Vaera

📜 The Story

At the start of Parshat Vaera, Hashem reveals Himself to Moshe and promises to redeem the children of Israel from Egypt. Hashem tells Moshe four expressions of redemption, I will take out, I will save, I will redeem, and I will take, and from these our sages learned to drink four cups of wine at the Seder.

The Torah then lists the family line of Moshe and Aharon, showing us that they came from the tribe of Levi. Moshe was eighty years old and Aharon was eighty three years old when they first stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

Hashem sent Moshe and Aharon to Pharaoh to ask him to let the people go and serve Hashem in the wilderness. Before Pharaoh, Aharon threw down his staff and it turned into a snake. The Egyptian magicians did the same with their staffs, but Aharon's staff swallowed all of theirs.

Because Pharaoh refused to let the people go, Hashem brought seven plagues upon Egypt: blood, frogs, lice, wild animals, pestilence, boils, and hail. Each plague was both a punishment for Egypt and a lesson to the whole world that Hashem rules over all of creation.

After nearly every plague, Pharaoh promised to let the people go, but the moment the plague stopped he hardened his heart and changed his mind. The parsha ends in the middle of the story of the plagues, leading right into the next parsha, Bo.