Genius of the Vilna Gaon

There are sometimes little nuances that show the genius of some of our Torah scholars. One such Torah giant was the Vilna Gaon, which we see from such a nuance.

During the plague of דבר, pestilence, the Torah at first tells us that from the cattle of the Jewish people, not even one died.

The Vilna Gaon pointed out that if we check out the actual wording of the Pasuk, it says, לא מת ממקנה ישראל עד אחד, that none of the cattle of Israel died, until one. The עד אחד seems to mean, “except for one.”

The Torah is hinting in a very subtle manner that there was one person among the Jewish

people whose cattle did die during the plague of דבר. The reference was to the future מגדף, later revealed to be שאול בן הכנענית, the son of the Egyptian man and Israelite woman.

She was Shlomit Bat Divri, who was raped and conceived by the Egyptian that Moshe ultimately killed. The son of this union never really saw himself as part of עם ישראל.

Because of this, he was not given the privilege of being part of the miracles witnessed by the other Jews.

It took a genius like the Vilna Gaon to point this out.