1996/5756

   Parshat Shemot ends with Hashem speaking to Moshe.  Parshat Va'Eira opens with Hashem speaking to Moshe?  Is it one conversation or two? (Note how the Christian-made פרקים are divided versus the Torah's פרשה breaks.)

   What is the point of ו:יג?  All it says is וידבר ה' אל משה ואל אהרן ויצום אל בני ישראל ואל פרעה מלך מצרים להוציא את בני ישראל מארץ מצרים, that Hashem commanded Moshe and Aharon to go to Bnei Yisrael and Paroh to take the Jews out of Egypt.  Is it adding anything that we do not already know?  Does the same problem exist for ו:כט-ל?

   ו:כח states ויהי ביום דבר ה' אל משה בארץ מצרים, "And it was on the day that Hashem spoke to Moshe in Egypt."  This is seemingly a sentence fragment, yet it is written in the Torah as the closing line of a paragraph.  Is it supposed to be attached to the next paragraph, or must it somehow be reinterpreted to fit as a closing sentence.

   ט:לא-לב explains which grains were and were not affected by the flaming hail of מכת ברד.  Why does the Torah consider this information to be significant?