Bo

Moses held out his arm toward the sky and thick darkness descended upon all the land of Egypt for three days. People could not see one another, and for three days no one could get up from where he was; but all the Israelites enjoyed light in their dwellings.

10:22-23

Rashi asks, “Why did god bring darkness upon them?” The very question is unusual; on no other of the plagues does he ask such a question. There is something about the plague of darkness, about the way it reduces the human being to a blind and paralyzed vulnerability, that defies rational or moral explanation…In this kind of darkness, one might say, repentance – teshuvah – becomes impossible. There is no possible response to the terror of such a condition…Such a darkness…is also uncanny in the simple sense that it disrupts the basic structures of time…This darkness is full of the terrors of the night…

Aviva Zornberg (Contemporary)

Abravanel (15^th Century) writes (the plague of darkness was like)…A phenomenon similar to what happens deep inside underground caves, or in the Mountains of Darkness…I do not find acceptable such attempts at implicating a chain of natural causes in these divinely wrought miracles that were unrelated to causes in nature. It was solely as a result of Moshe extending his hand that this singular phenomenon ensued…

Malbim (19^th Century)

The night consists of air ready and capable to absorb light in the morning. The darkness that would occur now was something unable to interact with light at all. The reason for this inability to interact with light was the density of the texture of this darkness. As a result of this totally different kind of darkness.

Rashbam (12^th Century)

The plague had the dual objective of letting unworthy Jews die without their death affording any satisfaction to the Egyptians, as well as to give deserving Jews a chance to locate the places where the Egyptians kept their valuables.

Moshe Alshich (16^th Century)

The form in which the Messiah will appear depends on us. "If they merit, he will come 'on heavenly clouds.' If they do not merit, then he will be 'a pauper riding on a donkey'" [Sanhedrin 98a]. In other words, if the Jewish people attain a spiritual level high enough, they merit a supernatural redemption with wonders and miracles. If, however, the redemption arrives because it is the final hour for its arrival - but the Jewish people are not deserving - then the redemption will come through natural means… The dregs in the bottom of the wine bottle are needed to preserve the wine. If a bottle lacks dregs and we wish to correct the situation by adding dregs, the initial effect will be to muddy the entire bottle, temporarily ruining it. But as the dregs settle at the bottom of the bottle, the wine regains its clarity and benefits from the preservative powers of the dregs.

Avraham Kook (20^th Century)