Commento su Esodo 8:5

התפאר עלי GLORY OVER ME — Similar is, (Isaiah 10:15) “Should the axe יתפאר against him that heweth therewith” i. e. should it boast, saying “I am greater than thou”; old French vanter. Therefore התפאר means pride yourself on showing your cleverness and on asking of me a difficult matter asserting that I shall be unable to do it.

L’MATHAI’ (AGAINST WHAT TIME) SHALL I ENTREAT FOR THEE? Rashi commented: “If the text said mathai (when) — [not l’mathai] — shall I entreat, it would signify ‘when shall I pray?’ But now that it said l’mathai, it means ‘Today I will pray for you that the frogs be destroyed by the time which you will set for me. Say then by what day you wish that they shall be destroyed.’”
In line with the plain meaning of Scripture, the removal of the plagues took place at the time of Moses’ prayer, as it is written, And Moses cried unto the Eternal, etc., and the Eternal did according to the word of Moses¹³²Verses 8-9. and it is not written “and the Eternal did so tomorrow.” The letter lamed in the word l’mathai is no proof that Moses prayed immediately, for the word l’mathai is equivalent to mathai, there being many verses where the lamed occurs [just for elegance of language], thus: ‘l’min’ (from) the day that thou didst go forth out of the land of Egypt;¹³³Deuteronomy 9:7. The lamed in the word l’min is superfluous. until ‘l’minchath’ (the offering) of the evening;¹³⁴Ezra 9:4. There the lamed in l’minchath is a superfluous style. the wing of the one cherub was five ‘l’amoth’ (cubits).¹³⁵II Chronicles 3:11. Here the lamed in l’amoth is superfluous. There are many other such cases.

התפאר עלי, arrogate to yourself the right to ask what you want of me and I shall carry out your wish. The construction is similar to Judges 7,2 פן יתפאר עלי ישראל לאמר ידי הושיעה לי, “lest Israel be arrogant enough vis-à-vis Me to say: ‘my hand has been strong enough to provide my own salvation.’”

למתי אעתיר לך?. In order that you will recognise the difference between what your sorcerers are able to do and what G’d is capable of doing. When Moses offered two scenarios to Pharaoh, i.e. when the crocodiles would die, and henceforth restricting them to the river Nile, he also had in mind that whatever the sorcerers had done would be strictly limited in duration, and things would return to normal, whereas G’d could maintain the changes He had effected in nature indefinitely, totally or partially as He wished.

התפאר עלי, "have this glory over me, etc." What exactly did Moses mean by the expression התפאר עלי? If what he meant was that even if Pharaoh would ask for an immediate removal of the frogs this would constitute his glory, the result of Pharaoh asking that the frogs be removed only on the morrow would indicate that he was not interested in besting Moses; Moses' confirmation: "as you have said," would make little sense in that scenario. We also need to analyse why Moses did not say מתי אעתיר לך which we would have expected, but said למתי וגו׳?

למתי אעתיר לך?, “for when should I entreat for you?” According to Rashi, Moses offered to pray immediately for the plague to cease at a time of Pharaoh’s choosing. Nachmanides, approaching the text from a literal perspective, claims the plague disappeared immediately at the time Moses prayed, as we know from verse 9 “G’d did in accordance with Moses’ word.” The Torah did not write that the frogs disappeared on the morrow. The letter לin the word למתי does not prove anything concerning the timing of the cessation of the plague. According to Nachmanides there is no special significance in the construction למתי, as to when precisely the frogs should die.

By asking something difficult and then saying. . . In other words, [see] if you can ask me to do something that I cannot do, then you can boast that I [was shown to be inferior because I] could not do it.

V. 5. פאר, התפאר verwandt mit באר: ans Licht treten, daher באר: leuchten wo das unterirdische Wasser ans Licht tritt, davon פאר: ins Licht hervortreten, leuchten. פאר : alles dasjenige, was den damit Geschmückten ins Licht hervortreten läßt, hervorhebt. פער: öffnen, dem Lichte Zutritt schaffen. — Dass Mosche die Bitte nicht einfach übernimmt, sondern das Weichen der Plage selbst zu einem אות gestaltet, lag in der Bitte selbst motiviert. Wäre Pharao bereits überzeugt gewesen, er hätte das Volk ohne weiteres frei gelassen. So war es klar, er suchte eben nur Befreiung von der Plage. Darum sollte das Fortgehen der Frösche selbst ein belehrendes אות werden; vielleicht würde dies Erfolg haben. Die Frösche sollen daher nicht einfach wieder zurückkehren, das hätte als bloßes Aufhören der göttlichen Einwirkung und als Rückkehr in den natürlichen Zustand gedeutet werden können. Sie sollen sterben, und zwar auch nicht allgemein, es hätte dies wieder als ein physisches Phänomen begriffen werden können. Vergl. V. 9.

!התפאר עלי למתי, אעתיר, “have this boast over me about when you will release the Children of Israel, and I will pray for the frogs to disappear immediately!”

למתי אעתיר FOR WHAT PERIOD SHALL I ENTREAT FOR THEE — With reference to the entreaty which I shall make to-day regarding the destruction of the frogs, by what period do you wish that they should be destroyed, and you will see whether I can carry out my promise by the time which you will set me. If the text said מתי אעתיר (without ל), it would signify “when shall I pray?” but now that it is said למתי, it signifies I will pray to-day for you that the frogs should be destroyed by the time which you will set for me. Tell me, then, by what day you wish that they shall be destroyed. The words here, אעתיר and העתירו (v. 4) and העתרתי (v. 25) are Hiphil forms, and it does not say אֶעְתַּר and עִתְרוּ and וְעָתַרְתִּי (Kal forms) because wherever the root עתר is used it denotes to pray much (more lit. Rashi’s words signify “to multiply praying”, “to make much praying”), and just as one says אַרְבֶּה and הַרְבּוּ and וְהִרְבֵּתִי which all have the meaning of “causing an action to happen” (in this case, causing a thing to be much — our Hiphil conjugation), so one says אַעְתִּיר and הַעְתִּירוּ and וְהֵעְתַּרְתִּי “I increase”, “increase ye” and “I will increase” i. e. I will increase words. The passage which serves as evidence of the meaning of all these words is (Ezekiel 35:13) “וְהֵעְתַּרְתֶּם your words against Me” — which can only mean “Ye have multiplied” (being a transitive verb; cf. Rashi on Genesis 25:21).

THAT THE FROGS BE DESTROYED. This is an allusion to their death, just as the expressions: that soul shall be cut off;¹³⁶Further, 12:19. and I will cut off from Ahab every man-child.¹³⁷I Kings 21:21.
The intent of Moses’ repeating the promise to Pharaoh, And the frogs shall depart, etc.,¹³⁸Verse 7. was to state that as soon as he will have prayed, the frogs will all be removed, and that Pharaoh should not fear that when these frogs die, others will come up from the river. Rather, the plague will be completely removed even though some of them will remain in the river.¹³⁸Verse 7. All this was to inform Pharaoh that the plague came from G-d for the sake of Israel alone.

למתי אעשה לך?, for which day and at what hour would you like for all the frogs to depart, and I will pray forthwith that they will all die before that deadline. Seeing that they do not normally all die at once, you will realise that my prayer will have been answered. [Moses wanted to forestall Pharaoh asking for the frogs to all die immediately. Ed.]

להכרית הצפרדעים, “to wipe out the frogs.” Seeing that Pharaoh had been under the impression that the frogs would increase dramatically, Moses prayed that the frogs should die forthwith, the word להכרית being of the same root as such verses as ונכרתה הנפש ההיא, “that particular life will be terminated, etc.” (Genesis 17,14, Exodus 12,15, et al.) The reason Moses prayed for the death of the frogs and not for their return to their habitat, was so that the stench from their carcasses should remind the Egyptians of how their conduct vis a vis the Jews was viewed by the G’d of the Jews. Pharaoh had assumed that Moses had meant that the removal of the plague meant that the frogs would return to where they had come from. Moses assured him that the frogs remaining at this time in the river would indeed remain there, but that the ones already on dry land would perish there. The line (promise) וסרו הצפרדעים, “the frogs will depart etc.,” (verse 7) was not meant to suggest that they would leave Egypt, but that a plague of frogs emerging from the river would not occur again. Moses’ elaborating on all this to Pharaoh only meant to prove to him that the plague emanated from G’d, and that it was decreed on account of his treatment of the Jewish people.

By when do you wish them destroyed. . . You might ask: What was Moshe asking him? Surely Pharaoh would like them destroyed immediately! The answer is that Moshe reasoned: if I pray to have them destroyed immediately, Pharaoh will be obligated to release Yisrael immediately, as promised to me (v. 4) — and this is bad for him. Thus Moshe did not know which Pharaoh prefered — [keeping Yisrael, or destroying the frogs]. An alternative answer is what the Ramban says, citing the Naggid.

I believe Moses wanted to demonstrate that G'd tries to oblige those who are dear to Him so that it was beyond his imagination that G'd would forsake him (not do what he promised). He did this by contrasting the relationship between man and G'd with that of slave and master. When a slave asks a favour from his master he will be happy if his master grants the favour at all and it would not occur to him to attach conditions as to the time when such a favour has to be granted. He will be even less likely to ask for the date of such a favour to be advanced or delayed, but will await the time when he judges his master to be in a favourable frame of mind to grant his request. He will be most happy if his request is granted at the time it pleases his master. Not so the relationship between Moses and G'd. Moses was anxious to demonstrate to Pharaoh that a) he could offer a prayer at any time; b) his prayer would not only be granted but that he could attach conditions as to the "when" of G'd's response. This is why he asked Pharaoh what time or day he wanted him to pray that the frogs should disappear. Pharaoh was to prove himself superior in that he could determine when Moses should pray.

לעמך, “and for your people;” the letter מ in this word has the semi vowel sheva. Logic tells us that this plague did not last one quarter of a month. If you were to say that the conversation between Moses and Pharaoh took place on the sixth day of this plague, it does not make much sense, as the plague would have come to an end on the following day anyways without Moses praying for its removal.

And not אעתר עתרו . . . [Rashi says as he does] because אעתיר העתירו והעתרתי is in the verbal form of הפעיל , which is transitive. However, our verse should use the [intransitive] form of אפעל , such as אעתר עתרו ועתרתי , since it is describing prayer, which is intransitive. Thus Rashi explains: “Because wherever a form of. . .”

So, too, does it say אעתיר . . . In other words, it is transitive because the direct object of the verb is “words”. [It is conjugated] as if “words” was actually written in the verse.

והעתרתם your words about me, meaning you have increased. Rashi is saying that [here is the main proof] because it is written explicitly, “your words”.