When I was a child, I always loved to walk around our house in the dark. I would count the stairs and know exactly how navigate between the couch and chair to make it from my bedroom to the kitchen and back. This exercise was more than just a challenge I set for myself. It was a test as to how well I could adapt to an experience we all face every night – darkness.
Of all the plagues, darkness seems the least imposing. Between wild beasts, pestilence, and even frogs, most of us would choose darkness. In an age before electric lights, a few candles and a little patience would be all that would be required to make it through. But the darkness in Exodus is not normal darkness, it is what is called “a darkness of gloom” (Exodus 10:21). What is “darkness of gloom”? According to Rashi, the 11th Century French commentator, the darkness of gloom prevented the Egyptians from even standing up from their seats, let alone finding their way to the door.
The Hebrew word used for gloom, aphelah/אפלה, is more than mere physical darkness, it is spiritual darkness as well. In this way, darkness is the worst of all the plagues. More than mere adversity, this is loss of hope, and nothing can be worse than that. This is not something you can navigate around like I did as a child; it is an anguish that takes over everything. Most of us have felt this at times in our life, and we have seen others going through it as well. The only way through it is with the help of others. Perhaps, this was what was missing in Egypt, a feeling of comradery that enables you to face anything in our path. Here, in the darkness of our Buffalo winters, watch out to for one another, support one another, act as the light that will help see one another through even the deepest of our gloom.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Alex