Комментарий к Шмот 9:3

‎הנה יד ה׳ הוֹיָה BEHOLD THE HAND OF THE LORD IS — The verb הויה is in the present tense, for so one says in the feminine gender of the past היתה, “she was”, of the future, תהיה, “she will be” and of the present, הוֹיָה, the latter form being similar to עוֹשָׂה and רוֹצָה and רוֹעָה (Fem. part. sing. Kal of ל"ה verbs).

BEHOLD, THE HAND OF THE ETERNAL IS UPON THY CATTLE WHICH ARE IN THE FIELD. Scripture speaks of the ordinary custom that most cattle are in the field, but the plague was also upon the cattle in the houses, just as it is said, And all the cattle of Egypt died.²⁰⁰Verse 6. It is possible that because every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians,²⁰¹Genesis 46:34. the Egyptians removed the cattle from the cities except for the use of horses for riding and asses for loading. Thus the cattle were located far from Egypt, grazing in the fields bordering upon Goshen, and in those pastures the cattle of the Egyptians and of the Israelites would intermingle. Therefore it was necessary that it be said, And the Eternal shall make a division between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt.²⁰²Verse 4. It may be that the division was necessary because since the pestilence was caused by the change of air, it should naturally spread over the whole district, [affecting the cattle of the Israelites as well], but G-d dealt wondrously with them.²⁰³See Joel 2:26.

אשר בשדה, which are in the field, etc. This is to be taken literally; they all died because the Egyptians left them in the fields as mentioned in 9,6.

הנה יד ה' הויה, “behold, the hand of Hashem is about to afflict, etc.” Our sages have derived from the word יד ה' “the hand of Hashem,” as opposed to the previous mention of אצבע אלוקים, ”a finger of G’d,” that G’d orchestrated five times as many miracles while the Israelites and the Egyptians were at and in the sea of Reeds, as He had done in Egypt proper. Even though mention of G’d’s finger occurred only in connection with the plague of vermin, the meaning of that had been that whereas previously the Egyptians had related to the plagues as a variant of the magic performed by sorcerers, at that point they had realized that they were confronted with something Divine in origin, the “finger” of the Creator. Although, now that the word יד, “hand of Hashem’” appears in connection with a plague that occurred in Egypt proper, this appears to invalidate the sages’ comment, this is not necessarily so, as the Torah here uses the word “hand” to describe the five categories of creatures which will become the victims of the pestilence about to occur, i.e. horses, donkeys, camels, cattle and sheep. The word יד is really extraneous in our verse as everyone can count that five species of creatures are mentioned. It is therefore reasonable to contrast the 10 plagues in Egypt with the 50 plagues which Rabbi Yossi Haglili told us occurred at the Sea of Reeds. Personally, I believe that the sages based themselves not so much on the word אצבע and יד respectively, when they extrapolated from its appearance, but from the addition of G’d’s name. Whenever the Torah uses the term יד or אצבע by itself, it is to be understood as such, and nothing additional needs to be read into it. When mention of the organ is followed by a reference to who is the owner of that ”hand” or “finger,” this is an invitation to the reader to investigate an additional message contained in the verse. The author, (Rabbi Yaakov ben Asher) feels that the fact that the word יד ה' is followed by precise details of who will be the victim of this hand, means that nothing beyond what meets the eye is to be read into our text.

הנה יד ה' הויה, “here the hand of the Lord is about to be, etc.” In introducing the fifth plague the Torah mentions “the hand” of G’d, the word הויה representing the attribute which forms the last letter ה in the Ineffable Name, the tetragrammaton. This is a name which allows for 12 permutations [different spellings using the same letters, a widely accepted kabbalistic method. Ed.]. The words זה שמי לעולם, in 3,15 provided an allusion to this concept, the word לעולם hinting at concealed methods of writing this name. Seeing that this was the fifth plague, the Torah makes a point of listing five species of animals which would be afflicted, i.e. horses, donkeys, camels, cattle and flocks.

V. 3. Alle Arten von Eigentum werden genannt. Rosse: die Staatsgewalt; Esel: das Tier des inneren friedlichen Verkehrs; Kamele: das "der Brust entwöhnte, גמל, lange den Trunk entbehren könnende, dadurch zum Karavanenzug durch die Wüste geeignete, den Handel mit dem Ausland vermittelnde Tier;" Rind und Schaf: das Arbeit, Nahrung und Kleidung gewährende Vieh. — הויה, Präsens von היה, kommt kaum wieder vor, es drückt die Plötzlichkeit aus, etwas, was keine Vergangenheit und keine Zukunft hat. Die verborgene Hand Gottes tritt plötzlich in die sichtbare Wirklichkeit hervor. — דֶבֶר: das "Wort" Gottes, das sich plötzlich in dem Sterben des Getroffenen vollstreckt.

הנה יד ה' הויה, “here the hand of Hashem will be active;” according to normal logic there is a reason for people to believe and to say that neither the plague of hail or the plague of pestilence could have lasted for a week each. (death of the afflicted would have occurred immediately)

במקנך אשר בשדה, “against your cattle that are exposed in the field.” According to Rashi the pestilence struck only the beasts left in the field in spite of the warning. This explains why there were beasts left that perished during the plague of hail. They were the beasts that had been sheltered by their owners during the plague of pestilence. Nachmanides writes that the Torah chose the present tense to narrate this plague and that the beasts which were indoors died also, and that this is why the Torah writes (verse 6) “all the livestock of the Egyptians died.” The word כל usually translated as “all,” is not to be understood literally, as whenever the majority of something died this is described as “all” of it dying. Some commentators understand the line וימת כל מקנה מצרים, “all the livestock of the Egyptians died,” as meaning that all the dead beasts were found to have been owned by Egyptians, and not Israelites, the Torah adding this by writing that not a single beast owned by an Israelite died during that period, in order to emphasise it still further. The Israelites had kept their sheep well apart from the Egyptians, seeing that these considered sheep raising as an abominable occupation. It is possible that seeing that the microbes that infected the animals were carried through the air, the Torah had to write that G’d performed a miracle so that none of the animals owned by the Israelites would be victimized.

במקנך אשר בשדה, “against your livestock that are out in the fields;” even the beasts that had been saved by their shepherds during the plague of the free roaming beasts could not stand up against the plague that follows next.