Paqid Yirmeyahu, ha-Tzadiq

This week I learned several things: The Nile's role was key in the development of the "makot". It clarified Goshen not as a "donut hole" of safety, completely surrounded by plague and pestilence, but simply down stream. Also, the chain-reaction of one "plague" to the next was always a mystery. I never knew of the ram-idol of the Egyptians. Language, rather than mere speech impediment, as being Moshe's apprehension, was also a revelation. The parasha notes were extremely helpful in getting a grasp on the reality of it. Thank you again.

As a side-note, the staff-to-snake "trick" could be like a game I saw in elementary school. Children would hold a pen/pencil loosely between their thumb and finger, away from the center, and shake their hand up and down. It created an illusion of elasticity, which I imagined being Moshe's experience. I had the impression from the text (& help from mechon-mamre.org JPS translation) that HaShem told him to throw it out. Depending on how it hit, it could have had the same effect. The "swallowing up" of the magician's staves by Aharon's could simply mean that it was unequivocally debunked. I'm sorry I didn't mention it last week.

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Relating to the real world of the Creator (Prime Force) of physics, science, logic and the real world, instead of Dark Ages superstition and myth is often revelatory; though, in hindsight, one often wonders how that could be surprising – and why so few realize it.

I'm on a bus to Y^әru•shâ•laꞋ yim now, and the bus doesn't have internet, so I can't access concordances or my Klein's dictionary to double-check. However, if memory serves me right, the term, in at least one instance, is not נחש (naꞋ khash; snake), but a different term that usually refers to a crocodile.

At a restaurant in Y^әru•shâ•laꞋ yim now, found a hot zone. The term is תַּנִּין (ta•ninꞋ ; crocodile).

The "pencil trick" wouldn't explain how one ate the other. However, an interesting phenomenon about crocs and alligators is that if one strokes the belly of a small one, it goes into sort of an induced coma and, perhaps, one could hole it by the tail – carefully, so as not to disturb it. (Certainly, it can be held, very still, on its back.) In a sack, with only its tail visible, it might appear to be the handle of a (Hebrew rather than Egyptian) sceptre or walking staff sticking out of a sack. Throwing it on the floor would make it "come alive" and, if hungry, it would certainly attack and eat a snake. Seems like a very dangerous trick that could easily turn out badly, but if it was relatively small… And Mosh•ëhꞋ  was raised in an Egyptian palace on the banks of the Nile with access to all of Egyptian learning and their priests' secrets and magic. You need to relate to the Hebrew terms. Can't be done in English.