Last spring, while perusing a local party supply store, I happened across their "Passover" section tucked in a corner. I could not suppress a rueful smile as I imagined what other shoppers must think when encountering this macabre display. All the other secular or non-Jewish holidays seem to be celebrated with joyous abandon: bright colors, tinsel and sequins galore, fun trinkets, and amusing party favors. "Honey, let's see how those Jews decorate their Passover tables... Huh?"

Cups of fake blood.

Little plastic lice and dangerous beasts.

Finger puppets that depict dead Egyptian babies.

"Wow, what fun they must have at the seder, while we're busy eating chocolate eggs!"

These depictions of the Makkos, seemingly borrowed from the Halloween aisle, certainly stimulate our imagination, but they only provide visual cues. Our Pesach Haggados burst with captivating images of the Ten Makkos and they, too, fail to capture the complete Makkos experience. This is because all of the props and all of the pictures do not include the aural component.

It is impossible to understand the Makkos without considering how they fell on the ear. Deafening sound played a major factor and is addressed directly in the pesukim in Vaera, but the noise is often drowned out by all the other mayhem that piques our curiosity. So let us isolate the pitch of certain plagues that tormented the Mitzrim, beginning with Tzfardea.

The decibel-counting begins with Moshe's warning to Pharaoh about the frogs:

וּבְכָה וּבְעַמְּךָ וּבְכׇל־עֲבָדֶיךָ יַעֲלוּ הַצְפַרְדְּעִים׃

The frogs shall come up in you and in your people and on all your servants.

This is taken quite literally by the Midrash that Rashi cites:

ובכה ובעמך – בתוך מעיהם נכנסים ומקרקרים

And in you and in your people - in your stomachs they will enter and croak

Imagine a symphony of frog-song emanating from within your body and drowning out all other sound. That is absolutely terrifying. To demonstrate the blaring volume of this plague, let us note what happens when Pharaoh begs Moshe and Aharon to make these croaking creatures croak. Moshe and Aharon concede, but first:

וַיֵּצֵא מֹשֶׁה וְאַהֲרֹן מֵעִם פַּרְעֹה וַיִּצְעַק מֹשֶׁה אֶל־יְהֹוָה עַל־דְּבַר הַצְפַרְדְּעִים אֲשֶׁר־שָׂם לְפַרְעֹה׃

Then Moshe and Aharon left Pharaoh’s presence, and Moshe cried out to God in the matter of the frogs which had been inflicted upon Pharaoh.

The Sifsei Chachamim asks why by the frogs Moshe is described as crying out (וַיִּצְעַק) to pause the plague, whereas by the others the verb of choice is וַיֶּעְתַּר, he pleaded:

ויש לומר, משום דאמרינן המתפלל צריך להשמיע לאזניו מה שמוציא מפיו, וכאן היו הצפרדעים צועקים כמו שפירש רש״י בסמוך, והוצרך להרים קולו בתפלתו כדי שישמיע לאזניו את תפלתו

We may answer, because we say that one who prays must be loud enough for his ears to hear what his mouth is expressing, and here the frogs were croaking as Rashi explains, and Moshe had to raise his voice in prayer in order to hear his own prayer. 

Moshe had to scream at the top of his lungs to be heard above the din of Tzfardea, and Barad was no different. While we all obsess over the fire and ice of the hail, the pasuk throws in an overlooked detail:

וַיֵּט מֹשֶׁה אֶת־מַטֵּהוּ עַל־הַשָּׁמַיִם וַיהֹוָה נָתַן קֹלֹת וּבָרָד וַתִּהֲלַךְ אֵשׁ אָרְצָה וַיַּמְטֵר יְהֹוָה בָּרָד עַל־אֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם׃

So Moshe held out his rod toward the sky, and God sent thunder and hail, and fire streamed down to the ground, as God rained down hail upon the land of Egypt.

This epic hailstorm roared with cataclysmic thunder, which had to be specifically addressed:

וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו מֹשֶׁה כְּצֵאתִי אֶת־הָעִיר אֶפְרֹשׂ אֶת־כַּפַּי אֶל־יְהֹוָה הַקֹּלוֹת יֶחְדָּלוּן וְהַבָּרָד לֹא יִהְיֶה־עוֹד לְמַעַן תֵּדַע כִּי לַיהֹוָה הָאָרֶץ׃

Moshe said to him, “As I go out of the city, I shall spread out my hands to God; the thunder will cease and the hail will fall no more, so that you may know that the earth is God’s.

וַיֵּצֵא מֹשֶׁה מֵעִם פַּרְעֹה אֶת־הָעִיר וַיִּפְרֹשׂ כַּפָּיו אֶל־יְהֹוָה וַיַּחְדְּלוּ הַקֹּלוֹת וְהַבָּרָד וּמָטָר לֹא־נִתַּךְ אָרְצָה׃

Leaving Pharaoh, Moshe went outside the city and spread out his hands to God: the thunder and the hail ceased, and no rain came pouring down upon the earth.

Why was the timing and location of Moshe's entreaties to cease the hail a point of discussion? The Kli Yakar writes:

שמע מינה שכל כך נבהל מן הקולות עד שרצה שיפסקו לאלתר, ע״כ הוצרך משה להודיעו שא״א שיפסקו לאלתר שהרי הוא צריך לצאת מן העיר תחילה ושם יעתיר אל ה׳

We see from here that [Pharaoh] was so frightened by the thunder that he wanted it to stop immediately, and Moshe was compelled to tell him that it was impossible to stop immediately because he needed to leave the city first and then plea to God. 

It was simply impossible to think amid the cacophony of some of these makkos. This is because noise may rightfully be considered an affliction when it reverberates in the wrong place or at the wrong time or at the wrong volume. There are noise ordinances in many municipalities for a reason, and excessive noise can be a punishable offense. This journey through the sounds of the plagues provides a chance to consider the noise in our lives. 

Noise Violation #1: In Shul

One of the hallmarks of our shul, distinguishing it from many others, is the dignified and quiet davening that we should not take for granted. Creating this respectful atmosphere for tefillah and Krias HaTorah requires constant vigilance, and everyone who walks into the building has the power to contribute positively or negatively to the group experience. If Moshe Rabbeinu himself found it impossible to talk to Hashem with so much noise in the background, what chance do we stand, as conversations destroy the ambiance we have worked so hard to achieve?

Noise violations in shul are the product of an eroded sense of responsibility for others, and they are not limited to the higher ranges of the decibel scale. If you think whispering (30 decibels) should be classified as quiet, you have never sat in the vicinity of whisperers, and you are not displaying kavod hamakom any more than the full-volume conversationalists. We must constantly remind ourselves what we are trying to accomplish in the room. How discourteous it is to ruin the experience for your neighbors through incessant croaking. 

Noise Violation #2: At a Simcha

Many of us recognize that the clamor of the music at our simchas has risen to dangerous levels. Smart phone alerts and our ears urge us to run from the room to save our precious auditory systems from permanent damage. But we stay and celebrate while our eardrums beg for mercy. Wedding music in particular routinely exceeds 100 decibels. Some lesser talented musicians or smaller bands compensate for their weaknesses by pumping up the volume. And wedding parties who know it is too loud have even gotten into the habit of supplying earplugs for their guests, which is kind of like serving spoiled food along with syrup of ipecac as a courtesy. Why not offer something safe to your friends and family in the first place?

The hearing loss resultant from these noise violations is too big of a price to pay. Sometimes the band leader or DJ willfully ignores a family's demand to control the volume. Other times, the hosts fail to articulate any expectations about decibel-level when they have no hesitation about micro-managing every other aspect of the simcha. But whoever is to blame, the prolonged exposure to these thunderclaps has many people imploring, הַקֹּלוֹת יֶחְדָּלוּן, make the noise stop!

Noise Violation #3: In The Choices We Make

There are fascinating discussions surrounding the connection between the Hebrew words for noise, רעש, and evildoer, רשע, which share the same three letters and therefore some spiritual association. I believe this is because we make very poor decisions in the context of noise. Here, I do not refer only to the auditory realm, but also the distractions that create obstacles for us. As we journey through life, we are bombarded by "noise," which can include negative peer pressure, unrealistic expectations, avarice, jealousy, and inertia. All the noise detours us from the right derech and impedes our progress. Noise like this demands all our attention and if we succumb to its siren song we do not grow according to our potential. Isolating what is right and good takes great effort when there are so many tantalizing stimuli out there. 

We simply cannot think straight amid the three-ring circus produced by these violations. Now add to that the toxic tintinnabulations of our phones, unrelenting media bombardment, and a world that just preaches having more, more, more. We cross paths daily with croaking frogs and thunderous hailstorms, just aching for a moment's peace and blissful silence.