Comentário sobre Êxodo 11:4

'ויאמר משה כה אמר ה AND MOSES SAID, THUS SAITH THE LORD — Whilst he was still standing before Pharaoh this prophecy was spoken to him, because after he left him, he did not see his face again (Exodus Rabbah 18:1).

AND MOSES SAID: THUS SAITH THE ETERNAL: ABOUT MIDNIGHT WILL I GO OUT INTO THE MIDST OF EGYPT. Moses said this to Pharaoh and to his servants, as he mentioned at the end of his words, And all these thy servants shall come down unto me.⁹¹Verse 8. Now he did not explain on what night this plague will take place, since this Divine communication to Moses and the transmission thereof to Pharaoh happened before the first of Nisan,⁹²In view of the fact that Ramban wrote above (10:4) that the plague of the locusts occurred in the month of Nisan, it is difficult to understand his statement here that the Divine communication to Moses and the transmission thereof to Pharaoh concerning the plague of the firstborn happened before the first of Nisan. In my opinion, this is to be explained on the basis of that which Ramban wrote in Seder Shemoth (4:21), that at the very first time that Moses came before Pharaoh, he warned him of the last plague which will force him to let the people go. In that case, the Divine communication to Moses and the transmission of it to Pharaoh did indeed take place before the first of Nisan. The verse here, yet one plague more will I bring upon Pharaoh, must then be understood in the sense that G-d told Moses that the time had come for the final plague of which He had told him in the beginning and which Moses had related to Pharaoh. See also my Hebrew commentary, p. 323, for further discussion of this problem. and when he said about midnight, he did not yet know on which night it would be. Thus Moses did not inform them of the specific night on which this plague would take place, but instead he said in kindled anger, “I will see thy face again no more.⁹³Above, 10:29. It is you who will call upon me at about midnight to go out from your country, and your servants will bow down to me.”⁹¹Verse 8. In the second section He elucidated to Israel, And I will go through the land of Egypt in that night,⁹⁴Further, 12:12. and in the third section Scripture states, And it came to pass at midnight,⁹⁵Ibid., Verse 29. i.e., the night mentioned when they were eating the paschal lamb.

כחצות הלילה, "at around midnight, etc." The Talmud Berachot 4 already discusses that the reason that Moses did not give the precise time but only an approximation was so that in the event the Egyptian astronomers were inaccurate in their calculations they should not be able to accuse Moses of having lied. Possibly the reason is related to what Bereshit Rabbah 43,3 has to say about Genesis 14,15 where Abraham is described as defeating the four kings. That event occurred on the night of the 15th of Nissan. In that case the letter כ before the word חצות does not describe an approximation but refers to a previous event which took place on that date at that time. Our sages in Shemot Rabbah 42 tell us that the night in which Abraham defeated the four mightiest kings of the world (Genesis 14,15) caused many people to re-evaluate the beliefs they had held up to that time. The Torah therefore mentioned the time when this miracle had occurred. In our paragraph too, the people who survived this event must have done some serious soul-searching as to the validity of their religious beliefs. The letter כ then refers to such re-evaluations as a result of what would occur at midnight.