Commento su Esodo 10:22

שלשת ימים denotes a triad of days. old French terziane; so, too, שבעת ימים everywhere it occurs denotes in old French a septaine of days (a period of seven days).

חשך אפלה, a combination of regular darkness (absence of sunlight), plus added deep darkness.

ויט משה את ידו, "Moses inclined his hand, etc.," We need to understand why Moses had used his staff to bring about the plague of locusts (verse 13) when G'd had told him to incline only his hand (verse 12). There had not been a single plague so far which was introduced by Moses being told to use "his hand" rather than his staff.

Why did He bring darkness on them? You might ask: In Parshas Va’era, Rashi explained the verse: “For if you do not send out My people” (8:17), that the reason for each plague is in accordance with the strategies of war, based on Midrash Tanchuma. If so, why does Rashi need to give a reason here for the plague of darkness? Furthermore, why did Rashi not ask this question [as his first comment] on the verse? The answer is: Rashi is explaining why Hashem brought such total darkness. [Ordinary] darkness that does not allow one person to see another would be sufficient [as a war strategy]. Therefore Rashi explains: “Because there were. . . [among B’nei Yisrael. . . Furthermore, the Israelites searched. . .]”

V. 22. אפלה, ist der höhere Grad von Dunkelheit, bei welchem alles zweifelhaft wird (אול).

ויהי חשך אפלה, “there was a thick darkness;” Rashi comments that the Israelites were able to see as usual and could find where the Egyptians kept their valuables, so that when the time came to ask for them they could know if they lied when claiming they did not possess certain items an Israelite had requested. This is the deeper meaning of Exodus 12,36: וה' נת! את חן העם בעיני מצרים וישאילום, and the Lord had disposed the Egyptians favourably towards the people and they lent them willingly.

ויהי חשך אפלה … שלשת ימים — there was darkness of gloom when no man saw another during those three days, and there was moreover another period of three days’ darkness twice as thick as this when no man rose from his place: one who happened to be sitting when this second period of darkness began was unable to rise, and one who was then standing was unable to sit down. And why did He bring darkness upon them? Because there were wicked people amongst the Israelites of that generation who had no desire to leave Egypt, and these died during the three days of darkness so that the Egyptians might not see their destruction and say, “These, (the Israelites) too have been stricken as we have”. And a further reason is that the Israelites searched (the darkness came just in order that they might do this) and saw their (the Egyptians’) jewels, and when they were leaving Egypt and asked them for their jewels, and they replied, “We have none at all in our possession”, they answered them, “I have seen it in your house and it is in such and such a place” (cf. Midrash Tanchuma, Bo 1; Exodus Rabbah 14:3).

Furthermore, the Israelites searched and saw their vessels. . . It seems to me that [Rashi means as follows]: First he asks why there was darkness, i.e., why did the plague change so that at the end it was darker than at the beginning? Rashi answers [that there were two reasons for the darkness]. At first the darkness was needed only so the Egyptians would not see the downfall of the evil Israelites. Ordinary darkness was sufficient for this, and Hashem did not want to change nature more than necessary. Then after three days, and they were all dead and buried, Hashem brought extreme darkness to immobilize the Egyptians so B’nei Yisrael could enter their homes and search their vessels, and the Egyptians were unable to stop them. We need not ask: Why was all this necessary? Is it not written (12:36), “Hashem granted the people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians,” and the Egyptians even lent them items they did not ask for [see Rashi there]? The answer is: Since the Egyptians saw that B’nei Yisrael could have taken everything they owned during the days of darkness, without anyone to stop them, yet they did not take anything — this is what made B’nei Yisrael favorable in their eyes, and they even lent items that they did not ask for. (Maharshal)

Perhaps the reason why this plague was different is best explained in Shemot Rabbah 14, according to which the darkness in Egypt belonged to the category of darkness described in Psalms 18,12: "He made darkness His screen, dark thunderheads, dense clouds of the sky were His pavilion around Him." Inasmuch as the darkness was of a supernatural kind, Moses did not consider it appropriate to raise his staff against supernatural phenomena.

ויהי חשך אפלה שלשת ימים ולא קמו איש מתחתיו, “the thick darkness remained for three days so that not a single Egyptian even dared to rise from where he had been sitting on. This means that the darkness lasted a total of six days, Moses did not decree the plague to last one quarter of a month. This is also how the verse is explained in the Mechilta (according to Rabbi Chavell, this is an error); in Rabbi Kasher’s Torah Shleymah (item 66) a Midrash Rabbah is quoted which deals with the seventh day of that plague instead.

A threesome of days. Rashi is answering the question: Why did the verse not simply write שלושה ימים (three days)? The word שלשת with a tav is in the nismach form (lit. three of days); why is this form needed? Furthermore, ימים is masculine [and should therefore have an adjective in the masculine form,] but שלשת is feminine! Therefore, Rashi explains that it means “a threesome of days.”

Other rabbis, commenting in the same section of that Midrash, considered this darkness as belonging to purgatory. Both groups of rabbis may have been correct; there were two categories of darkness. One prevailed during the three days no Egyptian could move, the other during the days they merely could not see one another.