I was reading Rashi’s interpretation that the reason for the Plague of Darkness was so that the Jews could enter the homes of the Egyptians without detection and record the placement and quality of their valuables.
Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald writes:
Rashi also cites a second interpretation, maintaining that it was during the days of darkness that the Israelites went in to their Egyptian masters’ houses to examine their property. After the tenth plague, when the time came for the Israelites to leave Egypt, the Israelites went to their masters and asked for their vessels. If the Egyptians denied having any, the Israelite would say, “I saw it in your home, and this is where it may be found!” Others attempt to place a more favorable spin on this explanation, by saying that the Jews were now in a position to say to their masters, “We know that you have all these vessels, we saw them during the darkness, and yet we didn’t take them.” So impressed were the Egyptians by the Israelites’ honesty, that they voluntarily gave their precious belongings to the Israelites.
This horrifies me. Yes, the Jews had a moral right to compensation from the Egyptians for their years of torment and slavery, but the idea of God sending a plague of darkness so that the Jews could surreptitiously enter the homes of the Egyptians and make a record of their valuables that they could later claim for themselves is just not a Protestant way of looking at things. I was raised a Seventh-Day Adventist. The idea of entering someone’s home without permission and making a list of their expensive belongings is repellent. I would feel aghast at even leaning on a car not mine parked on a public street. Even if the Jews were morally justified in entering the Egyptians’ homes to find out what good stuff they have, it’s still an awful thing to do and a morally corrupting thing to do.
