How the Ten Plagues Made the Case for a Single, Eternal God

Open any encyclopedia under "Monotheism" (the belief in one eternal God), and you’ll find there are only three monotheistic religions in the world: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—the latter two are later and are imitations built on the Torah of Israel, through which humanity discovered Hashem.

Did you know? Without the Torah, most of humanity would still be worshiping idols and statues. The Torah of Israel is the source of faith in Hashem. In other words, anyone on the street who says, "I just believe in Hashem" doesn’t realize that the core of that belief comes from the Torah; without it, they would be idol worshipers!

There isn’t a person in the world today who talks about an infinite, eternal Creator who didn’t get that idea from the Torah—the source of monotheism in the world.

The Torah introduced the very belief in Hashem to the world, and its moral laws shaped civilization, to the point that you can’t imagine human history developing without the Torah and Jewish ethics. A key question worth asking anyone: What is the most influential book in human history, and why?

Only a Torah of truth can affect all humanity, because the world’s redemption depends on it.

It’s no coincidence that the world’s two largest religions are based on the Torah of the Jews, and it’s no coincidence that the Torah of Israel is the most printed and most influential book on earth. Today, no one can explore God and religion without studying the Jewish Torah, from which they received the core belief in the Creator.

But beyond the Torah’s enormous historical impact on humanity, the proof of its truth appears right at the beginning—in the way it was revealed.

From what we know of the physics of the universe, biology, the anatomy of living beings, and more, we understand that the Creator is infinitely wiser than humans. We immediately grasp that the One who created humanity with such great wisdom would not deliver His Torah in a way any person could fake (that is, by a personal revelation). For this reason, the two religions that imitated Judaism—Christianity and Islam—fall short, because both claim a lone individual had a private revelation, before one person or a small group, without a nationwide revelation of the Divine before an entire nation.

The world’s only testimony to a revelation of Hashem is found in the Torah: "And Hashem said to Moses: Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, so that I may set these My signs among them; and so that you will recount in the ears of your son and your grandson how I made a mockery of Egypt, and the signs that I placed among them, and you will know that I am Hashem" (Exodus 10:1).

The Ten Plagues stand apart from all other miracles because they showed mastery over every force of nature on a national scale, proving that the Creator of the world chose the people of Israel.

The Plague of Blood showed mastery over water and lasted precisely seven days: "And Hashem said to Moses, Say to Aaron: Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt—over their rivers, over their canals, over their ponds, and over all their bodies of water—and they shall become blood. And there will be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, even in wood and in stone. And Moses and Aaron did so, as Hashem commanded, and he raised the staff and struck the waters that were in the Nile, before the eyes of Pharaoh and his servants, and all the waters that were in the Nile turned to blood. And the fish that were in the Nile died, and the Nile stank, and the Egyptians could not drink from the Nile, and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt" (Exodus, ch. 8).

The Plague of Frogs showed mastery over small creatures. They swarmed up from the Nile, their natural habitat, onto dry land, into homes to pester and be killed. Notably, the timing of each plague was set in advance. Pharaoh was asked when he wanted the frogs to leave Egypt, and he answered "tomorrow" to test that the plagues were by the will of Hashem: "And Moses said to Pharaoh: Glorify yourself over me—for when shall I plead for you and for your servants and for your people, to cut off the frogs from you and your houses, that they remain only in the Nile? And he (Pharaoh) said: Tomorrow. And he (Moses) said: According to your word, so that you may know that there is none like Hashem our God... And Hashem did according to the word of Moses, and the frogs died out of the houses, the courtyards, and the fields, and they gathered them into heaps upon heaps, and the land stank."

The Plague of Lice showed mastery even over tiny creatures. It’s impossible for millions of lice to appear in a moment and then suddenly vanish after seven days: "All the dust of the earth became lice throughout all the land of Egypt. And the magicians did so with their secret arts to bring forth lice, but they could not."

The Plague of Wild Beasts showed mastery over large, predatory animals.

The Plagues of Pestilence and Boils showed mastery over diseases. They, too, were executed with perfect timing, and with a clear separation between Egypt’s livestock and Israel’s: "Behold, the hand of Hashem will be upon your livestock that are in the field—upon the horses, donkeys, camels, cattle, and sheep—a very severe pestilence. And Hashem will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing will die of all that belongs to the children of Israel. And Hashem set a time, saying: Tomorrow Hashem will do this thing in the land. And Hashem did this thing on the next day, and all the livestock of Egypt died, but of the livestock of the children of Israel, not one died. And Pharaoh sent, and behold, not even one of the livestock of Israel had died!" (Exodus, ch. 9).

Regarding the Plague of Boils, it struck even the magicians close to the king: "And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were upon the magicians and upon all Egypt" (Exodus 9:11).

The Plague of Hail, in which fire and hail were combined from the heavens, showed mastery over climate and nature: "Very heavy hail, such as had not been in Egypt... Every human and animal that was in the field and not brought home—the hail fell on them and they died... And fire ran along the ground, and Hashem rained hail upon the land of Egypt. And there was hail and fire flashing within the hail, very heavy, such as had not been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation" (Exodus, ch. 9).

The Plague of Locusts showed mastery over insects and the crops.

The Plague of Darkness again showed mastery over day and night: "And Moses stretched out his hand toward the heavens, and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days. They did not see one another, and no one rose from his place for three days, but for all the children of Israel there was light in their dwellings" (Exodus, ch. 10).

The Plague of the Firstborn revealed the One who is present everywhere and at all times, who remembers who is the firstborn across an entire land and alone can strike them in a single moment, showing absolute mastery over human life and death: "And Moses said: Thus says Hashem: Around midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt, and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh sitting on his throne to the firstborn of the maidservant behind the mill, and every firstborn of animals. And it came to pass at midnight, and Hashem struck every firstborn in the land of Egypt" (Exodus, ch. 11).

At the Revelation at Mount Sinai, all the children of Israel became prophets—about three million people heard the voice of Hashem. Note this striking fact: the voice of Hashem speaking to the nation terrified them even more than the thunder, the shofar blasts, and the mountain blazing with fire up to the heart of the heavens:

"And Hashem said to Moses: Behold, I come to you in a thick cloud, so that the people may hear when I speak with you, and also that they will believe in you forever... And Mount Sinai was altogether in smoke because Hashem had descended upon it in fire, and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And the voice of the shofar grew increasingly stronger; Moses would speak, and God would answer him with a voice..." (Exodus, ch. 19).

Ask any skeptic: Why doesn’t Christianity tell its believers about the voice of Hashem speaking before an entire nation in a sublime event? Why doesn’t Islam tell of the angel Gabriel appearing before millions? Why doesn’t Buddhism tell of Buddha showing a spiritual vision to all of India? Where, in other religions, do you find earth-shaking, nationwide miracles such as the Ten Plagues, the Splitting of the Sea, the Revelation at Sinai, the pillar of fire and cloud, manna from the heavens and water from a rock, forty years of miracles in the desert, the fall of Jericho’s walls to the sound of shofars, and so on?

Even Christianity and Islam, which copied and rely upon the Torah, could not tell their followers about nationwide miracles. Muhammad could not convince, even by the sword, his primitive followers who could not read or write that all their ancestors had merited a great Divine revelation that never happened.

The reason is that it’s simply impossible to invent mass history (that is, a historical event witnessed by an entire nation that never occurred), because history is transmitted by a whole people from generation to generation, not by isolated individuals—so it cannot appear out of thin air. I expanded on this topic in this response.

Thus did the Creator of the world reveal Himself to His chosen nation with open and mighty miracles, proving the truth of His Torah. It is therefore not a "coincidence" that humanity discovered His existence through the Torah of Israel.