The Great Cry in Egypt

The article before you by our teacher, the Gaon and Tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a, opens a fascinating window into an amazing story from the Midrash HaGadol. In this article, our teacher, the Rav shlit"a, tells of an elderly Egyptian woman who confronts Moses regarding her fate during the Plague of the Firstborn. In his words, the Rav shlit"a combines Torah depth alongside intriguing anecdotes, raising eternal questions about justice, Heavenly mercy, and the purpose of suffering in the world. Through this story, we will discover the power of small deeds and the strength of simple faith to change reality.

The Elderly Woman in Egypt: "I have no son, upon whom will the decree fall?"

The Midrash HaGadol on Shemot brings a story about an elderly woman who said to Moses, "This will not strike me" (referring to the Plague of the Firstborn). She said to Moses, "I have no son." The verse states "the senior of the house" (meaning the oldest of the household members will die), but if there is no person, if he is one (alone and solitary), then he is not the "senior of the house," for a senior of the house implies there is someone else (with him). So this elderly woman said to him, "You said 'there is no house where there is no dead.' But I have no children, and I have had no husband for years. One needs to die, but there was no decree upon a single individual; a person who is solitary in the house, living alone in a room, upon him there is no decree. Only when there are two, is there a 'senior of the house,' the eldest in the family." It is written here in Parshat Bo, "And Pharaoh's servants said to him," there was a great cry in Egypt, there was a great cry in Egypt, and there was a great cry in Egypt. Here (in Midrash HaGadol page 167, section 6) on verse 6, chapter 11: "And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt." There will be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt; there will not be a house where they do not cry there, "there is no house where there is no dead." Thus, the senior of the house, the eldest of the family, and even firstborns of other lands, even firstborns who come from another land [would die]."

"And there was one elderly woman—Moses came from Pharaoh's palace, or passed through the street—and there was an elderly woman (who approached him) and began to scream at him, scream at him. And he did not have gabbaim (attendants) to give her two slaps; he walked without gabbaim, he was not afraid. And this elderly woman pounced on him: 'Why are you bringing the Plague of the Firstborn upon us? What do you want? We will make a judgment against you!' What do you think for yourself? She said, 'You are a false prophet.' She calls him a false prophet. 'Let vengeance be done to him,' she says, 'You are a false prophet. You said "there is no house where there is no dead," that the senior of the house is the eldest of the family. I am an old woman, alone, already a hundred years old. I have no father, I have no mother, I have no brothers, sisters, I have no children. I am an old woman of a hundred.' She has no father. 'And you say "there is no house where there is no dead." Who will die? Will I die? The decree does not apply to me.'"

The Old Woman and the Statue – A Dance of Suffering

"So she made a statue of her son (who had passed away previously), and she would dance—every day she would dance for an hour before the statue. She danced (before) the statue which was in his likeness. She made it out of dough—she kneaded it in his image (this is the language of the Midrash: 'and she made a likeness of dough in the image of her son') (meaning she kneaded dough and made the form of her son from it). And every single day she would dance before the statue, every day, an hour of Hisbodedus (secluded prayer/meditation), an hour of dancing; she performed dances before the statue. And every night, it is written, she would not sleep. It is written in the Midrash that on that night [of the plague], she was the first, before everyone else. When the dogs came, they pounced on the statue and began to tear it apart. She immediately began to make such screams, even before everyone else, and she woke everyone up to scream. 'And there was a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt' (as Moses our Teacher said). So, every plague was composed of several plagues. It is written in Yalkut Shimoni (Shemot Chapter 7, Remez 182: 'many types of frogs and 14 types of lice') that the frogs were 14 types, boils—it is written—were 24 types; the boils were 24 types of boils."

The Purpose of the Plagues: Rectification, Not Revenge

"The Kedushas Levi says on Parshat Tetzaveh regarding what Hashem said to Moses, 'Go and I will send you to Pharaoh.' The Kedushas Levi says that Hashem does not want there to be damage to any gentile, not even to the Egyptians. His goal was that the Egyptians would return in teshuvah (repentance); that was the intention. And if we did not merit that, then we do not say [the full] Hallel, only on the first day, (and on the other days) only due to custom. Therefore, I said to you 'and I will send you to Pharaoh,' for He, may He be blessed, does not want to do evil to any Jew, nor to any gentile, nor to any person in the world. Even the Egyptians who tortured Israel with all the tortures in the world—Hashem did not want to kill them. Hashem wanted them to do teshuvah, and then afterwards, slowly, over the generations, they would rectify it; they would pass through everything and rectify it. But the fact that they drowned in the sea was no rectification at all; it was merely vengeance against the nations, but it was not a rectification."

"So He, may He be blessed, is good and does good, and He does not associate His Name with evil; from His mouth, no evil goes forth, only good. And even regarding the nations of the world, even though they tortured Israel and need to be punished, the Kedushas Levi says that this thing is evil in His eyes, may He be blessed; it is very difficult for Him. Even regarding the nations of the world, the evil He brings upon them is difficult for Him, because Hashem wants them to return them in teshuvah, so that the Nation of Israel will be a light unto the nations, (as it is written) 'Nations shall walk by your light, and kings by the brightness of your rising.' That there should be such a light, that the world will shine with such a light, that they will learn Torah, and its light will shine from one end of the world to the other, that the whole world will return in teshuvah. Moses our Teacher cried over all the exiles; every night while he was in Pharaoh's palace, he would rise and cry to Hashem over the troubles of the Nation of Israel. For every single plague, Hashem would teach Moses our Teacher a melody (niggun), and through it, Moses would perform the plague."

Ten Types of Melody: The Melody Behind the Plagues

"And this corresponds to the ten types of melody. And regarding the plague of Locusts (Arbeh), Hashem did not tell him with what to strike. Even according to the opinion of Rabbi Yehuda who said that [the acronym] Dtzach Adash Bachav was written on the staff, it is still not clear that the Aleph stands for Arbeh (Locusts), because it could be the plague of Lions (Arayot). For indeed, lice came also with the mixture of wild beasts (Arov), as we learn from what is written in Psalms (105:31), 'Arov came before lice.' And why did Moses choose Locusts? Because Pharaoh said to him that the Nation of Israel are locusts. And Hashem showed him what locusts are—that it is the most organized creature, as it is written in Joel (see also Proverbs 30:27, 'The locusts have no king'). But the frogs jumped one on top of the other into the fire until the fire was extinguished."

Only to Forgive and Pardon

Until Moshiach arrives, every person must undergo endless humiliations for every movement of his, for every word of his, and for every deed of his. He must undergo endless and endless (humiliations), and on his part, he must only forgive and pardon. For if he has a grudge, even as thin as a hairsbreadth, then he cannot reach what he needs to reach. He needs to understand the opposite: that Hashem rolls events from all kinds of directions. Hashem rolls events like Chana and Peninah, where 'my heart rejoiced in Hashem' (that she rejoiced and thanked Hashem that a son was born to her). So Reish Lakish said that she was either a hundred years old or ninety years old, (and some say) she was already 130 years old.

Abba Umna – Holiness in Daily Life

So, 130 years of bloodletting—this is the matter of Abba Umna, who would receive greetings (Shalom) every day from the Heavenly Academy (Metivta d'Rakia). So Abaye sent (students to check) what Abba Umna does. They said that he is modest, and he covers every woman who enters to him; he covers her with a sheet, and to this sheet is attached the syringe that draws blood. And he does not take money from people (directly); rather, there is a box outside and everyone puts money in, and he does not check how much each person put. But this is still not enough to receive greetings from the Heavenly Academy; a person needs something else entirely. (So Abaye) sent Torah scholars to steal things from his house. And they provoked him, and provoked him, and provoked him, and they caught him in the street (and asked him about the items they stole from him), 'What is this? How much is this worth?' And he, with a smile on his face (said to them), 'It is worth such and such.' They said, 'How do you know?' He says, 'It was mine.' (So they asked), 'And you don't care?' (And he) says, 'No.' (And they asked him), 'So what did you think (when you discovered we stole from you)?' He thought that a case of redeeming captives (Pidyon Shvuyim) had presented itself to the Sages. They said to him, 'Take it back.' He said, 'I will not take it back anymore.'

Then Abaye understood why Abba Umna receives greetings from the Heavenly Academy every day. Abaye received it once a week on Sabbath eve, and Rava received it only on the eve of Yom Kippur, and all this is written in Taanit 21b. (Taanit 21b: A man whose name was Abba Umna—and he was called this because his trade was bloodletting, and one engaged in this trade is called an 'Umna'—peace would come to him from the Heavenly Academy every day. And for Abaye, that same Bat Kol [Heavenly Voice] would come every Sabbath eve, meaning once a week on Friday. Whereas for Rava, that same Bat Kol would come only every eve of Yom Kippur, meaning once a year. On the eve of Yom Kippur, Abaye felt discouraged.

Meaning, he was distressed—because of the high level of Abba Umna. For Abba Umna was seemingly a simple man, and yet his level was so great that peace would come to him from Heaven every day. Whereas he, Abaye, who knew in his soul that he was a Torah scholar and a Tzaddik, only merited this once a week. They said to him: You should not be distressed by this, for you cannot perform deeds like the deeds of Abba Umna. You are unable to do like the good deeds of Abba Umna. And what were the deeds of Abba Umna? That when he was engaged in his work, bloodletting, he would seat the men separately and the women separately, due to modesty. And he had a type of garment that had a small hole in it, and in that hole, the horn used for bloodletting was inserted. When a woman would come to him to let blood, Abba Umna would ask her to wear this garment so that he would not have to look at her flesh at all. For without that garment, the woman would have needed to uncover her flesh so he could insert the horn there and let blood. But now, that the woman wore this garment, she did not need to uncover any of her flesh, for the garment was already perforated and ready. And he only needed to insert the horn into her body and let blood.

The Gemara further relates of the good deeds of Abba Umna: And Abba Umna had a modest place, not visible to everyone's eye, where those coming to let blood would place the coins they had to pay for his wage. And why did Abba Umna conduct himself this way, that everyone would place the payment themselves, and in a modest place? So that those who did not have anything to pay would not be ashamed. Whoever had means to pay—would place the money there; and whoever did not have, and could not pay, would not face shame. Since the box was in a modest place, and everyone put the money in themselves, no one would know who paid and who did not. When a Torah scholar would happen to come to him to let blood, he would not take payment from him.

And not only that, but after the Sage stood up from the bloodletting, Abba Umna would give him money of his own and say to him: 'Go and buy yourself something to eat, and strengthen yourself for a day.' Abaye sent two Torah scholars to test the deeds of Abba Umna, to witness the great deeds of that man to whom peace comes from Heaven more than to himself. Abba Umna seated them in his home, fed them and gave them drink, and spread out fine wool bedding for them to sleep on at night. In the morning, those Torah scholars rolled up the wool bedding—and took them, and went out with them to the market to sell them there. And Abba Umna found them there. 'Evaluate for us how much this bedding is worth, and buy them for yourself!' The Sages wanted to test him if he would suspect them as robbers, or perhaps he would value the bedding at less than their worth so as not to lose much by buying them from them even though they were his. He told them the amount.

They said to him, 'Perhaps they are worth more than that?' He said to them, 'For this amount, I myself bought them.' They said to him, 'This bedding is yours—and we took it from you. Please, tell us, when you saw that we were trying to sell your bedding without your permission, of what did you suspect us?' He said to them, 'I said to myself, perhaps an urgent Mitzvah of Pidyon Shvuyim (redeeming captives) happened to come your way, and you were ashamed to tell me that you needed money. Therefore, you came initially to stay in my house so that you could obtain money in some way.' They said to him, 'Now that it has become clear to you that we only intended to test you, take your bedding!' He said to them, 'From that moment that I thought you took the bedding for the purpose of redeeming captives, I removed my mind from them [relinquished ownership], and I intended for them to serve for the needs of charity.')

Ahavas Chinam: The Key to Geulah

So the Rebbe (Rebbe Nachman) says (in Torah 34) that every Jew has a point, a completely different point. It could be Abba Umna, it could be a Jew who lets blood, but he has a point with which he receives greetings every day from the Heavenly Academy. It only depends on the holiness of the person, on the modesty of the person, on the charity of the person. And the main thing is truly that he has Ahavas Chinam (baseless love) for every single Jew, and in this merit, we will merit the complete Geulah (Redemption) speedily in our days, Amen.