The 10th Plague in Egypt: Kabbalah and Modern Science

By Dr. Michael Schulman, Director of Ask Noah International

In the Tenth Plague that G-d brought upon the Egyptians, all the first-born Egyptian males died at midnight.

The Book of Zohar teaches that G-d killed the first-born Egyptians not only “at” the middle of the night. It was also done *with* the middle of the night. The Hebrew text of the verse Exodus 12:29 allows for both meanings.

In Exodus 11:4, Moses warned Pharaoh that G-d would kill the firstborn “ka‘hatzot ha’layla” (“at midnight”).  Rashi explains there:

AT MIDNIGHT – when the night is divided … This is its simple meaning, which fits in with its context. But our Rabbis have interpreted it [more grammatically precisely] as “ka (at approximately) hatzot ha’layla (midnight)”. They state that Moses said “at approximately midnight”. This means “close to it” – either before it or after it. He did not say “ba (at exactly) hatzot ha’layla (midnight)”. Otherwise, Pharaoh’s astrologers would err [in their calculation of the time] and say, “Moses is a liar”. But the Holy One, Blessed is He, Who knows His times and moments [precisely] said, “ba’hatzot ha’layla” [for in Exodus 12:29 it states, “It was ba’hatzot ha’layla (at exactly midnight) …”].

The non-mystical dimension of Torah cited by Rashi teaches that humans can make a mistake in determining a point in time. But “G-d knows His times and moments” – exactly.

The Zohar notes that grammatically, “ba’hatzot ha’layla” also means “with the midnight”. It teaches that G-d killed the firstborn by revealing to them the exact point in time of the middle of the night, and their souls flew out from their bodies because they could not co-exist with that revelation.

Insights from the Sages are reflected in modern physics

This sounds very mystical. The Zohar seems to be explaining that G-d showed the first-born Egyptians something that is beyond the physical creation – an exact point in time – while they themselves were constrained as physical creations for which an exact point in time cannot be known to exist. This forced their spiritual souls to separate from their physical bodies, because they had a spiritual revelation of something that has no context within physical “reality”.

In a 20’23 article on the development of theories in modern physics about the nature of time [1], the authors concluded by stating, “the nature of time is a fascinating and constantly evolving research topic. Its concept has always been difficult to grasp, despite the abundance of studies and debates on this subject. Physicists have succeeded in making time an operational concept without being able to precisely define it.”

Footnotes

[1] A. Djenidi, et. al, “The evolution of the concept of time in modern physics,” Studies in Engineering and Exact Sciences, Curitiba, v.4, n.1, p. 370-383, 20’23. (Web page includes a link for PDF download of the article).