BJL apologizes for not posting this on Erev Shabbos:
The Torah describes how with the outstretched hand of Aharon all the bodies of water turned into blood, adding, 'even in the wood and stone'.
Rashi based on the Targum interprets it to refer to water sitting in wooden and stone vessels.
What about earthen, clay or metal vessels? Why specifically wood and stone?
The Midrash explains the verse, not in the context of 'vessels' containing water, but rather to their wooden and stone idols of worship which now bled.
The same question begs, were their idols only fashioned from wood and stone? What of their gods of silver and gold?
Why did this specific plague from among all the others strike their idols as well?
Water serves two basic purposes. It is the basis of all drinks and food, it supports our most basic physical nutritional needs. But is equally vital to the maintenance of our dignity in its function to maintain hygiene, enabling us to present ourselves properly and proudly.
The late great Gaon, Rav Chaim Kanievsky, citing Talmudic sources points out that generally wooden vessels served as vehicles for drinking water, whereas stone was carved out as basins for washing, and thus mentioned exclusively in the verse to accent these needs.
These two basic human needs, satiating our thirst and maintain our 'dignity', are the two drives within every human that needs to be balanced so that we don’t 'overindulge' in our instinctive needs, nor promote ourselves beyond the goal of purposeful social interaction, leading to arrogance and the quashing of others who we perceive as interfering with our ambition.
The Vilna Gaon points out that when the Torah prophesizes about our being influenced while in exile among those nations who 'serve gods, the handiwork of man, of wood and stone', it refers to the two primary religions that will prevail, Christianity, who venerate the 'wooden cross', and Islam, who trek to the Kaaba shrine in Mecca which houses their sacred 'black stone.'
These two are symbolic of the two primary nations that represent the full gamut of seventy nations.
Yishmael portrays the uncontrolled temperament of lust to placate personal needs, all in the name of religion. Edom, the descendants of the prideful Esav, embody blind overconfident claims of supremacy, slaughtering many who stood in their way in their long history, all in the name of their god.
The lowly physical mass of inanimate stone represents our most base instincts. The tall and overshadowing tree remains the bearer of the message of misdirected power and influence.
The antidote to inflated desires and bloated egos is to replace it with דם — value, as the word דמים is used to denote currency which represents worth.
Blood is the vehicle that supplies the nutrients for the healthy function of every organ of our body. It is an entity that 'imagines' the greater picture of its purpose and thus the similarity to the word דמיון — imagination, since it sees its function and purpose within the greater body.
In the world of lust and ego one can run rampantly to the detriment of one's being.
We must place our drives for pleasure and standing within the greater reality of man's purposeful existence. We must transform it into a lifeforce that imagines a דמיון — similarity to the attributes of G-d, as the Torah instructs us, הוי דומה לו — be like Him.
The plagues all correspond to each of the ten 'utterances' by which G-d created the world.
The plague of Blood, according to the Maharal, parallels the very last one: G-d said, "Behold I have given you to you all herbage yielding seed that is on the surface of the entire earth, and every tree that has seed-yielding fruit; it shall be yours for food…"
The food we eat that G-d provides is what generates the nutrients that form into the healthy blood that flows through our very being, powering life and all its magnificent, purpose-filled moments.
May we never drown in the stormy waters of passion and power and live a thoughtful existence imagining all the exquisite possibilities that await us!
באהבה,
צבי יהודה טייכמאן
