne through most of it, and each new blow arrived with the shape of an old plan. The court that had joked about straw learned the weight of blood. The mouth that had asked who learned to say the Name in a different tone, and still did not open the gate until the last night broke him.

Who Became the Sea

They had schemed to drown Israel in the water. Pharaoh let the people go with a hand that had once refused. The sea waited. Israel walked between walls. Egypt rode in after them with the old confidence of chariots.

The letters of the first sneer reversed in the air above the water. Who became the sea. The question became the grave. Pharaoh and his host sank in the Sea of Reeds, and the word mi completed its turn into yam under a wall of water.

No extra cruelty was invented for the close. The close was the scheme they had written for someone else, returned. The rod that had drawn laughter had finished its quieter work long before. The stilling of the fool was not a clever retort. It was blood, frogs, darkness, and a path of dry ground that closed like a mouth over the host.

Israel walked out on the far bank. Behind them the water that had once been aimed at Hebrew boys held Egyptian ambition exactly. The Name Pharaoh had asked after had answered him, and the answer had a depth, and a salt, and a silence after the last chariot.

PharaohPlaguesReed SeaMeasure For MeasureAaronVaera
← All myths

From the tradition

Sources

3 sources

The texts behind this telling. Some cards carry a translation of the source; others are our own retelling of it, and each card says which. Every card links out to the original.

Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vaera 3:1Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vaera

Translation of the source text.Midrash Tanchuma (Buber), Public Domain, on Sefaria · CC-BY-SA

Another interpretation: "Who is the LORD?" (Exodus 5:2). The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: You said "Who?" (mi). By your life, by mi you shall be stricken, for mi read backward is yam (sea); at the sea you shall know who I am. Because you said, "I do not know the LORD" (ibid.), by your life, tomorrow you shall say, "The LORD is the righteous one, and I and my people are the wicked" (Exodus 9:27). You said, "and moreover I will not let Israel go" (Exodus 5:2); by your life, tomorrow you shall take hold of the hand of each and every one to send him away. Therefore it is said, "[And it came to pass, when Pharaoh let the people go]" (Exodus 13:17).

Full source
Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Bo 5:1Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Bo

Translation of the source text.Midrash Tanchuma (Buber), Public Domain, on Sefaria · CC-BY-SA

Whatever the Egyptians devised against Israel, the Holy One, blessed be He, brought upon them that which they had devised for them. They devised that they should be drawers of their water. What is written? "He turned their Niles into blood, so that they could not drink of their streams" (Psalms 78:44). They devised concerning them that they should be laden as porters (Greek: pragmateutes, traveling traders). He sent frogs upon them, and they were scorching them. They devised that they should labor upon the land. The Holy One, blessed be He, made the earth swarm with gnats. They devised that they should carry their children like a tutor (paidagogos). He sent among them lions and wolves and bears. An Egyptian would have ten sons; he would tell an Israelite to lead them to the market, and the lion would come and take one, and the wolf one, and the bear one, and the leopard one, and a fiery serpent one. And he would come back to the Egyptian alone. The Egyptian would say, "Where are my sons?" The Israelite would say to him, "Sit down and I will render you an accounting." He took the lion one, and so on and so forth, until he had given him the accounting. They devised that they should shepherd their cattle, and He sent among them the pestilence, as it is said, "And all the cattle of Egypt died" (Exodus 9:6). They devised that they should be their bath attendants who washed them; He brought upon them the boils. They devised to stone them with stones; the Holy One, blessed be He, brought upon them the hail, as it is said, "And there was hail" (Exodus 9:23). They devised that they should be their vine-dressers; the Holy One, blessed be He, brought the locust and it ate their trees, as it is said, "And it ate all the herbage of the land" (Exodus 10:15). They devised to bind them in the prison-house; the Holy One, blessed be He, brought upon them darkness, as it is said, "They saw not one another" (Exodus 10:23). They devised to kill them; the Holy One, blessed be He, killed their firstborn, as it is said, "And the Lord smote all the firstborn" (Exodus 12:29). They devised to sink them in the water; the Holy One, blessed be He, also sank them in the water, as it is said, "And He overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Sea of Reeds" (Psalms 136:15).

Full source
Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vaera 12:1Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vaera

Translation of the source text.Midrash Tanchuma (Buber), Public Domain, on Sefaria · CC-BY-SA

Another interpretation of (Exodus 7:9) "When Pharaoh speaks unto you, ": This is what Scripture says (Proverbs 29:11), "A fool vents all his spirit, but a wise man stills it in the end." One who is a knave or a fool comes to quarrel with his fellow and brings out all the words that he has; but since the other is wise, in the end he dismisses him.

Another interpretation of "A fool vents all his spirit": Who is this? This is Pharaoh. When Moses and Aaron went to him, the Holy One, blessed be He, said to them: Before you go to him, I am telling you what he is going to do and what he will ask of you. (Exodus 7:9) "When Pharaoh speaks unto you", only be careful. (Ibid.) "And you shall say unto Aaron: Take your rod ." When they went to Pharaoh, he said: Produce a wonder for yourselves. Immediately (Exodus 7:10) "And Aaron cast down his rod." At that moment Pharaoh laughed at them. He said to them: Moses and Aaron, what do you suppose, that you have come to mock me? But I am not afraid of these things. All of Egypt is full of sorceries. There are those who bring straw to Afarayim, and fine gold to Rekem.

Full source