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"When Pharaoh speaks to you and he says, 'Give me a miraculous sign,' you shall say to Aaron, 'Take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh. It will become a serpent.'"

The staff of Aaron swallowed the other staffs after turning back into wood, thus demonstrating that occult powers were not involved. Instead G-d's ability to override the laws of nature and the physical world became revealed.

"G-d spoke to Moses, and said, 'I am Havayah. But I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as "E-l Sha-dai", and did not make known to them My Name Havayah."

The Ari teaches that the Patriarchs achieved only a superficial consciousness of G-d relative to what Moses achieved. This is because the Patriarchs perceived G-d as He is revealed in the world, which is only a superficial revelation compared with the way G-d is revealed in the Torah, which is what Moses was able to comprehend.

"I used to appear to Abraham..."

Although G-d revealed aspects of His attributes to Abraham, Abraham remained unaware of the difference between G-d in His capacity as E‑l Sha‑dai and G-d in his capacity as Y‑K‑V‑K, of the unique simultaneous effectiveness of both of these of G-d's attributes.

We mortals can only achieve such appreciation of G-d Himself as we can glean from our perception of G-d as He has chosen to manifest Himself within Creation. This limitation on our ability to "reach" G-d as He is in Himself (i.e. in no way linked to Creation) is represented by the name E-l Sha-dai.

When G-d promised Moses that He would deliver the children of Israel out of Egypt, He used four different expressions of deliverance. The first three primarily relate to taking the Children of Israel out from a physical subjugation.

However, the primary goal of the deliverance from Egypt was to bring them to spiritual freedom through receiving the Torah, referred to in the fourth expression of deliverance.

"I will miraculously set apart" in connection with the fourth plague, "arov/mixture".

The Lubavitcher Rebbe comments that future of the Jewish people depends on their being separate and unique from the other nations. When G-d Himself breaks down the natural boundaries of the world, it is important that the separation of Jews from the other nations be intensified.