The Three Signs: A Lesson in Resilience

Our Torah portion opens the Book of Shemot, the book of exile and redemption. After 210 years of oppression, Hashem commands Moses to go to Pharaoh and redeem the Israelites from Egypt. At the outset, He gives Moses three signs: a staff that turns into a serpent and back again, a hand that becomes leprous and then returns to health, and water that turns into blood. It is important to understand why Hashem specifically chose these three signs when showing miracles through Moses. 

However, Hashem sent a message through Moses to the people of Israel, to teach them for generations to come. There are two types of enemies that every Jew and the people of Israel as a whole will face. The first is an external enemy, coming with the force of arms to strike, oppress, and destroy, G-d forbid, or whose main strength lies in words - coming with claims and arguments that aim to weaken faith, the righteousness of the people of Israel, and everything promised by the Torah. The second is an internal enemy, for sometimes it is the enemies within, from within the people itself, who succeed in destroying and bringing disaster upon the nation.

Therefore, Hashem told Moses to cast down his staff - which is an external attribute of man. The staff transformed into the great enemy of man, the serpent, which is both a physical enemy, as it is written: "He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel," but also a spiritual enemy, reminiscent of the ancient serpent that tempted Eve and Adam with false and deceitful words. When the staff turned into a serpent and Moses fled from it, Hashem said to him: Take hold of its tail! To teach him that although one would normally grab a serpent by the head to catch it, because if you grab it by the tail, it will coil back and bite the person holding it, and this is the logical approach of human reason. However, when a command comes from the Creator of the Universe to do the opposite of human logic, a person and the people of Israel should not fear, because surely there their success will lie. Indeed, when Moses grasped the serpent by the tail as instructed by Hashem, it immediately changed back into a staff in his hand, and now, on the contrary, he could use the serpent that had turned into a staff to strike his enemies and defeat them. 

And indeed, when the people of Israel walk in the ways of Hashem, they defeat all their enemies as the verse states: "No weapon formed against you shall prosper," and as explained by the Rambam: "He promised us, blessed be He, that those who come upon us with force and weapons, and those who come upon us with various claims through their words, will not succeed against us. And this is all 'weapons' formed against you shall not prosper. And for every 'tongue' that rises up against you in judgment, you shall condemn."

However, in the second sign, Hashem taught Moses that sometimes the enemy may come from within, from among the people. Behold, the hand itself, which is part of the body, became leprous, and Moses became perplexed about how to resolve this issue. Then Hashem instructed him that a part of the body should not be cast aside but rather embraced, to try to give that part warmth, love, and understanding from a loving heart. This is why He told him to put his hand back in his bosom, and behold, it returned to him like the flesh of a newborn child.

Finally, He showed him that the waters had turned into blood. Water represents the attribute of kindness, and blood - strength. The Torah teaches through this that after all the difficulties and struggles against those harmful forces, from within and without, against those walking in the ways of Hashem, complete redemption will come. It also hints at both the redemption from Egypt and at the end of days, when the leadership referred to as 'the white gate' mentioned in the Book of Daniel (Chapter 7) - which represents the kindness towards the people of Israel, will change to "Who is this coming from Edom, with crimson garments from Bozrah? This is glorious in His apparel, traveling in the greatness of His strength" (Isaiah 63), which represents the strength towards the nations of the world, and only then will the complete redemption come. Therefore, Hashem told Moses: "And it shall be, if they do not believe the voice of the first sign, they will believe the voice of the last one..." Meaning, in the future, that punishment which Hashem will exact upon the enemies of Israel will be a sign and a miracle for all, because eye to eye they will see when Hashem returns to Zion. Shabbat Shalom.

Adapted from a lecture by the rabbi on the Hidabroot website

For the section Weekly Portion on the Hidabroot website

The Portion of Shemot – All videos on VOD Hidabroot