Tafsiran Keluaran 8:27: Rashi, Rabbeinu Bahya, Kli Yakar & Siftei Chakhamim

ויסר הערב AND HE REMOVED THE SWARM OF ANIMALS — He merely removed them and they did not die as the frogs had died; for had they died, they (the Egyptians) could have made some use of their skins (Exodus Rabbah 11:3).

ויסר הערוב “the wild beasts departed.” The Torah pointedly did not mention that these animals died as it had done with the frogs. In this instance G’d’s intention in bringing on this plague had been to make the lives of the Egyptians miserable; they were not to derive any benefit from these animals. The frogs were killed by G’d in order to produce the stench which discomfited the people. Had the wild beasts been allowed to die the Egyptians would have used their carcasses as food. G’d did not want this to happen.

“And the mixture [of wild beasts] was removed.” Rashi explains that they did not die as the frogs died, because if they had died, the Egyptians would have benefited from their hides. One should not question why the frogs died rather than departing like the mixture [of wild beasts] and the locusts. And one cannot say it was so that the land would stink, for if so, why didn’t the locusts die as well? The answer to this matter is that the Holy One, blessed be He, wanted to teach that one who sacrifices oneself for the sanctification of God’s name will be saved. Therefore, all the frogs that did not enter the ovens died, and only those that entered the ovens remained alive, as it is written, And the frogs died from the houses, from the courtyards, and from the fields. This implies that those in the ovens did not die because they had sacrificed themselves for the sanctification of God’s name. From here, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah learned to sacrifice their lives for the sanctification of God’s name. And we learn from this that one who sacrifices oneself for the sanctification of God’s name will be saved, while one who does not sacrifice oneself — the Omnipresent, blessed be He, has many agents to bring about their death from another source, just as those frogs that did not enter the ovens died. The mixture [of wild beasts] and the locusts departed so that the Egyptians would not benefit from their hides and from those that they had salted (Exodus Rabbah 13:7).