For many of us, and some who would prefer not to admit it, this is a recognizable common phrase from the TV game show Family Feud. The host would ask questions to the two contestants, each representing their family, and each would pound their buzzer with their best answer.

If I were to ask you, name the most popular of the Ten Plagues, I would bet that the top answer would be “The second plague, frogs!” As children, we learned the song… “One morning when Pharaoh awoke in his bed… frogs here, frogs there, frogs were jumping everywhere.” Frogs are cute, seemingly harmless, and they’re fun to throw around the Seder table when the time comes. It has become a modern day tradition. I would bet that toy stores stock up in late March and early April (of course now people are lazy and buy “plague kits”).

But there is a school of thought emanating from some of the most classical grammarians that the creature that overwhelmed Egypt between the water turning blood and the invasion of lice was not frogs, but rather crocodiles. Not so cute, despite the “Izod by Lacoste” alligator logo that decorated our most stylish shirts while growing up (I know alligators and crocodiles are different. How ironic, by the way, that today it was announced that the Izod Center in the New Jersey Meadowlands Sports Complex was to close by the end of the month.)

From the Ibn Ezra in the 11th century, to the Abarbanel in the 15th century and Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch in the 19th, there is ample scholarship regarding this linguistic and zoological debate.

Abarbanel advances two logical reasons why tzfardeya means crocodile. First, the Egyptians worshipped a crocodile god. Understanding that the plagues came not only to harass, but also to educate and to attempt to uproot the idolatry and decadence prevalent in Egypt, it would be consistent with Divine punishment to attack their deity. Abarbanel also cites a verse in Psalms which describes the tzfardeya as tools of destruction, a description somewhat difficult to ascribe to frogs.

"ישלח בהם ערב ואכלם וצפרדע ותשחיתם" (תהלים ע"ח:מ"ה)

“He sent swarms of wild animals among them, which devoured them; and tzfardeya which destroyed them”(Tehillim 78:45).

The Midrash Hagadol citing Rabbi Yitzchak notes that Moshe prayed that the tzfaradeya return to the waters of the Nile, not disappear completely (Shmos 8:7). “Every year these beasts emerge and kill people.” That certainly doesn’t seem to describe frogs. In the 14th century, Rabbeinu B’chaye (Shmos 10:19) offers a similar description: “sometimes it comes out of the Nile where it lives, rising onto the river's edge and swallowing whatever it finds, even two or three humans at a time. Neither spear nor arrow can overcome its body, unless aimed for its belly. Physicians say it is venomous and that touching its body, even after its death, is harmful to man.”

Most commentaries disagree for a few reasons First, the Torah describes a species that will “come into your houses, bedrooms and beds” (Shmos 7:28). If the plague were an invasion of crocodiles, the cost would be greater than annoyance. Also the Torah’s description of the creatures teeming and swarming seems to fit better with frogs. That latter word implies smaller creatures, not a large beast. 

The Hebrew term tzfardeya is only found in the Torah in the context of the second plague. The word itself is odd, having an anomalous five letter root. Rabbi Hirsch identifies the root as being two words: tzafar daytime and dameaning knowledge. He learns that this implies an animal that is noisy at night but becomes shy at daybreak. He parallels the annoyance and invasion of the frogs to the fact that the Egyptians removed all the comforts of the Hebrews. So too, the Egyptians could not experience any comfort or basic privacy due to the noise and prevalence of the frogs. Others (cited by Rabbi Nathan Slifkin, the “Zoo Rabbi” from a sample of his, “Torah Encyclopedia of the Animal Kingdom” currently in preparation )  note that tzafar means to chirp and rada in Arabic is a swamp, a favorite habitat of the frog. Other linguists suggest that the root implies “leaping in the marsh,” another clear indicator that we are describing frogs not crocks. However some opine that the first part of the Hebrew term refers to a bird – tzipor. While in Egypt in 459 BCE, Herodotus described a small bird that picked at the teeth of a crocodile searching for parasites. The crocodile makes no effort to eat this bird, understanding the benefits it receives. Since such a bird has not been identified since, scholars will assume this is mere legend (although Rabbi Slifkin reports that Israeli crocodile hunter Ofer Kobi has seen this bird in Africa). 

How can such a debate exist over such an important yet seemingly fundamental understanding? Why did the vast consensus of Bible commentaries (and pre-school teachers) favor the cute frog over the bloodcurdling crocodile?

I believe anyone with a pedestrian knowledge of Hashem’s ways recognizes that He favors more modest modes of supernatural involvement. He prefers when His miracles can be mistaken for natural occurrences. Even the splitting of the Sea came about after an evening of strong wind gusts (Shmos 14:21). The vast literature claiming that the sequence of the plagues was merely a natural occurrence makes this case, that the Almighty hides His intervention through nature. This preference allows the believers to seek out and discover God’s involvement in the world. The famed Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt’l was wont to ask children if Judah Maccabee was strong. The children would all respond yes. After all, as the hero of the Chanukah story, he obviously was a fierce and robust warrior.  Rav Shlomo Zalman would flash his trademark grin and gently correct the children. The liturgy describes the Chanukah miracle as the handing over of the strong into the hands of the weak – giborim b’yad chalashim. We think of the Maccabees as burly and muscled fighters because of their victory, which was granted by God,  not necessarily due to their physique, their skills at combat or knowledge of strategic studies.

I would argue the same applies to the frogs.

To hear that a country came to its knees because of an invasion of thousands of crocodiles would not shock or surprise anyone. Recall the late crocodile hunter and expert Steve Irwin, who was killed by the very species that led to his notoriety. This is not news. But to hear that an assault of harmless but noisy frogs caused the Pharaoh of Egypt to summon the leader of his slaves and ask him to pray for the removal of the amphibious invaders offering a (temporary) promise to provide amnesty to the burgeoning slave population. That’s news!  Kermit and his minions take down the world’s superpower? That gets your attention.

There is ample rabbinic literature analyzing the purpose of the plagues. Many have suggested, as referenced above, that a goal of the Divine offensive on Egypt was to demonstrate the futility of their decadent and idolatrous values and actions.

These little cute but annoying creatures certainly taught a lesson for those seeking to learn. The Gemara (Pesachim53b) states in the name of Todus (TOADus perhaps? J) the Roman that Chananya, Misha’el and Azaria, who willingly prepared to martyr themselves in a fiery furnace (and were miraculously saved) intuited to do so from the lesson of the frogs. They reasoned that despite the fact that frogs are not commanded to sanctify God’s name and martyr themselves in certain circumstances, they still willingly leapt into the ovens of Egypt. If this is the case, Jews who are commanded to sanctify God’s name should certainly be prepared to do so if the situation warrants. According to the Avnei Shoham, frogs are not capable of making decisions, but are pre-programmed to survive. When the frogs willingly sacrificed themselves, this too was a great miracle and suspension of the nature of survival.

But don’t think for a second the lessons in faith were targeted only at the Egyptians. These lessons were also aimed at the Jews who were watching the slow unfolding of the socio-economic and political entity of their oppressors. In Pirkei Avot, we ask why God created the world with ten utterances. Why could He have not stated, “let there be a world?” The sages answer (Avos 5:1) that the ten statements offer ten times the reward for the believers.

Yes, some cool plagues aided the Jews in their quest for freedom, the fulfillment of Hashem’s covenant with the patriarchs. We have created wonderful memories for children in school and at our Pesach sedarim. But these were not merely magic tricks. We know from the parshah that Pharaoh’s magicians were able to replicate a few of the plagues (including the frogs – see Shmos 8:3).  But that was only one component of the plague. The other aspect of instilling faith in the hearts of an un-schooled and spiritually lapsed people was accomplished by the realization that little frogs and lice could wreak havoc on mortal man’s greatest army.

Consider this story which seems to contain multiple allusions to the Pharaoh narrative. The Talmud (Gittin 56b) relates that after looting the second Temple, the Roman warrior Titus took the vessels of the Temple and placed them on a ship to sail to Rome.

A storm blew up that threatened to sink the ship. Titus said: ‘Evidently the God of the Jews has power only over water. When Pharaoh came He drowned him in the sea. Sisera was overcome by water (his body was swept away in the Kishon River – see Judges 5:21) and now He wants to drown me also in water. If He is a great warrior, let Him come up on dry land and wage war against me’. A voice came forth from Heaven and said: ‘Wicked one, son of a wicked one, descendant of the wicked Esav, I have an inferior creature in My world called a yetush (most commonly translated as a gnat). Go up on dry land and wage war against it!’ When Titus landed, a gnat came and entered his nose, and kept knocking against his brain for seven years.

The Gemara continues that Titus hired a blacksmith to hammer in his presence, but the gnat became accustomed to this and resumed knocking nonstop. The narrative concludes that when Titus died they found this gnat having grown to “the size of a swallow weighing two sela. Others claim it was the size of a two year old dove with a copper beak and iron claws.

The story of the plagues represents much more than some entertainment at the Seder or even scholarly debate over translations and zoology. The sages debate how best did God accomplish His goals when dismantling the Egyptians and freeing the Hebrews. At their core as with all Divine providence, God seeks to instill faith and reconnect with His beloved people. When we read and re-experience these events, we need to keep those goals in mind for ourselves and all those with whom we study or teach.