Shabbat comes in 3.55pm : goes out 5.05pm _________________________________________________________________________ Pharaoh is being s tubborn and doesn’t want to free the children of Israel. So after a warning Moses and Aaron bring the first plague. But when they go down to the Nile to bring out the frogs, it is Aaron, not Moses who, stretches out his rod and and strikes the Nile to bring the frogs out of the water. Why is it Aaron who stretches out the rod and causes the frogs to come out of the water? Why does Moses not do it?
According to the Midrash, it was because it was the Nile that protected Moses when his mother put him in a crib, and set the crib at the edge of the water, and therefore Moses could not bring himself to strike the Nile.
The Midrash is teaching us the importance of gratitude. If we are not supposed to hurt even inanimate objects that once helped us, then how much more must we not hurt human beings who have helped us.
Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi Paul Arberman
