[Ha-Rav's Commentary on the Haggadah]
Question: Couldn't
Hashem have redeemed the Nation of Israel with one plague?
Answer: Of course!
Our Sages already asked: Why was the world created with ten utterances?
Couldn't Hashem have created it with one (Avot 5:1)? Our world is not an
expression of the divine ability to act in a single moment, but to act in
stages. The Ramchal – Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato - wrote that each day the
world gets closer to its perfection. All the worlds that were created
previously were made piecemeal, but they all could be exalted. Our world
was not created with the full power of the Master of the Universe. Hashem
limited His power and revealed Himself in the way in which humans work: little
by little, according to a divine plan which continues to be actualized over
time. It is not true that the Master of the Universe needed to bring
plague after plague because of the stubbornness of Pharaoh's heart. On
the contrary, the Blessed One caused the stubbornness of Pharoah's heart in
order to bring the plagues upon him. "For I have made his heart and
the heart of his servants heavy so that I can put My signs in his midst, and so
that you may relate in the ears of your son and your grandsons" (Shemot
10:1-2). In our days as well, do not despair for the Redemption which is
progressing slowly, slowly. This is not divine weakness – G-d forbid, but
the greatest strength for the sake of increasing the sanctification of Hashem's
Name.
