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Bo 2 And Hashem said to Moshe, "Stretch your hand towards the Heaven and their will be darkness on the land of Mitzrayim, a darkness which is felt." And Moshe extended his hand towards the Heaven and it was an opaque darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days. A man did not see his friend nor did any man stand from his place for three days, and for the Jewish people their was light in their dwelling places. (10; 21-23) Normally darkness has no substance of its own, rather it is an absence of light. For this reason light removes any darkness. However the darkness in Egypt was a unique creation. It was palpable. So no light could remove it. A resident of the city Sanz went and informed to the government authorities on another member of the community. R' Chaim the Rav of Sanz came and remonstrated with the informer for this despicable act. The fellow attempted to justify himself by saying that the man was evil and it was therefore a Mitzvah to bury him. Said to him the Sanzer Rov, "It is terrible for one Jew to says this concerning another. We find in the Midrash when the Jews were to leave Egypt, they did not have sufficient merit to do so. Hashem therefore gave them the Mitzvos of Bris Mila and sacrificing the Pesach so that they may be redeemed. We find as well in the Midrash, the reason for the darkness was in order that those Jews who were unwilling to leave Egypt would die and the others could bury them. Now, if burying wrongdoers is a Mitzvah, they had plenty from the darkness and would not have needed the additional Mitzvos of Mila and the Pesach. We therefore see it is never considered a Mitzvah to destroy any other Jew - even a wrongdoer. Said the Chidushei HaRim, the greatest possible darkness is when "A man did not see his friend." As a result of this it must follow that "nor did any man stand from his place." If we do not care for others we ourselves can not stand or move from our place. The Chasam Sofer, the Rav of Pressburg, asked, "Why was it necessary to have a double miracle - one of the Egyptians having darkness, a second of the Jewish people having light. It should have been sufficient to blind the Egyptians and the Jews would remain as usual?" He answers. "Normally, when a person loses one of his senses, the other senses strengthen. This Hashem did not want for the Egyptians. They therefore remained fully able to see, just there was total darkness for them. But for us it remained light. Two prominent Rebbes once met in a resort in Eastern Europe. As they began talking, one complained that he had few followers. the second one however, had a large following. "I understand," said the former, "that people believe you can do all types of miracles and wonders. You can heal the sick, aid those in distress and even read peoples minds. I wonder can you really do this and read minds? Can you, for example, tell me what I am thinking now?" "Of course" said the Rebbe, "You are reflecting on the verse 'I have placed Hashem before me always.'" "You are wrong," said the first Rebbe. "That is not at all what I was thinking about." "And that," replied the second Rebbe, "explains why you do not have many followers." |
