פירוש על שמות 7:9

מופת A WONDER — a sign to prove that there is power in Him who is sending you.

תנו לכם מופת, “identify yourselves by means of a miracle which shows that the One Who has sent you is capable of carrying out what He promises so that we should obey Him. The expression אות as opposed to מופת is meant to identify the messenger, i.e. to prove that he is not a pretender, a charlatan. This was the reason why Moses performed אותות before the Israelites so that they should not entertain any doubt as to his being an authentic messenger from G’d to them. Pharaoh, whose doubts did not relate to the authenticity of Moses as the people’s representative, had to be convinced of the identity of the G’d who Moses claimed had sent him. It was he who had said that he did not recognise even the existence of such a G’d. Hence Moses had to perform miracles proving that such a G’d did in fact exist. The fact that the same miracle could help establish two separate facts is no hindrance to Moses performing the same miracle in two locations for two different audiences.