Was the frog in Egypt a miraculous creation or not?

Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto’s talks are known throughout the Jewish world. They combine chassidic teachings and philosophy, along with tips for a better life. We have collected pearls from his teachings that are relevant to our daily lives. This week he comments on the Torah section of  V’Era.

And the frog went up and covered the land of Egypt." (8:2)

The Gemara says (Sanhedrin 67b) in the name of Rabbi Elazar that there was one frog that spawned more frogs which filled all of Egypt with frogs. Rabbi Akiva agreed that there was one frog, but he averred that the Egyptians hit it, and each blow miraculously produced many more frogs until there was a frog plague. Rabbi Elazar told him, “Akiva, why are you involving yourself in the stories of the Torah? Better you should go and study the laws of Negaim (tzora’at spots that come in the wake of a spiritual malady) and Oholot (laws of spiritual impurity). What you said was not correct. Rather, one frog spawned many frogs instead of one frog being beaten which caused it to produce many frogs.”

This exchange seems strange to us. Doesn't every great scholar have the right to express his opinion on the Torah? Everyone can argue and everyone can state what he thinks is right. Rabbi Akiva’s opinion was that there was one frog who produced many frogs from each blow it received. He has the right to his opinion. Why did Rabbi Eliezer try to silence him and tell him to stop offering his interpretation of the stories in the Torah and go instead to the dry legal parts of the Torah, like Negaim and Oholot ?

Perhaps this is the explanation. Our Sages tell us (Brachot 61b) that when Rabbi Akiva was being executed, the Romans combed his flesh with iron combs to cause him severe torment. His students saw it and wept, “Our teacher, is this how you will die?” At that moment, it was the time to recite the Shema. Rabbi Akiva replied to them, “All my life when I would recite the verse in the Shema ‘You shall love God … with all your soul’ meaning that even if He takes your soul, I was troubled if I would be able to fulfill this. Now that this opportunity has come, I shouldn’t fulfill it?” His soul departed and he passed away.

The commentators ask what Rabbi Akiva meant when he said, “All my life I was troubled if I would be able to fulfill this.”

The answer is this. The Almighty created man last on the sixth day after He had created all the rest of creation. The Almighty told all the animals and birds, “Let's create something that will be the supreme creation in the world. Each one of you will ‘contribute’ your outstanding trait.” The lion ‘contributed’ its strength, the eagle ‘contributed’ its agility, and each animal ‘contributed’ its specialty to the new creation that was going to be created. And what was that creation? The first man, Adam, who was the choicest of God’s creations. He has all the traits that exist separately in different creatures. 

That is why the Mishnah says (Avot 5:20) "Be as bold as a leopard and as agile as an eagle, run like a gazelle and be as strong as a lion." A human is capable of being as bold as a leopard because the leopard ‘contributed’ his boldness to man. He can be as agile as an eagle because all the animals’ powers exist in man.

When all the animals ‘contributed’ their powers to the first man in the process of his creation, the frog gave him two traits - the power of singing and praising God, and the power of self-sacrifice. We see this in the plague of frogs. When God told the frogs to afflict the Egyptians, they even jumped into the fiery ovens of the Egyptians and gave up their lives. The frog ‘contributed’ to man the ability to surrender his life. 

However, Rabbi Akiva did not agree that self sacrifice was part of a frog’s innate nature. He believed that the frogs in Egypt did not display self-sacrifice, just as in the frogs’ creation they were not created with the trait of self-sacrifice. Rather, God created one frog and in a miraculous way - by being struck - it produced more frogs. It was these miraculously created frogs who sacrificed themselves. Ordinary frogs would not naturally do an act of self-sacrifice. According to Rabbi Akiva, since frogs don’t possess the trait of self-sacrifice, they could not have ‘contributed’ it to man when he was created and man therefore doesn’t possess an innate power of self-sacrifice.

Rabbi Elazar told Rabbi Akiva to desist from interpreting Bible stories because his understanding about the frogs’ nature was wrong. He declared that we did in fact receive the power of self-sacrifice from the frogs and it is indeed their nature. Since Rabbi Akiva’s understanding was wrong, he was better off devoting himself to other topics like Nega’im and Oholot. 

Rabbi Akiva’s perception is also why he found it difficult to sacrifice himself at any moment. All Rabbi Akiva’s life, he was waiting for the time of saying "Shema Yisrael" to bolster his ability to sacrifice his life. Rabbi Elazar intimated to him that this perception was wrong because he had an innate ability to sacrifice himself without any external inducement.

We likewise see (Yalkut Shimoni Psalms 150) that when King David finished composing the Book of Psalms, he felt pride. The Midrash recounts that a frog hopped up to King David and told him, “David, why are you proud? I say thousands of songs to the Almighty every minute.” Immediately King David fell silent. How was one frog able to humble King David? And why did King David respond by falling silent? The explanation is connected to what we mentioned above. Since man received the power to praise and sing to God ‘from’ the frog at man’s creation, David fell silent because he knew he ‘owed’ this trait to the frog.

A parallel can be seen with the tachash animal that was created in the desert because it was needed for the Tabernacle. The question is asked why it was not created during the Six Days of Creation like everything else? The Gemara says that that tachash had a very beautiful skin. If it had been created at the beginning of the world, it would have given man a rare power of beauty. But if man had been conferred such exquisite beauty, many more people would be tempted to sin. So God instead created the tachash only when it was needed for the construction of the Tabernacle and not at the creation of the world.

This article was written in cooperation with Shuva Israel