Machshavot HaLev - Yeshivat Lev HaTorah

250
6. The ten plagues – what you didn’t know.
Frogs – The Yalkut says that Egypt at the time was at war with a nation called
Kush over their borders. The frogs which appeared in Egypt stopped exactly on
the borders and therefore solved the issue. Even when the Egyptian sorcerers
made their own frogs, they didn’t o over the borders either – solving the war.
Hail – By hail the people of Egypt had changed. How so? The Meshech Chochmah
says that Moshe warned the Egyptians about hail and told them to take their
belongings inside. Pharoah sent messengers telling people to leave things outside
– but people took their things in anyway, showing they believed G-d and Moshe
more than Pharoah.
Killing of the firstborn – there were ten plagues, so why is only this one called
makkah – plague? Birkat Chaim says that when the firstborns heard about the
plague they rebelled against Pharoah. Many people were killed in this rebellion
and this is the makkah we refer to in this plague.
7. Cup 2 - Vehitzalti
בלה תובשחמ
This cup is parallel to the phrase, “And I shall deliver you from their bondage”
(Shemot 6:6).
Based on Rav Hirsch - To have a heavy workload is not the worst form of
oppression. The removal of back-breaking labour is as we said above, just stage 1
(the root) of the road towards freedom. A person might have a heavy load, but if
they have taken it upon themselves of their own free will, or if it has been decreed
in Heaven by their Father in Heaven that this is their fate in order to train, test
and improve them, then even though in both cases (taken on freely or given by
G-d) a person might complain or moan about their burden, they still remain a
free person as this burden is either freely chosen or bestowed by a loving Father.
Conversely – if a person is given everything by another person and relies on
them completely, they become a slave to that person, however externally or
materialistically free they seem.