Parashat Bo - Most Locusts Ever! Again!

(19) יהוה caused a shift to a very strong west wind, which lifted the locusts and hurled them into the Sea of Reeds; not a single locust remained in all the territory of Egypt. (20) But יהוה stiffened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let the Israelites go.

(1) The word of the Eternal that came to Joel son of Pethuel. (2) Listen to this, O elders, Give ear, all inhabitants of the land. Has the like of this happened in your days Or in the days of your fathers? (3) Tell your children about it, And let your children tell theirs, And their children the next generation! (4) What the cutter has left, the locust has devoured; What the locust has left, the grub has devoured; And what the grub has left, the hopper has devoured. (5) Wake up, you drunkards, and weep, Wail, all you swillers of wine— For the new wine that is denied you! (6) For a nation has invaded my land, Vast beyond counting, With teeth like the teeth of a lion, With the fangs of a lion’s breed. (7) They have laid my vines waste And splintered my fig trees: They have stripped off their bark and thrown [it] away; Their runners have turned white.

Some say that it's called the Gazam because it cuts (gozez) the grain, and Arbeh because it is the majority (rov) amongst the species, and Yelek because it licks (lokek) and laps up the grass, and Chasil because it cuts everything that was laid bare (yechasalnu) by the Arbeh...

(1) Blow a horn in Zion, Sound an alarm on My holy mount! Let all dwellers on earth tremble, For the day of the Eternal has come! It is close— (2) A day of darkness and gloom, A day of densest cloud Spread like soot over the hills. A vast, enormous horde— Nothing like it has ever happened, And it shall never happen again Through the years and ages. (3) Their vanguard is a consuming fire, Their rear guard a devouring flame. Before them the land was like the Garden of Eden, Behind them, a desolate waste: Nothing has escaped them. (4) They have the appearance of horses, They gallop just like steeds. (5) With a clatter as of chariots They bound on the hilltops, With a noise like a blazing fire Consuming straw; Like an enormous horde Arrayed for battle. (6) Peoples tremble before them, All faces turn ashen.^-a (7) They rush like warriors, They scale a wall like fighters. And each keeps to his own track. Their paths never cross; (8) No one jostles another, Each keeps to his own course. And should they fall through a loophole, They do not get hurt.^-b (9) They rush up the wall, They dash about in the city; They climb into the houses, They enter like thieves By way of the windows. (10) Before them earth trembles, Heaven shakes, Sun and moon are darkened, And stars withdraw their brightness. (11) And the Eternal roars aloud At the head of God's army; For vast indeed is the host, Numberless are those that do God's bidding. For great is the day of the Eternal, Most terrible—who can endure it? (12) “Yet even now”—says the Eternal— “Turn back to Me with all your hearts, And with fasting, weeping, and lamenting.”

(18) Then the Eternal was roused On behalf of God's land And had compassion Upon the people. (19) In response to the people the Eternal declared: “I will grant you the new grain, The new wine, and the new oil, And you shall have them in abundance. Nevermore will I let you be A mockery among the nations. (20) I will drive the northerner far from you, I will thrust it into a parched and desolate land— Its van to the Eastern Sea And its rear to the Western Sea; And the stench of it shall go up, And the foul smell rise.” For God shall work great deeds.

(26) God sent God's servant Moses, and Aaron, whom God had chosen. (27) They performed God's signs among them, divine wonders, against the land of Ham. (28) God sent darkness; it was very dark; did they not defy the Divine word? (29) God turned their waters into blood and killed their fish. (30) Their land teemed with frogs, even the rooms of their king. (31) Swarms of insects came at God's command, lice, throughout their country. (32) God gave them hail for rain, and flaming fire in their land. (33) God struck their vines and fig trees, broke down the trees of their country. (34) Locusts came at Divine command, grasshoppers without number. (35) They devoured every green thing in the land; they consumed the produce of the soil. (36) God struck down every first-born in the land, the first fruit of their vigor.

Due to the sin of robbery, locusts emerge, and famine prevails, and people eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, as it is stated: “Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, that oppress the poor, that crush the needy, that say unto their lords: Bring, that we may feast” (Amos 4:1). Afterward it says: “And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places” (Amos 4:6), which refers to famine. Rava said: like those women of the city of Meḥoza, who eat and do nothing. And it is written: “I have smitten you with blight and mildew; the multitude of your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees has the palmerworm devoured” (Amos 4:9). And it is written: “That which the palmerworm has left the locust has eaten; and that which the locust has left the cankerworm has eaten; and that which the cankerworm has left the caterpillar has eaten” (Joel 1:4). And it is written: “And one snatches on the right hand, and is hungry; and he eats on the left hand, and is not satisfied; they eat every man the flesh of his own arm [besar zero’o]” (Isaiah 9:19). Do not read it: The flesh of his own arm [besar zero’o]; rather, the flesh of his own offspring [besar zaro].

§ Rabbi Avira, and some say Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, taught: The evil inclination has seven names. The Holy Blessed One called it evil, as it is stated: “For the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth” (Genesis 8:21).... Joel called it hidden one, as it says: “But I will remove the northern one [hatzefoni] far off from you” (Joel 2:20). The Sages taught: “But I will remove the northern one [hatzefoni] far off from you,” that this is the evil inclination. Because it is always hidden [tzafun] in the heart of human beings.

...The plagues were smiting the Egyptians and healing the Jewish people, and the order of the plagues from those coming from the ground, till those (clearly coming) from God directly, and the plague of locusts was there to heal the Jewish people's understanding of their heart, as it says in the verse:" So you shall tell your children and your children's children how I exalted over Egypt" and this idea is again echoed in the book of Joel where it talks about the הצפוני type of locust. The Talmud tells us that this refers to the evil inclination which is hidden צפון in the heart of man. (i) It is for this reason that the plague of locusts occurred in the month of Sh'vat which focuses on purifying the heart from the desires of the heart. The צדיק only eats to satiate his soul, without any desire. The month of Sh'vat is therefore a time to improve on the trait of eating from desire. ...

In Sh'vat when we heal the sin of the gluttony, is the new year for trees, and we make a blessing on the fruit to enhance them with blessing and holiness....