Greta Hort notes that one thing that stands out about the Egyptian plagues is their relationship to natural phenomena that occur in Egypt’s ecosystem.
And Professor Ziony Zevit tells us that using this theory the first six plagues can even be explained in their sequential order. The naturalistic account is connected initially with the violent rainstorms that occur in the mountains of Ethiopia, to the south of Egypt.
1. The first plague, referred to as dam, blood, was caused when red clay swept down into the Nile from the Ethiopian highlands coloring the river and rendering its water undrinkable.
2. The mud affected the aeration of the water that lead to the death of fish. Bodies of dead fish clogged the swamps inhabited by frogs. The rotting fish crowded the frogs out from the swamps. They left the Nile and sought cool areas in people's houses: the second plague. But, the movement of frogs occurred only after they had become infected by some communicable disease.
3-4. Since the frogs were already infected with the disease, they died in their new habitats. As a consequence, lice, the third plague, and flies, the fourth plague, began to multiply, feeding off the dead frogs.
5. This gave rise to a pestilence that attacked animals, the fifth plague, because the cattle were feeding on grass that by then had also become infected.
6. In people, the symptom of the same disease was boils, the sixth plague.
This read is powerful. It talks about the cumulative chain reaction that happens from a single event -- in this scenario, it is violent rainstorms.
And boy do we have our own violent rainstorms, literal and metaphorical. Just this past summer, in addition to the wild fires, we witnessed a fire tornado in California! Not to mention the severe thunderstorms, large hail and drought throughout the country, all of which is culminating in the largest migration happening in our time, which is climate migration.
And not to be outdone, the metaphorical violent rainstorm of racial capitalism and white supremacy is wreaking havoc as almost 400,000 people have died due to covid-19 here in the US and Black and Brown bodies continue to take the brunt of the economic, political and injustice system that is working just as it was designed. All the while, mobs of angry white folks are storming the state and federal capitals, eerily reminiscent of the race riots that occured in this country before and after the flu epidemic of 1918.
We are witnessing in real-time the cumulative effect of this chain reaction. And even though we don't hear the voices of the Egyptians in this portion, I can imagine they felt like we feel right now, caught in the middle, hopeless, fearful of what might come next since it's clear that things are escalating. Or maybe we're feeling like Moshe who keeps telling G-d: I just don't think I'm the right person to do this particular work of liberation.
But listen to what G-d tells Moshe in chapter 7 verses 1 and 2: See I have put you as a gd for Pharaoh and Aaron your brother will be your prophet, you will speak all that I will command you and Aaron your brother will speak to pharaoh and he will send forth the children of Israel from this land.
G-d says I'm going to match your power with that of Pharaoh and you will have help along the way with your brother Aaron. And I implore us, matter of fact I bless us with the courage to lean into the power of our spiritual, our G-d like nature, collectively working towards the liberation of our people in this land and in solidarity with those who are working towards liberation around the world.
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