פירוש על שמות 11:1

כלה Onkelos renders it by גמירא, taking כלה in sense of כליל entirely; i. e. he will send all of you away.

AND THE ETERNAL SAID UNTO MOSES: YET ONE PLAGUE MORE WILL I BRING UPON PHARAOH. “This [prophecy] was spoken to him while he was still standing before Pharaoh, for after he left him he did not see his face again.” Thus the language of Rashi.
Our Rabbis have similarly said:⁷⁵Shemoth Rabbah 18:1. “G-d sprung upon Moses. He, as it were, entered Pharaoh’s palace, [which was replete with abominations], for the sake of Moses — who had said, I will see thy face again no more —⁷⁶Above, 10:29. so that Moses might not be branded a liar. Now you find no other occasion on which the Holy One, blessed be He, spoke to Moses in the royal palace except this moment. Whence may we deduce this? From the verse, As soon as I am gone out of the city, I will spread forth my hands unto the Eternal.⁷⁷Ibid., 9:29. And see Ramban there. But now the Holy One, blessed be He, sprang upon Moses and said to him, Yet one plague more, etc.”
Now here too⁷⁸See Ramban above, 10:2. there is a shortening of narrative. G-d said to Moses, Yet one plague more will I bring upon Pharaoh, and He informed him of the nature of that plague, saying to him, At midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt, as well as the whole communication stated in this section, [further in Verses 5-8, as Moses’ address to Pharaoh in the Name of G-d]. But Scripture did not want to lengthen the account by first narrating what G-d said to Moses, it being sufficient to state what Moses said to Pharaoh, i.e., Thus saith the Eternal,⁷⁹Verse 4. just as I have explained in the case of the locusts.⁷⁸See Ramban above, 10:2. There are many such sections in the Torah. In this Seder (section of the Torah), in the segment, Sanctify unto Me all the firstborn,⁸⁰Further, 13:2. Scripture shortens the subject which the Holy One, blessed be He, communicated to Moses, and it prolongs the account of Moses’ words to the people, i.e., Remember this day, etc.,⁸¹Ibid., Verse 3. and so on to the end of that entire segment.⁸²I.e., to the end of Verse 16 there. They really are G-d’s words to Moses, which he said to Israel in the very language with which he was commanded.

ישלח אתכם מזה כשלחו, in the same manner as he has already expelled both you and Aaron from his presence when he had lost his cool. (compare 10,11). When he will send the whole people of Israel from his land, he will act under a similar type of stress.

ויאמר ה׳ ..עוד נגע אחד, G'd said to Moses: "one more plague, etc." This chapter tells us about matters G'd had already mentioned to Moses earlier while Moses was still in Midian. At that time (3,19) G'd had informed Moses that Pharaoh would not let the Israelites depart even after He applied a strong hand against him. In 4,22-23 G'd had already warned Pharaoh of the consequences of not letting the Israelites depart. You will observe that the end of the cycle of nine plagues left Pharaoh exactly as obstinate as he had been at the beginning. He had started out by not even considering the demands of G'd, and though he appeared to have softened his stance, making progressively greater concessions, he was now back to square one having ruled out the departure of any of the Israelites. In 7,4 G'd had told Moses that the sign that the plague of the killing of the firstborn was about to occur would be Pharaoh's refusal to listen. As soon as Moses heard that he was not to appear again at court he knew that the time had come for the last plague after which the Exodus would begin. Moses knew that this plague would be the most severe because G'd asked him to instruct the people to "borrow" as many silver and golden trinkets as they could. The word עוד then does not mean an additional plague as much as it means "the plague I have already spoken to you about once before, I am mentioning again." This explains why Moses did not wait after verse four until G'd described the plague to him, though G'd had done so every other time when Moses was told to warn Pharaoh. Moses proceeded to inform Pharaoh on the spot. Whereas it is true that we do not find that G'd had previously told Moses that the plague of the killing of the firstborn would occur at midnight, we may assume that G'd had told Moses that detail also at that time, but that the Torah did not record it there as it had not yet become relevant. This is why it is not difficult to understand that G'd repeated here what He had told Moses originally, i.e. that the Jews would take with them the silver and gold trinkets borrowed from the Egyptians as well as their garments and that they would "empty" Egypt (Exodus 3,22).

(1) ADONAI SAID TO MOSHE while he was standing in front of Par'oh, "ONE MORE PLAGUE, ETC." And after that, Moshe responded to Par'oh (v.4), "Thus says the LORD: At midnight, etc."

עוד נגע אחד אביא על פרעה, “I shall bring one more plague upon Pharaoh.” Moses received this message from G’d while still standing in the presence of Pharaoh. Ibn Ezra writes that Moses was given this instruction while in Midian, when G’d told him to tell Pharaoh that he would kill his firstborn son (Exodus) The meaning of the word ויאמר in our verse is simply that G’d had already told this to Moses some time ago. Here too the Torah engages in an abbreviation. The Torah relies on the details of this plague having been announced in verses 4-10.

כשלחו כלה גרש יגרש, “when he does send them off, he will expel them.” The word כלה means “in toto,” i.e. including all the flocks and herds and all their moveable belongings. Not a single one of these will be left behind. This corresponds to the message of Ezekiel 39,28 concerning the redemption of the future: “I (G’d) will not leave behind a single one of you.”

He will send you all away. [Rashi is explaining that כלה is] not from the word כלייה (destruction). Rather it is like כליל תקטר (Vayikra 6:15), which Onkelos translates as גמירא (completely burnt). And there, גמירא cannot mean “destruction,” rather it means “completely.”

Kap. 11. V. 1. ויאמר ד׳ אל משה, zur selben Zeit, als ihn Pharao rufen ließ. Siehe zum Schlusse des vorigen Kapitels. Dass diese Worte an Mosche nicht während seiner Anwesenheit vor Pharao gerichtet worden, dürfte schon der Inhalt der V. 2 u. 3 befürworten. Dieser Auftrag an das Volk und der Bericht über des Volkes und Mosche Ansehen bei dem ägyptischen Volke steht völlig außer Beziehung zu dem, was Mosche dem Pharao zu sagen hatte. — שלח אתכם מזה heißt nicht euch ziehen lassen, um Gott zu dienen, sondern offenbar fortschicken von hier zur Nimmerwiederkehr; dies liegt im מזה und wird noch zur völligen Verdeutlichung durch das folgende כשלחו כלה vergewissert. שלח כלה heißt nämlich so fortschicken, dass er nun mit euch zu Ende sei, nichts mehr mit euch zu schaffen habe, dass ihr für ihn wie vernichtet seid. Vergl. die Ausdrücke: אעשה אתכם כלה (Jirm. 5, 18 u. f).

ויאמר ה'....עוד נגע אחד, “the Lord said:....”one more plague;” what is meant is that G–d told Moses that after Moses would leave Pharaoh now, he would not see him again. In light of what is written later, we must assume that G–d lifted Moses at least ten handbreadths above the soil of Egypt on account of the state of ritual pollution that existed in Egypt.

עוד נגע אחד, “one more plague;” this paragraph was communicated by G-d to Moses and Aaron while they were standing in front of Pharaoh. It had to be so, as we never read of Moses seeing Pharaoh again. However, he received this communication outside the capital as we understand from 7,15: “here when he goes to the water (to have his daily bowel movement)” [this explains that Moses could not receive communications from G-d while in a ritually contaminated area. Ed.] As far as this last communication is concerned, the Midrash states that G-d lifted Moses more than ten hand breadths from the floor of the palace in order to communicate with him. (Compare Torah shleymah 11,27) After that, Moses predicted the plague of the killing of the first born with which G-d would smite Egypt.

כלה גרש יגרש אתכם, at that time he had only expelled the two of you. This time he will expel all of you from this entire country. This is the attribute of G’d’s justice at work. When a person obstinately insists on not performing the expressed will of his Creator, (owner) he will ultimately have to do what he tried to avoid doing under infinitely worse circumstances. The Torah had warned us in Deuteronomy in Moses’ famous speech of admonition that because the Jewish people had refused to observe G’d’s commandments joyfully, out of a feeling of gratitude for their success in the Holy Land, they would ultimately still have to do what G’d wanted them to do, and what they had contracted to do, by serving G’d’s servants [host nations in the land of our exile. Ed.] instead of Him directly. (Deut. 28,47-48). Our sages phrase it thus: “everyone who ignores and fails to observe Torah pleading his wealth as his excuse, will ultimately keep the Torah because he has become impoverished.” (Avot 4,10) He will then be so preoccupied with keeping body and soul together that he has no time to devote to Torah study and observance. Numbers 14,28 also outlines the principle of retribution matching the nature of the sin.

(2) ONE AND ALL (KALAH). All -- men, women, children, and livestock.