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| Family First Feature |

And It Happened at Midnight

How did that night of Yetzias Mitzrayim look, as the Jews sat in their homes, eating the Korban Pesach, and waiting for the promise of “chatzos halaylah” to be fulfilled? 

The house was crowded. I saw my daughter Sarah standing in the front hall with her children, her shoulders tight. I wanted to catch her gaze, give her an encouraging smile, but the tumult in the small kitchen and the many people near the entranceway made eye contact impossible.

My eyes scanned the area in front of me, as I mentally counted the people there. My seven children and their children. Nearly 100 people in one home.

“Where is Avihu?” I whispered to myself as I looked for my son Matanyah’s third child. “Ah, there. And Yocheved?”

“Has anyone seen Yocheved?” I raised my voice.

“She’s here, Ima!” Evyasar yelled back.

“Quickly, let’s go, it’s almost bein ha’arbayim, dusk! Go out with the lamb, we need to slaughter it!” Matanyah shouted. “What a mess it is here! All these sacks of gold and silver from the Egyptians…” He nudged the sacks aside, then undid the knot that tied the lamb to the bed.

“Come to Pharaoh”

The noise and tumult were making me dizzy; my age and the excitement were taking a toll. I went to the side window and glanced outside. The normally quiet street was bustling. My eyes met those of my neighbor Rachel’s. She smiled at me, then raised her eyebrows and gestured behind her. I could see her grandchildren crammed into her small home.

Rachel raised her gaze to the blue sky, and put a tired hand on her heart.

“Are you afraid?” I asked.

Rachel shook her head. “I’m praying.”

I also put my hand on my heart, and looked into her eyes, eyes that held years of privation, hunger, and suffering. “I’m also praying,” I whispered as I turned away from the window, back to the noise and frenzy of my home.

“Ima! Did you meet Rabbanit Miriam today?” Sarah asked me.

“When did you think I could meet her? Don’t you see what’s going on here?!” I gestured at the crowded room. “But I met her a few days ago,” I said, knowing that this answer would draw the busy men into my small kitchen.

“What did the Rabbanit say?”

“Did Moshe and Aharon go to Pharaoh? What happened there?”

“What’s happening? Tell us!” my sons peppered me with questions.

“Rabbanit Miriam told me that Moshe Rabbeinu went to Pharaoh’s palace again, and—” I began.

But Evyasar cut me off. “That’s not unusual. It’s almost a ritual by now — Moshe and Aharon leave Goshen, enter Pharaoh’s city, walk to the palace, and despite the lions lying in wait at the entrance and the frightening guards guarding the entrances, the neviim merit to have the lions licking their feet, like little puppies, and the guards seem not to see them. Then Moshe and Aharon give Pharaoh the Divine message, Pharaoh refuses to listen, Mitzrayim is struck with a Makkah, and after a week, the king’s messengers come to the house on the corner and plead with Moshe to hurry to the king so the plague can stop.”

My sons smiled when they heard this brief but accurate description.

“If you let me continue without cutting me off, I can tell you what happened this time,” I said with a secretive smile. The children and grandchildren fell silent. “The last time Moshe left Pharaoh’s palace, he was accompanied by loud booing and shouting. That foolish king got so angry, he told Moshe that if he saw him one more time, he’d kill him on grounds of treason!”

“I don’t believe it! What chutzpah! That Pharaoh is really…” Evyasar’s voice trailed off as his older brothers glared at him.

I hid my smile. “Moshe bent his head in agreement, and said firmly: ‘May it be so — I will not see your face anymore.’ But a moment before he left the hall where the king was sitting, HaKadosh Baruch Hu appeared to him and told him to tell Pharaoh that there was one more Makkah waiting for Mitzrayim, one that was even more severe than all those that preceded it, and that by the time it ended, Pharaoh would be pleading for Klal Yisrael to leave his country.”

“Something doesn’t make sense to me, Ima,” Matanyah said somberly. “Moshe Rabbeinu never received nevuah in Pharaoh’s house. The palace is full of avodah zarah and impure objects!”

“You’re absolutely right,” I told him. “That’s exactly what I asked Rabbanit Miriam. But she told me that this is the first time that HaKadosh Baruch Hu revealed Himself to Moshe in the king’s palace — He did so because if Moshe would have left the palace, he wouldn’t have been able to return to issue a warning about the plague.”

“Is this the tenth Makkah?” one of the grandchildren asked.

“Yes,” I replied. “Moshe Rabbeinu said that this will be the last one! It will be the hammer’s blow and after it we will leave this bondage.” Even as I uttered the words, I was struggling to believe them. Redemption? What was that?

Excerpted from Mishpacha Magazine. To view full version, SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE or LOG IN.

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