Secrets of The First Plague Of Egypt

0:10There's the first plague, and the first plague is blood. There are a few things we can learn from blood. First of all, when Hashem told him to hit the water, it was Aharon who hit the water, not Moshe. Why not Moshe? Because Moshe was saved by the water. Exactly. Moshe was saved by the water when he was a baby, so he owed the water gratitude. He was saved when he was a baby; his mother put him in the water, and the Nile eventually led him to be found by Batya, the daughter of Pharaoh. So the water saved him. Therefore, he says, how could I make the water turn into blood when it played a role in saving my life? which teaches us that if you owe your gratitude to something that's part of the world, something that's in nature, Of course, you have to remember how much gratefulness you owe to people. Somebody helped you in your life, lent you money, somebody gave you a job, somebody helped you do teshuva, somebody gave you even money for coffee, somebody gave you a ride to wherever, to work, anything, anything that people did for you, you have to be grateful. If Moshe Rabbeinu is not even willing to hit the water, he's not even willing to hit the water, why? Because the water saved him 80 years ago.

1:38Well, it's not that the water saved him on purpose. It's not that the water thought, oh, you know what? Should I save him? Should I not save him? Maybe, maybe. I don't know if I like him. What family does he come from? Is he Sephardic? Is he Ashkenazi? No, it didn't think about it. It's water. Water is doing its thing. So, Moshe Rabbeinu doesn't want to hit the water. Second thing is, why is He punishing the water? Why is Hashem going towards the water first? Because, as I said, the water, the Nile River, was considered another idol for the Egyptians. And Hashem hates idol worship. So when He punishes somebody, when He punishes a nation or He even punishes a person, the first thing He's going to punish is the parts He hates. The first thing He hates is idol worship. So the first thing he's showing them: Oh, you're thinking that your Nile River is a god? It can't even protect itself, as I'm turning your water into blood, and now it's going to smell terrible. It's going to make it smelly. You're a little smelly god, fake god. So it shows people that Hashem is in control of everything. But even more so, it's something for us to learn about when Hashem is trying to wake somebody up.

2:54Usually, what's the thing that happens to them? There are a few things that happen to a person. The first thing that happens usually, for most people, is money. They lose money. Money, in Torah, is considered damim. Money is considered life. But money is another form of idol worship because people spend their lives chasing money. And if you see the dollar bill, it says, "In God we trust." Why is it saying "In God We Trust"? Because most people think the dollar is their god. That's the way they behave. So sometimes when Hashem wants to wake somebody up or wants to punish somebody, one of the things that could happen is losing money. The third thing is, about the blood, is that that's actually one of the ways that Am Yisrael became very, very rich. If you remember from when we talked about it in the past, Every time Am Yisrael, Am Yisrael was not affected by these plagues. So when Am Yisrael would take water, it would be water. If the Egyptian grabbed the water from the Jew, it would turn to blood. There was so much blood that even the walls would bleed. Because the walls had, you know, to make the bricks, you needed water. So the water in the bricks turned to blood. So even the walls in the houses, in the palace, everything was blood everywhere.

4:22So, the Egyptians noticed that the only water they had to drink, the only way was to buy it from the Jews. If they bought it from the Jews, it stayed water. If they stole it from the Jews or took it from them by force, it turned into blood. And that's actually one of the ways that Am Yisrael became very, very rich. They turned from slaves to becoming very, very wealthy. Because Hashem promised Avraham... that when they leave Egypt, they're going to leave with a lot of treasure. Now, even though the bigger treasure that Hashem is planning on giving them is after they leave Egypt, He didn't want anyone to question the promise He made to Avraham. He said, okay, let them leave with some money already now. One of the ways they got money is from the plague of blood. Second thing is, why do we have blood? What's the measure for measure punishment? One of the reasons why Hashem turned the water into blood, as I told you, is idol worship, to punish their idol. The second reason is because the Egyptians did not allow the Jewish women, the Hebrew women, to go into the mikveh, to use the Nile as a mikveh. He said, you're not allowing my children to have...

5:40to use the mikveh, to have kosher children, to do the mitzvah. Okay, so now you can't use it either. But as soon as the water turned into blood, the chartumim, the necromancers, also did the same thing; they turned some water into blood, but they couldn't undo it. So, but Pharaoh still said, okay, they can do the first part, they had less practice than Moshe, I don't believe, I'm not freeing Am Yisrael.