Parshas Mishpatim 5777

What was the Tzeirah?

The Torah writes (Exodus 23:28):

I will send a tzeriah ahead of you, and it shall drive out before you the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites.

Rashi (ibid) explains:

This is a kind of insect which wounded their eyes and injected poison in them, so that they died. The hornets did not cross the Jordan ... for our Rabbis have explained in Treatise Sotah 36a that the hornets placed themselves on the east bank of the Jordan and from there cast the poison against them.

The Ramban (ibid) explains:

This was a species known to them like the bee, and the Sages mentioned them saying "honey of bees, honey of hornets")

(see also the Chizkuni who explains that there were two types of hornets)
 
Ibn Ezra (ibid) explains:

This was a bodily sickness, from the decree of leprosy that weakness the strength of the body

Who were the Leaders of Israelites?
The Torah writes (Exodus 24:11):

Yet He did not raise His hand against the leaders of the Israelites; they beheld God, and they ate and drank.

Rashi (ibid) explains:

these were Nadab and Abihu and the elders

and

אצילי means “the great men”, as, (Isaiah 41:9) “I called thee from the chief men (אציליה) thereof”; (Numbers 11:17) “And he increased (ויאצל) some of the spirit” (cf. Rashi on Numbers 11:17 and Onkelos on 11:25); (Ezekiel 41:8) “six cubits in its size (largeness) (אצילה‎)”.

Ibn Ezra (ibid) explains that the reason the term "elders" wasn't used was in order to include Nadab and Abihu

Targum Jonathan (ibid) explains that this refers only to Nadab and Abihu, and not the elders

Pirkey DeRabbi Eliezer (45:1) explains this referring to the princes of the tribes


Shadal explains (ibid):

This means Aaron and other who went up with him

Bechor Shor explains (ibid):

And to the leaders - meaning the firstborn