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Va’era: Could the Egyptians be that stupid? (Re: the frogs)

The opinion of Rabbi Akiva (and the one quoted by rashi in the sedra) is that the plague of frogs was really ‘the plague of frog.’ Let me explain; one large frog came up into Egypt and every time it was hit it multiplied by two, and when those 2 were hit they formed 2 frogs, etc until the entire land was full of frogs…

The question posed by the Steipler is what exactly were the Eyptians thinking; they could see that each time they hit the frog it multiplied, so why keep hitting it? He answers that this is the power and danger of the trait of anger; it completely causes you to lose rational thinking, and you can do anything. The idea: let’s try and limit our anger. After all, it’s all min hashamayim anyway.