Avos 5:4

בס׳ד

אבות ה:ד

Ten are the miracles our ancestors saw in Mitzrayim and ten at the sea. Ten are the plagues that the Blessed Holy One inflicted on the Egyptians in Mitzrayim and ten at the sea. Ten are the tests our ancestors imposed upon the Blessed Source in the wilderness, as it is said: “And they tested Me these ten times and didn’t obey Me!” (Bamidbar 14:22).

עֲשָׂרָה נִסִּים נַעֲשׂוּ לַאֲבוֹתֵינוּ בְמִצְרַיִם וַעֲשָׂרָה עַל הַיָּם. עֶשֶׂר מַכּוֹת הֵבִיא הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא עַל הַמִּצְרִיִּים בְּמִצְרַיִם וְעֶשֶׂר עַל הַיָּם. עֲשָׂרָה נִסְיוֹנוֹת נִסּוּ אֲבוֹתֵינוּ אֶת הַמָּקוֹם בָּרוּךְ הוּא בַמִּדְבָּר, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (במדבר יד) וַיְנַסּוּ אֹתִי זֶה עֶשֶׂר פְּעָמִים וְלֹא שָׁמְעוּ בְּקוֹלִי:

        The principle of midah k’neged midah, or “poetic justice”, is central to Yiddishkeit.  Every action in the world, for good or ill, yields some kind of effect corresponding to the positive or negative energy the act releases.  Sometimes, the effect of an act is delayed over many generations.

        This principle is at work in our mishnah.  According to Avos d’Rabbi Noson (A,33), the positive energy generated by Avraham Avinu’s 10 successful tests (Avos 5:3) had a delayed reaction.  Instead of immediately affecting the lives of Yaakov and Yitzhak, they had their final impact in the generation of the Exodus. These are the 10 miracles that HaShem performed for Israel and the 10 corresponding plagues that He visited upon the Egyptians discussed here.

        But once the energy of Avraham Avinu’s act was “spent” in the corresponding 10 miracles/plagues. a new cycle of midah k’neged midah was brought into play.  The inability of Israel as a whole to “read the pattern” behind the miracles from which they benefitted - Israel’s failure to see how its liberation was connected to the righteousness of Avraham Avinu - then generated its own negative energy.  Israel’s refusal to grasp any implications in their redemption was a failure to understand its own history.  So it tested HaShem 10 times, each test being a discharge of “negative energy” that, as it were, dissipated the positive energy it had inherited.  We remain in Golus to this very day as a result of our failure to “read our history” and respond to its implications with all our hearts.

        Let’s take a look at the series of 10s listed in the mishnah.  The 10 miracles performed in Mitzrayim are directly related to the 10 plagues inflicted on Mitzrayim. That is, the plagues worked selectively, affecting only the Egyptians and not the Israelites.  We see here that one person’s catastrophe is another’s miracle. The “miraculous” was not the fact that nature altered to produce, for example, a river of blood.  The Egyptian magicians could do things like that. The miracle lay in the fact that Israel, for no merit of its own, was spared from the suffering inflicted by HaShem on His creatures, and even benefitted from that suffering.  The mystery of this selective operation of miracles is forever hidden from us.  For the mishnah’s historical hindsight, of course, it was connected to Avraham Avinu’s merit.  For the Jews of those times, it was an utterly astounding fact of liberation.

        Everyone who ever sat at a Seder has pondered the mystery of the 10 plagues (or up to 250 plagues) visited upon Mitzrayim at the sea. These are known only from Torah She-baal Peh, and have entered our Haggadah from the midrashic collection, Mekhilta d’Rabbi Yishmael (parshas Beshallakh).  The 10 are all derived from close study of the actual verses that describe the drowning of the Egyptians in Shmos 15 (parshas Shirah):

1. 1.   “He flung (ramah) them into the sea”.
2. 2.   “He threw (yarah) them into the sea”.
3. 3.   “they sank (tubu) in the sea”.
4. 4.   “the abyss covered (yikhasyumo) them”.
5. 5.   “they descended (yardu) into the depths”.
6. 6.   “smashed (tiratz) the foe”.
7. 7.   “You upend (taharos) Your opponents”.
8. 8.   “it consumes (yokhlemo) them like straw”.
9. 9.   “the sea covered (kisamo) them”.
10. 10. “they sank (tzalelu) like lead”.

        But we don’t usually hear much about the corresponding miracles performed for Israel at the Sea.  As Avos d’Rabbi Noson (A,33) explains, these were all connected to the actual parting of the waters. Hear how the story is told. I’ve shortened it a bit by omitting some of the pasukim used to explain the various events:

When our ancestors stood at the Sea, Moshe said to them: “Arise and cross!”. They said to him: “We will not cross until the sea is transformed into tunnels for us!”.  So Moshe took his staff, struck the Sea, and it was transformed into tunnels.

Moshe said to them: “Arise and cross!”.  They said to him: “We will not cross until the Sea is transformed into a valley before us!”.  So Moshe took his staff, struck the Sea, and it was transformed into a valley.

Moshe said to them: “Arise and cross!”.  They said to him: “We will not cross until it is cut into pieces before us!”.  So Moshe took his staff, struck the Sea, and it was cut into pieces.

Moshe said to them: “Arise and cross!”.  They said to him: “We will not cross until it is transformed into clay before us!”.  So Moshe took his staff, struck the Sea, and it was transformed into clay.

Moshe said to them: “Arise and cross!”.  They said to him: “We will not cross until it is transformed into a desert before us!”.  So Moshe took his staff, struck the Sea, and it was transformed into a desert.

Moshe said to them: “Arise and cross!”.  They said to him: “We will not cross until it is broken into crumbs for us!”.  So Moshe took his staff, struck the Sea, and it was broken into crumbs.

Moshe said to them: “Arise and cross!”.  They said to him: “We will not cross until it is transformed into stepping stones for us!”.  So Moshe took his staff, struck the Sea, and it was transformed into stepping stones.

Moshe said to them: “Arise and cross!”.  They said to him: “We will not cross until it is dried out!”.  So Moshe took his staff, struck the Sea, and it dried out.

Moshe said to them: “Arise and cross!”.  They said to him: “We will not cross until it is transformed into nice walls for us!”.  So Moshe took his staff, struck the Sea, and it was transformed into nice walls.

Moshe said to them: “Arise and cross!”.  They said to him: “We will not cross until it takes the shape of a wine-skin in front of us!”.  So Moshe took his staff, struck the Sea, and it took the shape of a wine-skin.  And the wine-skin released honey and oil into the mouths of the babies and they sucked it…And, with the cloud of glory over them to protect them from the sun, Israel crossed over so as not to be inconvenienced.

        Talk about wanting to have it YOUR way!  As we’ll see in a moment, this story may have been included among the 10 tests to which Israel put the Blessed Holy One.  In any case, the specific nature of those tests is hinted at in the very first pasuk of Devarim, which links Moshe’s words of chastisement to specific incidents that occurred “in the Midbar, in the Aravah, across from Suf, between Paran and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Di-Zahab; eleven days from Horeb, by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea.”

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