In last week’s Parshat Bo we have the last three remaining plagues God brings down on Egypt: locusts, darkness, and the slaying of the first born. What is the purpose of the plagues? If God only wished to bring the Jews out of Egypt why were ten plagues necessary? Why not just perform one miracle that resulted in the Exodus?
One answer our sages classically derive from the plagues is monotheism over polytheism — the plagues were instructional in teaching the world about the one supernatural God. Professor Cassuto of Hebrew University described how each of the ten plagues demonstrated the truthfulness of the God of Israel over the falsity of the Egyptian deities. Cassuto provides a few examples: The Nile River was worshiped as a God and therefore turned into blood. One of the Egyptian goddesses was a figure that was half frog, half woman, hence the plague of frogs. The plague of darkness blocked the sun – the chief god in the Egyptian pantheon, and the first born in ancient Egypt were worshipped as gods. Thus, the plagues were sent by God to expose the sham of Egyptian deities. As Moshe told Paro in last week’s parsha: “so all will know there is no God like our God” (Shmot 8:6).
But there is another lesson that emerges from the plagues, one that is especially relevant today: the Jewish attitude toward power. The Torah teaches that power, in and of itself, is not inherently evil, and that there is no Jewish value in being weak or defenseless. Through the plagues, Moshe and the Jewish people were made to appear strong. The Egyptians came to fear and even admire Moshe, and the standing of the Jewish people was dramatically elevated. The ability of the Israelites to confront and overcome a formidable threat enhanced their position in the world. We affirm this every day in the Az Yashir prayer: “Namagu kol yoshevei K’naan” — “the inhabitants of Canaan melted away.” After the Ten Plagues and the splitting of the Sea, the Jewish people were perceived as powerful, and that reputation reverberates throughout the Chumash and into the Neviim. Time and again, we encounter a nation capable of wielding power responsibly, producing leaders and warriors such as Shimshon and King David, who embodied strength in the service of God and moral purpose.
The Torah never glorified war or power, but it also never puts it down, especially when it was necessary for self-defense. When the nation of Midian joined Moav to attack the Jewish people, the Torah says:Tzaror et hamidyanim – “fight the Midianim” (Bamidbar 25:17) and based on this phrase, the Sages of the Talmud ruled: Habah lehargecha hashkeim lehargo: “one who arises to kill you, you must defend yourself and kill the other him first (Sanhedrin 72a).
Referring to the case of habah b’machteret – the thief who sneaks into your home at night, the Torah rulesain lo damin – it is not considered murder to use lethal force to protect yourself. This law is adopted by virtually all Western legal systems. “Turning the other cheek” is a New Testament teaching where Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount declares: “Do not resist evil…whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other…(Matthew 5:38–42). And elsewhere in the Christian Bible it famously says: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you… ‘Bless them that curse you and pray for those who despitefully use you” (Luke 6:27–31).
These are not Jewish teachings. Judaism teaches us to fight evil and that there is honor in self-defense. This is one of the reasons Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik attributed religious significance to the creation of the modern State of Israel – because ultimately the Jewish State defends Jewish lives. The Rav tz”l in his seminal work on Religious Zionism – Kol Dodi Dofek wrote that one of the six knocks of religious Zionist opportunity is that with the creation of modern Israel, Jewish blood is no longerhefker (ownerless). Now Jews can defend themselves, which is an honorable thing as far as Judaism is concerned. Rabbi Soloveitchik said that the Israeli flag “has a spark of sanctity” because of the sacrifices made by the people of Israel to defend themselves.
There is sanctity in self-defense, and no moral flaw in power itself. For nearly two millennia, Jews and the world grew accustomed to Jewish powerlessness in exile. The difficulty today is not Jewish strength, but a world still struggling to accept a Jewish people that is strong again.
Years ago, I was listening to the comic and political commentator Bill Maher who while interviewing Bibi Netanyahu, asked the Prime Minister: “Why does Israel have an image problem?” Netanyahu responded: “For 2000 years, the Jew was the perfect victim, we had no land, no army, no government, no way to defend ourselves. And by being a perfect victim we were always perfectly moral because we were always on the receiving end of the persecution and so the world got used to the idea of the Jew as a victim…but now, after the Holocaust, we refuse to be a victim. We’ve re-established a state with an army and so we’ve deviated from that perfection of powerless into power and there’s therefore a real historical adjustment needs to be made. We refuse to be victims, we will defend ourselves like any other normal country would – because Bill, we’re not going back to the gas chambers”.
We must first make peace with our own strength and take pride in the moral necessity of Jewish self-defense and in the power that, thank God, the State of Israel possesses today.
For us, as Jews living in America, this means using our influence, our voices, and our resources to ensure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself. Because history has taught us, that it is only a strong Israel that can safeguard Jewish life — and only a strong Israel that can ultimately make peace possible.
May the blessing of Jewish strength in our time become the vessel for peace. And may we soon see fulfilled the words we pray every day: Hashem oz l’amo yiten — may God grant strength to His people: Hashem yevarech et amo bashalom — and through that strength, may He bless us all with peace.
Rabbi Mark Wildes, otherwise known as the Millennial Rabbi, founded the Manhattan Jewish Experience (MJE), a successful Jewish outreach and educational program that has reconnected thousands of unaffiliated 20’s/30’s with Jewish life and facilitated 397 marriages. He is the author of Beyond the Instant: Jewish Wisdom for Lasting Happiness in a Fast-Paced Social Media World (Skyhorse Publishing, 2018), The 40 Day Challenge: Daily Jewish Insights to Prepare for the High Holidays (Kodesh Press) and his latest: The Jewish Experience: Discovering the Soul of Jewish Thought and Practice (Koren Publishers).
Rabbi Wildes earned a BA in Psychology as well as Rabbinic Ordination from Yeshiva University, a Law Degree from Cardozo School of Law, and a Master’s in International Affairs from Columbia University. Rabbi Mark also teaches an outreach seminar at Yeshiva University’s rabbinical school, training future leaders. He and his wife Jill live on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. They have four children, two who live in Israel, and one serving in the IDF.
