Queer Bird

"And Aharon stretched his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the Frog rose and covered the land of Egypt"
-Exodus 8:2

    "Vata'al Hasefardeia." And the Frog rose.
    Most translations render this passage as 'the frogs rose,' but the verse actually writes in the singular. The frog rose. The midrash elaborates on this and affirms that there was originally only one large frog. The Egyptians tried to rid themselves of it by striking it, but to no avail, for each time they struck the frog another one would be spawned. And so they struck the offspring of this frog, but those frogs too only responded by increasing in number. The harder the Egyptians tried to get rid of all the frogs the more of them there were until they had covered all the land.
    When I first heard this story the irony struck me. The foolish Egyptians, despite seeing over and over again that their efforts backfired, continued to blindly pursue their course of action. Driven by their strong aversion to this frog they abandoned reason, and failed to even recognize that they were making their own problem worse.
    This story is a metaphor for the experience of the Jewish People in Egypt, and in all exiles. The more we are persecuted, the more we are struck, the more we revitalize. Exile does not weaken us, it makes us stronger.
    Throughout history, nations have made the mistake of the Egyptians. Directed by a singular hatred, they abandoned sense in their quests to repel us. Despite all this, never did we die. Each tragedy was transformed by G-d into a victory. We are struck, time and time again, yet we continue to grow.
Imagine then, what lies at the end of this longest of exiles. After two thousand years of being stricken imagine how great we will emerge.

And now, a song in honor of the frog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHwwJkKp7Oo&playnext=1&list=PL4B28C0E1071207EB&feature=results_main

or, if you don't listen to women sing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TithIgzHZTg