Komentaryong Sumisipi para sa Mga Bilang 10:23

ועל פי ה' יחנו AT THE COMMANDMENT OF THE LORD THEY ENCAMPED — As soon as the Israelites encamped the pillar of cloud rose in a column and extended itself above the camp of the sons of Judah like the roof of a hut, and did not depart until Moses said, (Numbers 10:36), “Return, O Lord, unto the myriads of thousands of Israel!” — You must say (admit; more lit., be saying) that this is the meaning of (Numbers 10:23) “at the commandment of the Lord [they encamped and at the commandment of the Lord they journeyed ...]” but also by the agency of Moses (Sifrei Bamidbar 84:5).

There are actually three kinds of darkness of which the Torah speaks in this portion. We have here the expressions ויהי חשך, וימש חשך, ויהי חשך אפלה. “darkness will materialise,” “darkness will be tangible” (verse 22) and “there was a thick darkness” (verse 23). Actually these three descriptions of darkness correspond to three other terms for darkness we know from the Torah which are עלטה, אפלה, ערפל. The עלטה was the kind of darkness experienced by Avram during the covenant of the pieces (Genesis 15,17). אפלה is the kind of darkness which occurred in Egypt, whereas ערפל is the kind of darkness which engulfed Moses on his ascent to Mount Sinai (Exodus 20,18).

Shemot Rabbah 14,1 understands the word ימש as “tangible, something that can be felt and touched. The word would be derived from ממש as in Deut. 28,29. ממשש בצהרים, “groping about at noon (like a blind man)”. This is also what is meant in Psalms 105,28: “He sent darkness, it was very dark, did they not defy His word?” The appropriate nature of this plague may best be explained by means of a parable. A king who was displeased with a number of his subjects told one of his servants to punish 50 of the rebellious citizens. The servant proceeded and punished 100 of them. In other words, the servant used his authority to add something of his own. Here too, G’d had given darkness instruction to envelop the Egyptians. Darkness used the opportunity to add something of its own, so it intensified what G’d had decreed. Instead of only חשך, “simple darkness,” which if non-stop for three days is pretty bad by itself, “It became חשך אפלה.” Some of our sages debate the origin of this darkness. Whereas Rabbi Yehudah holds that it originated in celestial regions, Rabbi Nechemyah holds that it originated in gehinom, in hell. Rabbi Yehudah bases his opinion on Psalms 18,12: “Who made darkness His screen (G’d),” whereas Rabbi Nechemyah bases his view on Job 10,22, ”a land whose light is darkness, all gloom and disarray whose light is like darkness.”
Tanchumah Bo 2 as well as Shemot Rabbah 14,2 claim that the plague lasted for a total of seven days. They base this on the verse (22) “there was a thick darkness throughout the land of Egypt for a three-day period.” This is followed by verse 23: “they did not see one another and could not rise from their respective seats for a period of three days.” This verse refers to the second period of three days. It was followed by “and for all the Children of Israel there was light in their dwellings.” This applied to the seventh day. This seventh days was similar to Exodus 14,20 ויהי הענן והחשך ויאר את הלילה, “there was the cloud and the darkness and it lit up the night” (when the Egyptians pursued the Israelites). The apparent contradiction is resolved by under-standing the darkness as enveloping the Egyptians, whereas the Israelites enjoyed the light in that same place. The same would have happened here. This is also the reason for the word במושבותם, “in their dwellings,” i.e. in the dwellings in which the Egyptians could not see a thing.