הכתב והקבלה — ולא ישמע אלכם פרעה ונתתי את ידי במצרים

Q — 'ונתתי את ידי במצרים' is usually translated as 'I will lay my hand against Mitzrayim' — i.e., I will strike them. But why then the conjunction 'ולא ישמע אלכם פרעה' — what causal connection is there?

A — HaKtav VeHaKabbalah re-reads 'נתתי את ידי' not as smiting but as *extending my hand in entreaty* — like a king who pleads with his subjects before raising the sword. The plagues are designed as patient warnings, an invitation to teshuvah. The verse therefore reads: Pharaoh will not listen [precisely because] I am extending my hand to him in patient supplication — 'במקום גדולתי ענותנותי' (Megillah 31a). Pharaoh sees the divine humility and reads it as weakness; he 'goes the opposite way' instead of repenting. The plagues themselves are Hashem's outstretched hand, not His fist — and Pharaoh's misreading of that posture is the hinge of his hardening.