There are lots of children’s songs which center around the frogs that descended on Egypt during the course of the second of the ten plagues.
There is the fan favorite
Frogs Here, Frogs There, Frogs are Jumping Everywhere
“One morning when Pharaoh woke in his bed there were frogs on his head and frogs in his bed…”
Or the catchy, foot tapper
“Out of the river frogs did pour, jumped in the beds and ovens and floor…”
These charming ditties are the basis of the curriculum for the preschool set this week.
But if we believe the Torah is eternal and has relevant wisdom for every stage of life what lessons can we learn from our amphibian friends?
There is a core concept in Judaism which is called a “measure for a measure”.
This principle teaches that
“Gd repays people with consequences that directly match their actions, thoughts and words”
This means that a reward given by Gd will contain a mirror or kernel of the action that created merit.
Conversely, a punishment will reflect a quality or dimension that the sinner reflected.
A more nuanced version of the punishment fitting the crime.
The Egyptians perpetrated many heinous acts against the Jewish people. And when Gd punished the Egyptians, each plague and each punishment, was a response to the underlying crime committed by the Egyptians.
So let us look at the frogs and what their essence belied.
In a book called Bina BMikra, the author quotes an article by Prof Yehuda who explains this concept.
The frog was a goddess in ancient Egyptian lore. The talisman of the Egyptian midwives was this goddess and is depicted by a woman with a frog’s head. This is because frogs are known to multiply profusely and are therefore a good emblem of the wish for population explosion.
When the plague of frogs infested Eqypt they reminded every one of another situation where midwives were tasked not with bringing life into the world but rather snuffing it out.