Bo 2023

1One of the mysteries associated with the plague of locusts is that nowhere was Moshe informed what the next plague was going to be. How did Moshe know that it was locusts? He clearly knew because and that was what he told Pharaoh?

2The Ramban is accustomed to attributing the lack of information as stylistic within the Chumash. You can assume Moshe was instructed by God that the plague was locusts for otherwise how would he have known. Others like to assign more meaning to the paucity. Some suggest that Moshe was empowered at this point during the redemption to choose the plague. It was Moshe himself who chose Locusts and God just went along with it. Moshe knew through Ruach Hakodesh or some other form of higher knowledge what God had in mind. He “read God’s Mind”.

3One thing you notice when reading about the plague of locusts is that it has language similar to many of the other plagues. “And it will cover the eye of the earth and one may not see the earth” These remind us of the plague of Lice which covered the earth and was a premonition to the plague of Darkness. “The locusts will consume the grain left over in the field not destroyed by the hail and all the trees that grow from the fields.” As such the plague of Locusts was a follow up of the Plague of Hail. If you look carefully the warning to Pharaoh about the impending Hail included a suggestion to gather the animals and people from the fields because if not they will die from the power off the devastating hail. No mention was made to Pharaoh of the possibility that the grains would be destroyed or the trees broken. As such the Locusts naturally followed as a follow up from the plague of Hail. Moshe did not need to be told because he figured out that the incomplete nature of the Hail needed completion. You may notice that both the plague of Hail and of Locusts are described as “there never was one like this plague before”. In this way both plagues are unique in that both were “one time only” nothing ever would be quite like them”.

4Shabbat Shalom