"G‑d said: ‘Exactly at midnight I will go forth in the midst of Egypt.’" (Ex. 11:4)

Night is divided into two halves: from dusk until midnight, the sun sinks deeper below the horizon and the sky becomes progressively darker; from midnight until dawn, the sun begins its ascent to the opposite horizon and the sky becomes progressively lighter. The first half of the night is therefore associated with G‑d's attribute of severity and judgment (gevura), while the second half is associated with G‑d's attribute of kindness (chesed).

...midnight...itself "takes up" no time...

Midnight, however, being the exact midpoint between the beginning and the end of the night is associated with neither attribute. In fact, midnight is just a theoretical construct rather than an actual span of time—for the moment immediately before midnight is part of the first half of the night and the moment immediately after it is part of the second half. Although midnight defines a specific time, it itself "takes up" no time, similar to how the corner where two walls intersect defines a location in space but itself takes up no space.

Midnight is thus beyond time, and it is by virtue of this transcendence that it can connect the two opposite halves of the night and negotiate the transition from the first to the second. Although we take for granted the "transition" from pre-midnight to post-midnight (as well as the "transition" from one direction to another), it in fact takes a time-transcending input to switch from one type of time to another (and a space-transcending input to change from one direction to another), since nature, by its own inertia, always tends to continue in the direction in which it is already going.

Hence the great significance of midnight: it is a "moment" when G‑d's transcendence is revealed. The slaying of the firstborn therefore had to occur exactly at midnight, since it was the final stroke of the Exodus, and in order for this Exodus to occur G‑d had to reveal His transcendence beyond the laws of nature. Naturally, the Exodus could never have occurred, since it was entirely "natural" for Egypt to be the world's superpower and enslave the Jews. Nature had to be overruled, and this is the essence of midnight.

Based on Torat Chaim 2:123a; Sefer HaMa'amarim 5678, pp. 241 ff; Sefer HaMa'amarim 5717, pp. 144 ff
© 2001 Chabad of California/www.LAchumash.org