{"id":41053,"date":"2018-09-27T09:23:00","date_gmt":"2018-09-27T06:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=41053"},"modified":"2022-04-27T07:53:52","modified_gmt":"2022-04-27T04:53:52","slug":"just-what-kind-of-plague-is-darkness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/just-what-kind-of-plague-is-darkness\/","title":{"rendered":"Just What Kind of Plague is Darkness?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":50634,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[591,618,354],"acf":{"old_id":"41053","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33923,"related_cahpter":"60","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Egypt was ruled by the sun; its Pharaoh, the child of the sun-god","content":"

The ninth plague \u2013 darkness \u2013 comes shrouded in a darkness of its own.<\/span><\/p>\n

We would expect the ninth plague to be very serious indeed, something that threatened, even if it did not immediately take, human life… Darkness is a nuisance, but no more. The phrase \u201cdarkness that can be felt\u201d suggests what happened: a khamsin, a sandstorm of a kind not unfamiliar in Egypt, which can last for several days, producing sand- and dust-filled air that obliterates the light of the sun. A khamsin is usually produced by a southern wind that blows into Egypt from the Sahara desert. The worst sandstorm is usually the first of the season, in March. This fits the dating of the plague which happened shortly before the death of the firstborn, on Pesach.<\/span><\/p>\n

The ninth plague was a miracle, but not an event wholly unknown to the Egyptians, then or now. Why then does it figure in the narrative, immediately prior to its climax? The answer lies in a line from Dayyenu, the song we sing as part of the Haggadah: \u201cIf God had executed judgment against them [the Egyptians] but had not done so against their gods, it would have been sufficient.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

The greatest god in the Egyptian pantheon was Ra or Re, the sun god. The name of the Pharaoh often associated with the exodus, Ramses II, means meses, \u201cson of\u201d (as in the name Moses) Ra, the god of the sun. Egypt \u2013 so its people believed \u2013 was ruled by the sun. Its human ruler or Pharaoh was semi-divine, the child of the sun-god.<\/span><\/p>\n

The plague of darkness was not a \u201cmofet\u201d but an \u201cot,\u201d a sign. The obliteration of the sun signaled that there is a power greater than Ra. Yet what the plague represented was less the power of God over the sun, but the rejection by God of a civilization that turned one man, Pharaoh, into an absolute ruler with the ability to enslave other human beings \u2013 and of a culture that could tolerate the murder of children because that is what Ra himself did.<\/span><\/p>\n

From <\/span>The Difference Between Signs and Wonders, Covenant & Conversation, Bo (5770) <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":104378,"id":104378,"title":"-6268cc4bb650c--6268cc4bb650eex10-egyptian sun god.jpg","filename":"6268cc4bb650c-6268cc4bb650eex10-egyptian-sun-god.jpg.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/6268cc4bb650c-6268cc4bb650eex10-egyptian-sun-god.jpg.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/just-what-kind-of-plague-is-darkness\/6268cc4bb650c-6268cc4bb650eex10-egyptian-sun-god-jpg\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"6268cc4bb650c-6268cc4bb650eex10-egyptian-sun-god-jpg","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":41053,"date":"2022-04-27 04:53:31","modified":"2022-07-03 15:35:06","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1280,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/6268cc4bb650c-6268cc4bb650eex10-egyptian-sun-god.jpg-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/6268cc4bb650c-6268cc4bb650eex10-egyptian-sun-god.jpg-300x300.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/6268cc4bb650c-6268cc4bb650eex10-egyptian-sun-god.jpg-768x768.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":768,"large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/6268cc4bb650c-6268cc4bb650eex10-egyptian-sun-god.jpg-1024x1024.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/6268cc4bb650c-6268cc4bb650eex10-egyptian-sun-god.jpg.jpg","1536x1536-width":1280,"1536x1536-height":1280,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/6268cc4bb650c-6268cc4bb650eex10-egyptian-sun-god.jpg.jpg","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/6268cc4bb650c-6268cc4bb650eex10-egyptian-sun-god.jpg-1200x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/6268cc4bb650c-6268cc4bb650eex10-egyptian-sun-god.jpg-420x420.jpg","home_baner-width":420,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Just What Kind of Plague is Darkness?","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Egypt was ruled by the sun; 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