The Darkness of Hell

The Lord said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward the heavens, and there will be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness that can be felt."                                                 Exodus 10:21

Where did this darkness come from? Rabbi Neḥemiah says it was the darkness of hell, as the verse states: “A land of darkness like darkness itself; the shadow of death without orders, and where the light is as darkness.” [Job 10:22]                             Shemot Rabba 14:2

            One of the Ḥassidic Masters commented that the greatest hell is the gap between what a person can be and that which he is in fact. Perhaps this is related to the Egyptian’s inability to arise from their places during the days of darkness, as the verse states:

And for three days they did not move from where they were. [v. 23]

            During three days of the darkness, the Egyptians were unable to move, as Rashi comments:

One who sat could not arise and one who stood could not sit.

            The darkness of hell which descended upon Egypt and the Egyptians did not allow the Egyptian to change himself at all and indeed highlighted the chasm between his moral and ethical potential and what he was in practice.