The letter attributed to Rabbi Shimshon of Ostropoli — studying the ten plagues

The letter attributed to Rabbi Shimshon of Ostropoli discusses allusions and gematria relating to the ten plagues and the Haggadah. Various communities study it before Passover. It is a text of Kabbalistic study, not a prayer composed by Rabbi Emanuel Shahar.

For useful reading, keep a Passover Haggadah alongside the letter and follow the passages on which it draws: Rabbi Judah’s mnemonic signs, the number of plagues in Egypt and at the sea, and the statements of Rabbi Yosei the Galilean, Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Akiva. Obscure matters should be studied with someone knowledgeable about the sources and their versions.

Text of the letter

Peace to the rabbis of the land, who build protective fences and stand in the breach. May the Lord save them from destruction and doom, all the holy ones upon the earth, each raising questions and answering according to his discernment. Amen, selah. To the heart of the matter: the Ari, of blessed memory, wrote in his booklet called P’laot Rabbot, in the section ‘The Exodus from Egypt,’ chapter 3, folio 42a, as follows:

I have already informed you that Pharaoh was struck in Egypt with these ten plagues through 3,280 destructive angels appointed in three heavens of impurity. The first is called שרע, the second תמוך and the third בישהא. Above them is the prince called דלפקט, and above them all the prince called תקא. At the beginning, remove ten from the third, six from the fourth and six from the ninth, as written:

The Egyptians suffered ten plagues in Egypt and fifty at the sea through the name שפ״ו, which David son of Jesse held; the name spoke and struck. Through תק״ל they suffered forty in Egypt and two hundred at the sea; the name spoke and struck. Through אשצ״ה they suffered fifty in Egypt and two hundred and fifty at the sea. With what the Holy One, blessed be He, strikes, He heals exile. What rebellion, sin or trespass did our ancestors commit to be in this iron furnace, until He redeemed them through these names: דע״ב צד״א כשח״ב? Thus far the Ari’s words.

My teachers and masters, holy ones of Israel, these words are wondrous, closed and sealed, with none to explain them. Great scholars of Israel have asked me to explain the Ari’s words, and I did not tell them. Out of my great love for my teachers, I will reveal this secret shown to me in a dream, a vision of the night. I now disclose it by allusion before your honored Torah wisdom; may the Merciful One forgive.

This is the explanation:

When the Ari wrote that Pharaoh was struck in Egypt with ten plagues, he meant the following:

Practitioners of practical Kabbalah said that 3,280 destructive angels are appointed to strike the wicked, punish them in Gehinnom and cleanse their sins. Of this it is said, ‘to strike with a wicked fist’: אגרף alludes to 3,280. Through them wicked Pharaoh was also struck. I, the writer, say that this is a wondrous secret when written and counted: דם (blood), צפרדע (frogs), כנם (lice), ערב (swarms), דבר (pestilence), שחין (boils), ברד (hail), ארבה (locusts), חשך (darkness), מכת בכורות (striking the firstborn).

These ten plagues, written letter for letter as above, total 3,280, corresponding to the destructive angels appointed to purify the wicked. It is a wondrous plain explanation, such as no eye has seen.

The calculation is exact when כנם is written without yod, ערב without vav and חשך without vav: precisely 3,280 destructive angels, no more and no less. That is the Ari’s meaning in ‘as written’: as in the Torah scroll, not as in prayer books and the Haggadah, where the words are written in full. They must have the defective spelling of the Torah. Rabbi Judah likewise gave only the initials דצ״ך עד״ש באח״ב, as Rabbi Isaac Abarbanel wrote and as I explained above.

Thus ‘remove ten from the third’ means that the third plague, כנם, lacks yod; ‘six from the fourth’ means ערב lacks vav; ‘six from the ninth’ means חשך also lacks vav. ‘As written’ means the Torah’s defective spelling, as explained. This is the secret of ‘These are the ten plagues that the Holy One, blessed be He, brought in Egypt’: exactly 3,280 destructive angels struck Pharaoh and the Egyptians there.

They are appointed in three heavens, named שרע, תמוך and בישהא. Here too is a great and wondrous secret. The 3,280 camps that struck Pharaoh and the Egyptians are appointed in these three heavens of impurity. Scripture discloses an awesome secret, and the Haggadah’s narrator arranged the phrase ‘עשר מכות שהביא’ (‘ten plagues that He brought’): these three words allude to the three heavens and the 3,280 destructive angels, the numerical total of the ten plagues. עש״ר has the letters of שרע; מכו״ת those of תמוך; שהבי״א those of בישהא. These are the three impure heavens containing exactly 3,280 destructive angels, matching the total of blood, frogs and the other plagues. They struck Pharaoh and the Egyptians, for such angels are appointed to strike the wicked and cleanse their sins. Through them He struck Egypt with these ten plagues. This is a great wonder.

The Ari’s ‘above them is the prince דלפקט’ means that this name derives from המצרים (‘the Egyptians’). The three heavens are עשר מכות שהביא, as the sage explained, followed by על המצרים (‘upon the Egyptians’). דלפקט consists of the letters immediately preceding those of המצרים; the final mem marks the plural and is not part of the root. The narrator alludes to this in ‘These are the ten plagues that the Holy One brought upon the Egyptians in Egypt’: the letters preceding the letters of המצרים.

‘Above them all is the prince תקא’ means that the initials of the ten plagues, דצ״ך עד״ש באח״ב, have the numerical value תקא, exactly that of the prince and of אשר. This is the secret in Exodus, ‘so that you may tell your son and grandson what [אשר] I wrought in Egypt’: precisely אשר, whose number equals תקא. Many verses point to this secret of אשר, the value of the plagues’ initials. We have wondrous secrets in this, and ‘the glory of God is to conceal a matter.’

The Ari wrote that שפו, held by David son of Jesse, spoke and struck ten plagues in Egypt and fifty at the sea; תקל spoke and struck forty in Egypt and two hundred at the sea; אשצה spoke and struck fifty in Egypt and two hundred and fifty at the sea. This refers to the awesome secret of the disagreement in the Haggadah between Rabbi Yosei the Galilean, Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Akiva, each asking, ‘From where do we learn?’ שפ״ו and the ten/fifty count allude to Rabbi Yosei the Galilean, for רבי יוסי הגלילי has that numerical value. דוד בן ישי, David son of Jesse, also has the value שפו: David came through that very name. Sodei Raza likewise says Rabbi Yosei the Galilean is a spark of David son of Jesse. This name struck them. תק״ל and the forty/two-hundred count allude to רבי אליעזר, which has that value: ‘Rabbi Eliezer says’ is precisely the name תקל. אשצ״ה and the fifty/two-hundred-fifty count allude to רבי עקיבא, whose value, with the kolel (one added for the whole), equals אשצ״ה. That name declared those numbers of plagues. Thus שפ״ו תק״ל אשצ״ה allude to these three Tannaim.

Peace to the rabbis of the land, builders of protective fences who stand in the breach. May the Lord save them from destruction and doom, all the holy ones upon the earth, each questioning and answering according to his discernment.

רבי יוסי הגלילי has the value שפ״ו, רבי אליעזר the value תק״ל, and רבי עקיבא the value אשצ״ה. This is a wondrous, awesome secret: the secret of secrets, the concealment of concealments, as I wrote to your honored Torah wisdom. May the Merciful One forgive iniquity.

The Ari’s statement that the Holy One heals exile with what He strikes, asking what our ancestors sinned, means that the initials of these ten plagues, דצ״ך עד״ש באח״ב, encode the secret and reason for our ancestors’ descent into Egypt, as I wrote to you. With these plagues He struck them, and the Holy One healed us. He struck them mightily: ‘It is the finger of God.’ From the blow itself came Israel’s healing, for the Holy One redeemed them, as I wrote.

‘What was their rebellion?’ means that these plagues hint at our ancestors’ sin that caused the descent to Egypt. We have an awesome, wondrous secret resolving the difficulty your honored scholars raised. This too is settled as I wrote to you: wonders of His holy and pure Torah.

The Ari’s statement that the Holy One redeemed us through דע״ב צד״א כשח״ב means that the first letters of דצ״ך עד״ש באח״ב form דע״ב, the second letters צד״א, and the remaining final letters כשח״ב. These three names allude to Israel’s healing, through which He redeemed us. Thus the very plagues striking Egypt contain Israel’s redemption and healing. May it be the Holy One’s will to show us the coming of our Messiah speedily in our days, with the angels associated with redemption, and fulfill in us: ‘As in the days when you came out of Egypt, I will show him wonders.’ Amen, forever, selah.