Kommentar zu Schemot 11:4

'ויאמר משה כה אמר ה AND MOSES SAID, THUS SAITH THE LORD — Whilst he was still standing before Pharaoh this prophecy was spoken to him, because after he left him, he did not see his face again (Exodus Rabbah 18:1).

AND MOSES SAID: THUS SAITH THE ETERNAL: ABOUT MIDNIGHT WILL I GO OUT INTO THE MIDST OF EGYPT. Moses said this to Pharaoh and to his servants, as he mentioned at the end of his words, And all these thy servants shall come down unto me.⁹¹Verse 8. Now he did not explain on what night this plague will take place, since this Divine communication to Moses and the transmission thereof to Pharaoh happened before the first of Nisan,⁹²In view of the fact that Ramban wrote above (10:4) that the plague of the locusts occurred in the month of Nisan, it is difficult to understand his statement here that the Divine communication to Moses and the transmission thereof to Pharaoh concerning the plague of the firstborn happened before the first of Nisan. In my opinion, this is to be explained on the basis of that which Ramban wrote in Seder Shemoth (4:21), that at the very first time that Moses came before Pharaoh, he warned him of the last plague which will force him to let the people go. In that case, the Divine communication to Moses and the transmission of it to Pharaoh did indeed take place before the first of Nisan. The verse here, yet one plague more will I bring upon Pharaoh, must then be understood in the sense that G-d told Moses that the time had come for the final plague of which He had told him in the beginning and which Moses had related to Pharaoh. See also my Hebrew commentary, p. 323, for further discussion of this problem. and when he said about midnight, he did not yet know on which night it would be. Thus Moses did not inform them of the specific night on which this plague would take place, but instead he said in kindled anger, “I will see thy face again no more.⁹³Above, 10:29. It is you who will call upon me at about midnight to go out from your country, and your servants will bow down to me.”⁹¹Verse 8. In the second section He elucidated to Israel, And I will go through the land of Egypt in that night,⁹⁴Further, 12:12. and in the third section Scripture states, And it came to pass at midnight,⁹⁵Ibid., Verse 29. i.e., the night mentioned when they were eating the paschal lamb.

כחצות הלילה, "at around midnight, etc." The Talmud Berachot 4 already discusses that the reason that Moses did not give the precise time but only an approximation was so that in the event the Egyptian astronomers were inaccurate in their calculations they should not be able to accuse Moses of having lied. Possibly the reason is related to what Bereshit Rabbah 43,3 has to say about Genesis 14,15 where Abraham is described as defeating the four kings. That event occurred on the night of the 15th of Nissan. In that case the letter כ before the word חצות does not describe an approximation but refers to a previous event which took place on that date at that time. Our sages in Shemot Rabbah 42 tell us that the night in which Abraham defeated the four mightiest kings of the world (Genesis 14,15) caused many people to re-evaluate the beliefs they had held up to that time. The Torah therefore mentioned the time when this miracle had occurred. In our paragraph too, the people who survived this event must have done some serious soul-searching as to the validity of their religious beliefs. The letter כ then refers to such re-evaluations as a result of what would occur at midnight.

'ויאמר משה לפרעה כה אמר ה' כחצות הלילה, וגו, the construction of כחצות is derived from the root חצה just as כעשות is derived from the root עשה, or as in the expression כעלות המנחה the word כעלות is derived from the root עלה. In other words, the meaning of כחצות הלילה is: “as soon as midnight arrives.” אני יוצא בתוך מצרים, when it came to the execution of this prophecy the Torah writes instead: ויהי בחצות הלילה, “it was exactly at midnight.” (12,12). This is the plain meaning of the text. The reason Moses had to use a slightly different formulation was that he meant to say that G’d will divide the night into 2 halves, יחצה. Seeing that the word כחצות describes an activity by G’d being performed at a certain time, Moses could not merely have described the time without avoiding reference to G’d doing something at that time.

כחצות הלילה, “around midnight.” Rashi says that the reason that Moses did not refer toבחצות הלילה , ”precisely at midnight,” as the Torah reports the slaying of the firstborn having occurred at, was because he did not want to take a chance of being called a liar in the event that the astronomers’ clocks in Egypt were not accurate. Ibn Ezra writes that according to some experts in grammar, the word כחצות is a form of the verb when it becomes converted into a noun. The meaning is: “at the point of time known as midnight, etc.” In other words, the meaning is no different than if the Torah had written בחצי הלילה. Personally, I do not think there is a need for all this, as the meaning of the words כחצי הלילה is “the moment the stroke of midnight is over, etc.” At that moment the second half of the night commences. Nachmanides writes that G’d had never said to Moses that this would take precisely at midnight of a certain date, but that the words reflect that Moses had been informed that on some midnight this plague would become effective. The precise date when this would occur was revealed to the Israelites only in the second paragraph dealing with it. (12,23) The third paragraph dealing with this plague reports on what happened and to whom. (12,29)

While still standing before Pharaoh. . . You might ask: Earlier (11:1), it says similarly: “Hashem said to Moshe, ‘There is one more plague. . .’” Furthermore, “I will not see your face again” was written previous to it. Why then did Rashi not make a similar comment there? The answer is: The content of the earlier verse (11:1) was actually told to Moshe before, for it is written (3:21): “I will give this people grace. . .” But it is merely repeated here, because now was the time for its fulfillment. This section, in contrast, is dealing with the exodus from Egypt, and that the plague will be at midnight, was not hinted anywhere else. Perforce, this prophecy was told to Moshe while still standing before Pharaoh. You might ask: If Moshe would not even offer a simple prayer within the city, how could he be given a full prophecy there [see Rashi 11:1]? The answer is: [Hashem did it] for Moshe’s honor so that he should not be considered a liar. Otherwise, Moshe would need to go back to Pharaoh [to announce Hashem’s prophecy, but Moshe had already told Pharaoh that he would not see his face again]. Alternatively: Hashem lifted Moshe ten handbreadths above the ground when He spoke to him, thus placing him in a separate domain. (Re”m)

V. 4. אני יוצא, wie כי הנה יוצא ממקומק לפקוד וגו׳ (Jes. 26, 21), כי אז יצא ד׳ לפניך להכות וגו׳ (Sam. II 5, 24) usw. Es bezeichnet überall ein unmittelbares Einschreiten zur Zerstörung eines Entgegenstehenden. Was bisher von Gott in Ägypten geschehen, waren אותות ומופתים, von seinen Boten geübt, gleichsam seine Vorboten, die Ihn ahnen ließen und seine Ankunft drohend ankündigten. Jetzt tritt Er selbst in seinem Gegensatz zu Mizrajim hervor, und sofort stirbt Mizrajim in den edelsten seiner Geschlechter. אני, von אנה: von jemandem ausgehen, ist immer die sich einem andern gegenüber fühlende Persönlichkeit, von welcher an den andern etwas ausgeht, während אנכי die den andern umfassende, tragende Persönlichkeit ist.

כחצות הלילה, “around midnight, etc.” G–d brought on the plagues on Egypt according to norms familiar to kings of flesh and blood. When a nation disobeys its ruler, the first thing such a ruler does is to interfere with its water supply. This is why Good first interfered with Egypt’s water supply, turning it into blood. When this proved ineffective, He resorted to frighten them by noises; in order to achieve this he had the frogs which are extremely noisy invade every part of the Egyptians’ homes, including their most private rooms. When this also proved useless, He subjected them to pricks such as are caused when a person is struck by arrows. The vermin did this to the skin of the Egyptians. Following the failure of achieving his objective, He subjected civilised Egyptians to barbarians, i.e. to hordes of ferocious animals whose normal habitat was elsewhere. The next step was to strike their livestock, still not afflicting them with lethal force. They were then subjected to intolerable stench, eventually even immobilised during the plague of darkness. When this proved ineffective, He struck dead both adults and children, i.e. their respective firstborns. Our author quotes verses from different parts of the Bible backing up his claims about frogs being noisy, etc.; etc.;

ויאמר משה, Moses said: according to Rashi this paragraph was told to him while he was still standing in the palace in the presence of Pharaoh as he never saw him again later. The words: נאמרה לו, “were said (revealed) to him,” refer to Moses relating his latest prophecy to Pharaoh. The proof of this is that if these words were only now communicated to Moses by G-d, why did Rashi not comment this on verse 1 of our chapter? We must therefore understand Moses as having announced the plague of his own volition without a commandment at that time, as he had already done so with the plague of the locusts, as stated in Pessikta on the verse 29 in chapter 12. This is also the way it is described in Tanchuma 12,37 (older version) concerning that paragraph commencing with: “it was at about midnight;”

כחצות הלילה means, WHEN THE NIGHT IS DIVIDED (i. e., when midnight arrives). כחצות is an infinitive with prefix, of similar form to, (1 Kings 18:36) בעלות, “when went up” and (Psalms 124:3) “when their wrath was kindled (בחרות)”. This is its literal meaning which fits in with the sense, for חצות is not a noun, being another form of חֵצִי (when the meaning would be about midnight I will go out etc.”, for this does not fit in with the sense, since God would certainly have stated exactly when He would do this). But our Rabbis took it in this sense and explained it as meaning “about the middle of the night”, and they asserted that Moses said כחצות “about midnight”, which implies near to it — either just before it or just after it, and he did not say בחצות “at midnight” (as God had bidden him say) because he feared lest Pharaoh’s astrologers might make a mistake as regards the time when the slaughter of the firstborn actually took place, thinking that it was a little earlier or later than midnight, and would say, in consequence of this error, “Moses is a liar!” (cf. Berakhot 4a).

For חצות is not the noun. I.e., [Rashi is telling us that the term] חצות here is not a noun like it is in (Tehillim 119:62), “ חצות לילה (In the middle of the night) I will rise to praise You.” Here this is not so, because it is preceded by a כ , which is not appropriate for a noun. Furthermore, כחצות implies uncertainty as to when midnight is, and surely, Hashem has no such doubt! Thus כחצות must mean, “When the night is divided.”

אני יוצא. "I will go out, etc." G'd stressed the "I" as if to say that although He has many agents who could perform this task at His behest, He would do so personally and would descend right into the midst of Egypt. G'd had two reasons for doing this personally. 1) As an expression of His fondness for His people whom He wanted to liberate personally. 2) Angels are not capable of distinguishing which human being was formed from the first drop of semen of his father so that he deserved the description בכור, firstborn. Even if such a fetus would emerge as the second or third of a multiple birth it would still deserve to be considered the firstborn. No one but G'd Himself is able to make these distinctions.

כחצות הלילה, “approximately at midnight;” actually when midnight struck; here the prefix כ is used in the prediction whereas at the actual hour of the dying of the firstborn, the Torah describes it as having occurred precisely at midnight. We find something similar in Exodus 13,4 where Moses tells the people: היום אתם יוצאים בחודש האביב, “you are leaving this day in the month of spring.” (Rash’bam)

Which implies at about midnight. . . I.e., our Sages say that חצות here is indeed a noun, meaning “the middle of the night.” Hashem told Moshe בחצות הלילה , meaning exactly at midnight, but — lest Pharaoh’s stargazers say, “Moshe is a liar!” —Moshe changed it to כחצות , meaning at about midnight

אני יוצא, “I am going out (taking a walk);” seeing that Pharaoh had failed to heed Moses’ warning, I will personally descend from heaven to carry out what Moses had threatened would happen at this hour.”

And say, “Moshe is a liar!” You might ask: Why should Moshe change Hashem’s words just so these fools will not err? The answer is: From the third plague on, the sorcerers admitted to the authenticity of Moshe’s prophecy. Thus Moshe feared that a desecration of Hashem’s Name might occur at the very conclusion, lest they err now and they will deny the previous prophecies. (Rabbeinu Bechayeh)

אני יוצא בתוך מצרים, “I will go out amongst Egypt,” Onkelos translates these words as “I will reveal Myself.” Our sages quote Micah 1,3 on this verse “G’d will leave His abode and He will come down and stride on the heights of the earth.” Talmud Yerushalmi Taanit 2,1 suggests that G’d will switch application of one of His attributes for another i.e. He will exit from one attribute and switch to another, in this instance the attribute of Justice.