Parashat Va’era: An Artistic Midrash about Ancient Egypt

An artist’s midrash paints the battle between Moses/Aaron and Pharaoh in this week’s Torah portion. 

In spite of their great sense of failure caused by their first meeting with Pharaoh, Moses and Aaron were told by God to return again to king of Egypt, and to impress him by “Producing their marvel” before him (Exod. 7:9). Aaron is to cast down his rod and it should  turn into a serpent, “Pharaoh then, for his part summoned the wise men and the sorcerers and the Egyptian magicians” (Exod. 7:11) and they, “did the same with their spells, each casting down his rod and they turned into serpents. But Aaron’s rod swallowed their rods” (Exod. 7:12). It is this episode that is visualized at the center of Avner Moriah’s painting.

Why did the artist choose this particular scene to illustrate this parasha? What is the connection between this central image and the other six vignettes?

Against the background of the pyramids in the central scene, we see sandy ground and the blue water of the Nile. Moses, Aaron, and Pharaoh and his magicians are figured in a particularly Egyptian style of painting, showing a perspective that combines profiles of the head, the legs, and the arms with frontal views of the eyes and the shoulders. Since the biblical text uses a singular form when referring to Aaron and Moses  ויבא Va’yavoh, the artist displayed them as one figure standing on the right holding onto the tail of a green crocodile. On the left Pharaoh is with his magicians, who are holding the tails of brown crocodiles as they are being swallowed by the large reptile that came from Aaron’s rod.

This scene is very important for it suggests that had Pharaoh been willing to accept the extent of God’s powers  he would have spared himself and his people much suffering. We are reminded of an earlier Pharaoh’s dreams in which the fat cows and the healthy wheat were swallowed by the lean, unhealthy ones (Gen. 41), and that that king accepted God’s plan as Joseph interpreted his dream and thus saved Egypt from starvation. In contrast we are told  of the present Pharaoh: “Yet Pharaoh’s heart stiffened and he did not heed them…” (Exod. 7:13).

Clearly, unlike the earlier king, the new Pharaoh did not respect God’s power as he witnessed it reflected through Aaron’s rod.

The six images framing the central depiction all relate to the rod in the hand of Aaron or Moses, which represented God’s might. The three on the right visualize miracles done through the rod in Egypt. At the top the rod has turned into a crocodile, which is devouring the magicians’ reptiles; the middle scene shows the rod turning the waters of the Nile into blood, killing all of the fish in the river; and the bottom square depicts the plague of the frogs.

The three scenes on the left visualize the rod being used to call forth God’s miracles for the Israelites. The top square shows Moses splitting the Sea (Exod. 14); in the middle, Moses is hitting the rock and the water is streaming (Exod. 17); and the bottom image depicts the struggle with Amalek, Moses  is standing on a hill with the rod in his upraised arm (Exod. 17).

The way the rod was used in performing all of God’s commands demonstrates the verse, “By this you shall know that I am the Lord” (Exod. 7:17).  The rod was not in itself magical but was rather a symbol of God’s strength, evidenced in the ten plagues, in the Exodus from Egypt, and in the miracles in the wilderness.