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Torah Message:
Lebensraum
“And the sorcerers did thus with their spells, and the frogs arose on the land of Egypt.” (8:3)
When one reads of the plagues of Egypt one tends to think that nothing else was happening in Egyptian life at the time. However, the Midrash relates that during the plague of frogs there was an ongoing war between the Egyptians and their neighbors — the nation of Kush — over the precise line of the border. When G-d commanded the frogs to swarm over Egypt, they did so only on the Egyptian side of the border, so further dispute became moot. However, the Egyptian sorcerers tried to create a little extra lebensraum by trying to make the frogs swarm over the borders on the side of Kush.G-d frustrated their designs, as the verse says, “And the frogs arose on the land of Egypt…” Even the frogs brought up by the Egyptian sorcerers arose only “on the land of Egypt,” and not on the land of Kush.
- Sources: Avodat B’Yehosef in Mayana Shel Torah