Moses is 80 when he begins his mission to deliver the Jews - three years younger than his brother Aaron (and only two years older than Joe Biden when he became leader of the Jews, and others, in America).

Having warned Pharaoh of the consequences of his actions — Trump style — Moses and Aaron, on God’s instructions, begin to enact the 10 plagues.

Before each plague, Pharaoh is given a final chance to repent, which he declines. The plague then afflicts the Egyptians. Pharaoh promises to let the people go if the plague stops, only to change his mind - Arafat style - when it does.

The first seven of the plagues are mentioned in this sedra. Firstly, the plague of blood turned all water to blood. However, as with all the plagues, the Jews were unaffected.

Even if a Jew drew water and drank from a cup and then an Egyptian drank from that same cup, it immediately turned to blood. The fact that Jews were unaffected was an integral part of the message to Pharaoh.

Next came the frogs, which covered the entire country. They even got inside people’s bodies — giving a new meaning to ‘there's a frog in my throat’!

This was followed by lice, wild beasts, pestilence, boils and hailstones.

Interestingly, pestilence seemed to be a sort of airborne virus that became an epidemic! To be continued...

This Shabbat is Shabbat Mevorchim.

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