Kommentar zu Schemot 8:19

ושמתי פדות AND I WILL MAKE A DELIVERANCE which shall serve as a division BETWEEN MY PEOPLE AND THY PEOPLE.

ושמתי פדות, a word describing “separation.” Words such as ישועה, הצלה, חלצה, פורקן are all expressions denoting different separations, isolation of one thing from another.

ושמתי פדות בין עמי ובין עמך, so that even the few members of my people who might be in an area infested by the arov would not be molested by these beasts. The same beasts would harm your people on the same spot.

ושמתי פדות, "I shall set apart, etc." G'd meant that not only would the wild beasts respect the boundary of the province of Goshen and not invade that province, they would not even approach those Israelites that happened to be outside the province of Goshen at the time. The Torah made this clear by the nuance "between My people and between your people." This means that whenever members of both people were found next to one another, only the Egyptians would be bothered by the wild beasts. The beasts would not bite a Jew.

ושמתי פדות בין עמי ובין עמך, “I will place a deliberate distinction between My people and between your people.” This means that even if an Israelite will find himself in an Egyptian neighbourhood at the time when the beasts invade urban areas, they will not harm a single Israelite.

ושמתי פדת בין עמי ובין עמך, “I will make a distinction between My people and between your people.” G’d (Moses) had already mentioned that He would make a distinction between Goshen and the rest of the country. The additional information in this verse meant that even within Egypt proper the wild beasts would not attack the Israelites or their belongings. We have confirmation of this in Psalms 78,48 where Assaph (a contemporary of the event) said: ”He inflicted upon them swarms of wild beasts to devour them.” The word פדות is also related to “ransom.” Isaiah 43,3 speaks about G’d giving a “ransom” to Egypt (in return for releasing the Jewish people). The word is spelled defective in our verse, i.e. without the letter ו, indicating that the redemption from Egypt was not a total redemption as it was followed by other periods of enslavement of the Jewish people. When Psalms 111,9 speaks about פדות שלח לעמו, “He has sent redemption to His people,” the word פדות is spelled plene indicating that David speaks about the redemption of the future.

V. 19. פדה ,פדות: etwas, das seiner natürlichen, sittlichen oder sozialen Beschaffenheit nach bereits in die Macht eines andern verfallen ist, aus dieser hervorheben (verwandt mit פתח, auch mit בדה: etwas äußern, was in Wirklichkeit keine Existenz hat). Dies Unberührtbleiben von der allgemeinen Kalamität, der sie als die wehrlos Preisgegebenen am ersten hätten verfallen müssen, wird das Unterscheidungsmerkmal sein zwischen עמי und עמך, zwischen Menschen, die sich nur auf Menschenmacht stützen, und Menschen, die sich ausschließlich Gott unterordnen und hingeben. מחר: bei diesen und bei den folgenden Plagen, wie sich Pharao oben erbeten, damit es nicht als natürliches Ereignis scheine. אות, es ist ein belehrendes Zeichen, kein מופת, kein ענוי.

למחר יהיה, “it will occur tomorrow.” Moses does not want to give Pharaoh the excuse that the disappearance of the frogs, i.e. their deaths will be accidental, unplanned. The same happened with the plague of pestilence (#7) when G-d predicted precisely when it would occur. (Compare 9,5)

למחר יהיה. This will occur on the morrow. Moses announced the timing so that Pharaoh would not attribute the phenomenon to mere chance.