Cytowanie Komentarza do Samuela II 24:16

I WILL EXECUTE JUDGMENTS: I AM THE ETERNAL. “I Myself and not by means of the¹⁸⁹“The messenger.” In our text of Rashi: “a messenger.” Ramban’s version will be explained further on in the text. messenger.” Thus the language of Rashi. But the Midrash of the Sages is not so. Instead, the Midrash reads:¹⁹⁰Mentioned in the Hagadah recited on the night of Passover. “And I will go through the land of Egypt — I, and not an angel. And I will smite all the firstborn — I, and not a seraph. And against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments — I, and not the messenger. I am the Eternal — I am He, and no other.” The purport of the Midrash is as follows: Since this chapter contains the words of Moses to Israel,¹⁹¹As indicated in Verse 3 above: Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying…. it would have been proper for the verse here to say, “And the Eternal will go through the land of Egypt and He will smite all the firstborn,” [instead of saying, And I will go through]. It is for this reason that the Rabbis interpreted the expression, and I will go through the land of Egypt, as meaning “I Myself” and not a messenger sent by Him in plagues, as in the days of David¹⁹²II Samuel 24:16. and Sennacherib.¹⁹³II Kings 19:35. “And I will smite all the firstborn — I, and not a seraph,” means that the striking of the plague will be done by the Holy One, blessed be He, and not like a king who wreaks vengeance on his enemies through his executioners, their counterparts on high being the seraphim from whom the fire comes forth consuming His enemies, as in the case of Elijah and the captain of the fifty.¹⁹⁴Ibid., 1:10. “And against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments, and not by means of the messenger” sent by Him, blessed be He, for whatever is to be done upon the earth. This is the great angel, who on account of it is called Mattatron, the meaning of the word being “the guide of the road.” Thus the Rabbis have said in the Sifre:¹⁹⁵Sifre, Ha’azinu, 338. “The Holy One, blessed be He, was the mattatron (guide) for Moses, and He showed him the entire Land of Israel.” And in the [Midrash] Yelamdeinu¹⁹⁶Literally: “May [our master] teach us.” This was a Midrash which contained homilies that opened with the expression yelamdeinu rabbeinu (may our master teach us) i.e., about some matter of Halachic (legal) content. The Rabbi answered the question briefly and then turned to elaborate on the moral and ethical aspects connected therewith. This Midrash is now practically lost except for some sections found in the Tanchuma. The particular Midrash Ramban mentions here is found in the Aruch, under the root mattator. we find: “And Balak heard that Balaam came¹⁹⁷Numbers 22:36. for Balaam sent his mattatron before him.” And it is furthermore written there:¹⁹⁸This Midrash too is found in the Aruch, under the root mattator, which mentions it in the name of the Yelamdeinu. “Behold, I have begun to deliver up Sihon and his land before thee.¹⁹⁹Deuteronomy 2:31. Do not let it worry you. I am your mattatron. And be not surprised at this for I am even to be the mattatron before an uncircumcised person, i.e., before Cyrus [king of Persia], as it is said, I will go before thee.²⁰⁰Isaiah 45:2. Before a woman — Deborah and Barak — I will lead on the way, as it is said, Is not the Eternal gone out before thee.”²⁰¹Judges 4:14. [We find this word mattatron] also in many other places. I have also heard that in the Greek language, a messenger is called mattator. And [finally] the Rabbis interpreted [in the Midrash mentioned at the beginning of this discussion]: “I am the Eternal — I am He, and no other,” meaning that He is one, and there is no other god beside Him to protest against His act. This is the purport of this Midrash.

AND HE WILL NOT SUFFER THE DESTROYER TO COME IN UNTO YOUR HOUSES. This means the angel that brings destruction in the world at the time of a plague, similar to that which it says, And He said to the angel that destroyed the people: It is enough; now stay thy hand.²⁶⁵II Samuel 24:16. It is not, however, a reference to the One Who brought the destruction in Egypt, since it was the Holy One, blessed be He, Who smote them.

It is also possible to simply view blood as something symbolising either life or death in our verse. It spelled death for our enemies, i.e. the Egyptian firstborn, and life, i.e. survival for the Israelites. We know from Leviticus 17,11 that blood is the life-blood of man and beast. Seeing that for the Egyptians it had become a symbol of death, i.e. that they would be deprived of that vital blood, the Israelites had to symbolise that in their houses blood would be a symbol of life rather than death. The Torah therefore said that where the symbol of such blood was visible the angel of death here called המשחית, “the destroyer,” would have no access. We must not understand the משחית here in the usual sense, seeing that G’d personally performed the killing of the Egyptian firstborn as we explained at length. Moreover, the Torah wrote ופסח ה', that G’d personally would “pass over” the houses of the Jewish people displaying the blood of the Passover lamb. At that hour, G’d would not permit the angel of death to enter the פתח, entrance of any Jewish home even to carry out its normal duties unrelated to the firstborn.
The matter can be compared to Samuel II 24,16 where we are told that G’d stayed the hand of the angel of death (while He made a pestilence rage) saying to him: “enough! Stay your hand.” The message of our verse is that although G’d personally carried out the slaying of the firstborn the angel of death was in attendance together with its variegated powers. All of its powers are derived from the attribute of Justice. It is similar to a king moving from one place to another taking vengeance of his enemies. The king does not travel unattended but has his entourage which is schooled in this task with him. This entourage was not allowed to do anything on its own on that fateful night even to people who had previously been slated to be their victims on that night. G’d personally denied them their usual function on that night. On that night G’d wanted to carry out His vengeance on all the Egyptian firstborn personally. This is why the angel of death was not allowed to kill anyone else amongst the Egyptians on that night either.
On the other hand, no decree had been issued to the angel of death not to kill any Jew, seeing that G’d was not going to do it and it would not have interfered with G’d’s plans. The Jewish firstborn therefore were not in danger from G’d but they were in danger from the angel of death. Had these Jews not displayed the sign of the blood they could have fallen victim to destructive forces activated by the angel of death. It was therefore necessary that they display the blood not because G’d needed to see it but so that the angel of death who had not received a blanket prohibition not to be active on that night would see it and respect it. This is the meaning of the words אל בתיכם, “into your houses.”