Page 46 - RMBA Upper School Haggadah 2018

Rabbi Moshe Kormornick answers that the ac ons of the frogs were significant because “just as
the frogs went willingly into the ovens to fulfil Hashem’s command to spread all over Egypt, so
should we willingly do the will of Hashem.” When the frogs first approached the ovens, their
first ins nct could have been to hop away and cover other areas of Egypt, but because they
were blessed by God they obeyed His commandments and hopped right into the ovens.
A lesson that the plague of frogs can teach us is that if we see someone in need of an act of
chesed, we should not hesitate. Like the frogs, we should jump right in and help them.
Lice - Alex Schwartz (6th Grade)

When you think of lice, what do you think of? Now let me tell you what I think. I think when you
have to get a lice check at school and they keep on touching hair, and you think to yourself
“stop!” How does lice then have to do with plagues and sickness? It doesn’t seem like the worst
possible thing that could have happened to the Egyp ans?
I think that Hashem wanted the Egyp ans to let the Jews go. I don't think that He wanted to kill
them, so He made a plague that would cause a li le damage but not like the black plague. The
lesson we learn here is that even though Hashem punishes us, He s ll has mercy.
Wild Animals - Abraham Behar (8th Grade)
The fourth plague that G-D cast on the Egyp ans for keeping B'nai Yisrael in slavery, was the
plague of Arov. This plague sent hordes of wild animals towards Egypt to destroy everything in
their path. Despite all the destruc on these animals caused, Pharaoh's heart hardened and he
did not let the Jews go.
What happened to the animals a er the plague was completed? Did they run away, die, stay, or
crossbreed? The Torah does not tell us where they went. Our Sages explain that once the plague
was over, many Egyp ans killed the animals, and the skins were worth a large sum of money.
G-d made them made vanish out of nowhere, to prevent the Egyp ans from profi ng from the
plague.
The lesson you can learn from this plague is that the Egyp ans were such immoral and crooked
people, that when their houses got destroyed, the first thing they thought about was to sell the
animal skins to make money. Money, power, and honor has the power to corrupt one’s way of
thinking if it is not used properly.

Pestilence and Boils - Isaac Gateno (10th Grade)
As the Torah writes in Exodus 9:4, in reference to the promised pes lence brought upon the
livestock of Egypt: “all the livestock of the Egyp ans died, but of the livestock of the children of
Israel not one died.” Strangely enough, the Torah goes on to write, only four pesukim later, “it
became boils breaking out into blisters upon man and upon beast.” One could easily ques on
how this is even possible, seeing how G-d had just killed all of the Egyp an livestock. Rashi takes
it upon himself to answer this difficulty, explaining that “the decree was leveled only upon those

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