39 The Passover Haggadah
‘Signal acts is taken to mean the miracles performed with the staff of Moses, as it is written: “Take this staff in your hand, that you may perform the signal aets with it.”*
Wonders indicates the plague of blood, as it is written: “I will show wonders in the sky and on the earth:
Three drops of wine are spilt Blood, fire, and columns of smoke.”*
Another interpretation of the preceding verse is suggested by the rabbis. Each two-word phrase signifies two plagues, thus strong hand, two; oulstretched arm, two; great awe, two; signal acts, two; wonders (in plural), two.
‘These make up the ten plagues which God brought upon the Egyptians in Egypt, namely:
Al the mention of each plague a drop of wine is spilt
1, Broop 6. Bors
2. Froes 7. Haw
3. 8. Locusts 4, 9. Darkness 5.
CATTLE DISEASE 10. Dears oF THE FIRSTRORN
Rabbi Judah, using the Hebrew initials of the ten plagues, composed three words as an aid to memory:
Three drops of wine are spilt
D'tsax, Apasu, B’ayan.
The noun 737K, derived from a word signifying “to multiply,” is highly descriptive of the locust swarms filling the whole air, to twelve or fifteen fect above the ground; they are appalling in their power of collective devastation. ‘Their destructiveness is compared with that of a mighty army (Jocl 2:2-9).
Rabbi Judah, one of the most eminent tannaim of the second century, stressed the serious responsibility of a teacher when he said: “Be careful in teaching, for an error in teaching amounts to intentional ” (Avoth 4:16). Elsewhere Rabbi Judah suggested a mnemonic of two words “lest you should
exodus
17, Voel 3:3, �
