ספר שמות

Exodus 10,21. “stretch out your hand in ‎the direction of the sky and there will be ‎darkness in the land of Egypt; Moses did so, and ‎there was palpable darkness in Egypt, whereas in ‎all the dwellings of the Israelites there was ‎light.” Rashi already concentrates on ‎the meaning of the words ‎וימש חושך‎, “the darkness was ‎tangible,” we also need to examine why the Torah ‎emphasized that all the dwellings of the Israelites ‎continued to enjoy normal daylight. Why did the Torah ‎not merely write that the Israelites were not struck by ‎darkness?‎The phraseology used by the Torah may become ‎clear when we read Sh’mot Rabbah 14,2 where ‎the Midrash examines whence this darkness ‎originated. Rabbi Yehudah there claims that the ‎‎“darkness” originated in the celestial regions, quoting ‎psalms 18,12 as proof that such a phenomenon exists. ‎The psalmist says there (referring to G’d) ‎ישת חשך סתרו ‏סביבותיו‎, “He makes darkness be His screen.” We need to ‎understand why the darkness decreed in Egypt had to ‎be of the kind mentioned in psalms. This “darkness” is ‎an allusion to a hidden kind of light. We must now ‎understand the concept underlying this “concealed ‎light.” The Talmud in Shabbat 34 deals with ‎an incident when a great Talmudic scholar killed an ‎outstanding student for having violated a basic rule of ‎not revealing discussions that had occurred within the ‎walls of academy. The method of killing that student is ‎described as “he set his eye upon him and he turned ‎into a heap of bones.”‎What precisely does the Talmud mean when it ‎refers to ‎נתן עיניו בו‎, “He set his eyes on him?” Moreover, ‎in light of Proverbs 17,26 ‎גם ענוש לצדיק לא טוב‎, “also it is ‎not good to punish the righteous,” [meaning that when ‎a judge takes an especially harsh line with a person ‎reputed to be a tzaddik, as he should have ‎served as a model for the community, this, in ‎Solomon’s view is not an appropriate approach. Ed.], ‎how could the teacher of the student in ‎‎Shabbat 34 have been so harsh‎In order to understand all this we must remember ‎that the brightness surrounding the Creator was so ‎overpowering that in order to create a universe in ‎which the creatures could live without dying from ‎exposure to so much light, He had to impose ‎limitations not only on Himself, but also on the ‎brightness surrounding Him. This “light” had to be ‎adjusted in accordance with the ability of the creatures ‎in the universe to tolerate it without coming to harm ‎thereby. Various regions of the universe therefore were ‎provided with light of differing degrees of intensity, ‎tolerable for beasts, inert objects, etc., so that even in ‎the regions populated by angels the light that was the ‎norm there was not of the intensity of the light that ‎had surrounded the Almighty prior to His creating the ‎universe. Different categories of angels lived in ‎different celestial regions, each of which was ‎illuminated in a manner that corresponded to their ‎ability to tolerate that light’s intensity. These angels ‎have not been allowed to glimpse “higher” regions in ‎the celestial spheres than those inhabited by them, so ‎as not to blind them through exposure to ‎overpowering brightness. Similarly, they were not ‎allowed to look into regions that were less brightly ‎illuminated. These details of what goes on in the ‎celestial regions have been referred to in Isaiah’s ‎vision (Isaiah 6,2) where the prophet describes the ‎angels as using two of their six wings to cover their ‎faces with the words: ‎בשתים יכסה פניו ובשתים יכסה רגליו יעופף‎ ‎‎“and with two he would cover his feet, and with two he ‎would fly.” [Covering his feet, presumably is ‎an allusion to not looking into lower regions beneath ‎his habitat. Ed.] Israelites, as distinct from ‎the angels, due to having been given the Torah and the ‎commandments it contains, are able to use these very ‎commandments as protective “clothing” so that they ‎can be at home in different regions, exposed to ‎different intensities of light.