시편 105:28의 인용 해설

וישלח, why did Noach send out the raven? He had said to himself that the raven is a flesh eating bird and will most likely find remains of dead animals to feed on. [our author understands the word עורב as referring to what is better known as the “black raven,” a type of vulture (corvus cornix) which feeds on carcasses. Ed.] If the bird would return with such remains in its beak, Noach would know that the waters had receded somewhat. The raven returned without anything in its beak, so that Noach did not learn anything new about the state of the waters. The raven returned to its nest, leaving from time to time to see if the situation outside the ark enabled it to survive on the outside. It carried on in this fashion until the surface of the earth had dried out. In Bereshit Rabbah 33,5 the sages view the fact that the raven was chosen as the experiment by Noach in a different light. The blackness of that bird is paraphrased in Psalms 105,28 where the psalmist writes שלח חשך ויחשיך, “he sent darkness and it became dark.” [a figure of speech, meaning that if one pins one’s hopes on something black, one is likely to receive darkness in return, i.e. not achieve one’s objective. Ed.] Seeing that this mission of the raven had proved totally unproductive, after waiting seven days, Noach sent out a pigeon. A pigeon is known to have a well developed sense of imagination and direction, finding its way back after having flown over a route only once or twice. It knows that it was dispatched for a purpose, i.e. to receive some information in return for having been dispatched [we know of carrier pigeons in our time, but if there had been such already in the days of Noach is highly speculative. Ed.] Moreover, it is in the character of pigeons to be attached to their home base, so that they can be depended on to return to their nest. When we have been told in Shabbat 49 that the wings of the pigeon protect it, the meaning is that seeing that the pigeons are being raised as carrier pigeons, transporting messages attached to its wings, the fact that their owners need them alive is their insurance against being slaughtered prematurely. Noach, in sending out the pigeon, was therefore convinced that the bird would return to the ark even if there were places on earth in the meantime where it could make its nest. ולא..ותשב אליו אל התבה, the Torah describes the return of the pigeon both as a return to Noach, i.e. אליו, and as a return to the ark, i.e. אל התבה. Why was the return of the pigeon described in such detail? It is first described as a return to Noach, seeing that the fact that it did not bring back any bit of vegetation indicated that it had been unable to find any, i.e. had not performed its mission and brought Noach information. Secondly, it did not re-enter the ark as the raven had done. It remained perched on the roof of the ark. It was unhappy at not having brought back some kind of message to Noach. This is why Noach stretched out his hand and brought it back into the ark. The amount of time that elapsed between the dispatch of the raven, and the dispatch of the pigeon, was seven days. How did we arrive at this information? ויחל עוד שבעת ימים אחרים, the addition of the word אחרים, “others,” proves that there had already been a waiting period of seven days

Choshekh – Darkness: There were seven days of darkness: three days during which a person who was standing could still sit down and vice versa, and three days when the darkness was so great the people could not move from their place. The seventh day of darkness took place at the shore of the Red Sea as the people fled from Egypt.²²⁹Exodus 14:20 This is the meaning of the verse: “He sent darkness” – in Egypt; “it was very dark” – at the sea.²³⁰Psalm 105:28 Further the Midrash asks, where did the darkness come from? Rabbi Yehudah said that it was the darkness from above which was created on the first day of creation – it was not just an absence of light but a darkness that had its own substance. Rabbi Nehemiah said that the darkness was the darkness of hell (Gehenom).²³¹Tanchumah Bo chapter 3; Exodus Rabbah 14:2 But in the homes of the Israelites there was light. Just as there is an imperceptible division between the heaven and hell, so the darkness of the Egyptians was separated from the light that filled the Israelite homes. During those three days of darkness, the Israelites buried their own wicked who had been struck dead. In that way the Egyptians would not know what happened. The Rokeach claims that this took place on the 13th of Adar.²³²Eleazar Rokeach (c. 1176 – 1238), also known as Eleazar of Worms or Eleazar ben Judah ben Kalonymus, was a leading Talmudist and Kabbalist, and the last major member of the Chassidei Ashkenaz, a group of German Jewish pietists. Furthermore, we learn that the darkness was so thick that it could be touched, ‘like the thickness of a coin.”²³³Yalkut Shimoni Tehillim 105 How do we know this? The Torah says “a darkness that can be touched (vaymesh).”²³⁴Exodus 10:21 The word vaymesh has the same numerical value as k’dinar av, ‘as the thickness of a coin.’

ויחזק לב פרעה, “Pharaoh’s heart remained stubborn, strong.” The reason why Pharaoh did not ask Moses to pray for the removal of this plague was that this would have been an admission that it was a heavenly phenomenon. [Besides thus far none of the plagues had caused deaths, only inconvenience. He felt that if this is all that Hashem can do, he could live with it. Ed.] There was a good reason to feel that a plague which was common among the poor people all the time, had spread for some reason beyond its normal boundaries. Pharaoh did not realise that the absence of a warning meant that this was not of Moses’ doing; in fact the reason why he had not been warned was that he had ignored the warnings issued before the first two plagues, so that this was the punishment for having ignored those two plagues to influence his attitude toward the Israelite slaves. Moreover, every group of three plagues, as pointed out by Rabbi Yehudah who characterised (summarised) them as acronyms, i.e. דצ׳ך, עד׳ש, באח׳ב, was also introduced by Moses as having a specific objective.(Compare Exodus 8,6: למען תדע כי אין כה׳ אלוקינו “so that you will realise that there is no G-d like our G-d.” Exodus 8,18: למען תדע כי אני ה׳ בקרב הארץ, “so that you will realise that I am the Lord right here on earth also.” Exodus 9,29: למען תדע כי לה׳ הארץ, “so that you will realise that the earth belongs to the Lord.”) Some commentators explain that the reason Rabbi Yehudah summarised the plagues as he did, was to remind us that this was the correct order, as compared to Psalms 78,44-51 where they are listed in a different sequence. Also in Psalms 105, 28-36 they are listed in a different order.