Chasidut zu Schemot 9:20

In the context of the plague of hail stones, the Torah makes reference to the Egyptians who feared God. According to Rashi⁴³⁰Rashi on Exod. 9:10 s.v. ba-adam. the plague of pestilence also demonstrated that some Egyptians feared God, yet the Torah makes no explicit mention of them. Perhaps the reason for this discrepancy between hail and pestilence is the correlation between hail and malchus. Since the plague of hail corresponded to malchus during the downpour of physical stones, there was also a spiritual flow from on High of yiras shamayim—fear of Heaven. Due to the special appearance of a Divine spirit that caused all to accept His rule, the Torah writes that even Egyptians had true fear of Heaven. Numerology confirms this thesis. The gematria of the word ha-barad, “the hail,” is 211, which equals the value of the word yarei, “one who fears,” which is the first word in the phrase, ha-yarei devar Hashem, “One who fears the word of God” (Exod. 9:20).