Makas Bechoros: Egyptian Lovers and the Tzedakah of Midnight

Rabbi Zweig opens with a perplexing statement from Dovid HaMelech in Tehillim: "B'chatzos halaylah okum l'hodos lecha al mishpatei tzidkecha"—at midnight I arise to thank You for the judgments You performed in Egypt. The Midrash relates that during Makas Bechoros, frightened Egyptians placed their firstborn children in Jewish homes, hoping they would be spared. Yet Hashem (ה׳) entered each Jewish home, killed the Egyptian firstborn, and left the Jewish children alive. The question is: why does this warrant Dovid arising specifically at midnight to thank Hashem? What is the extraordinary miracle here that demands gratitude at that precise hour? Rabbi Zweig contrasts this with other miraculous distinctions during the plagues—such as Egyptians drinking blood while Jews drank water from the same cup—and asks why this particular episode of hafradah (separation) is singled out. He presents a fundamental question based on Rashi (רש"י)'s comment on the death of Egyptian captives (the shevuyim). Rashi explains that even Ethiopian prisoners in Egyptian dungeons had their firstborns killed, lest the Ethiopians claim their own god brought the plague. This teaches that Hashem only killed those who deserved to die or had a specific reason to be included. The Ethiopians, being foreigners, should have been exempt—yet they died only to prevent a false attribution of the miracle.