שמות, פרק ח׳, פסוק א׳

After Pharaoh ignores the initial warning, the time for patience ends, and the practical execution of the second plague begins. The disaster is no longer confined to the main river but expands to encompass all the surrounding channels and canals [קאסוטו]. God directs the command to initiate this plague to Aaron rather than Moses. This shift occurs because Moses owed a deep debt of gratitude to the river, which had protected him during his infancy, making it inappropriate for him to strike it [ברכת אשר על התורה].

Aaron is instructed to lift and stretch out his staff [ביאור שטיינזלץ]. He is not told to first take the staff, as he already held it from the previous plague of blood [מלבי״ם]. The recurring action of stretching out the hand throughout the plagues serves a broader purpose, acting as a continuous fulfillment of the Divine promise to redeem the Israelites with an outstretched arm [הטור הארוך]. The physical motion was necessary to clearly show that the plague took effect immediately as a direct result of the action [חזקוני].

Regarding how Aaron performed this action, the primary approach among commentators is that he stretched his staff toward the four directions of the heavens [אבן עזרא, הטור הארוך, ביאור יש״ר]. Others suggest he pointed it directly toward the water sources [ביאור שטיינזלץ]. Another perspective notes that since water surrounded Egypt on all sides, pointing in a specific physical direction was unnecessary. Instead, it was a symbolic act performed on behalf of the rivers to prompt them to release the frogs [רלב״ג].

The frogs emerged specifically from the rivers, canals, and pools, rather than from every random body of water in Egypt [אבן עזרא, הטור הארוך]. Aaron's physical motion was merely the trigger that caused the frogs to rise [ביאור שטיינזלץ]. The actual creation and swarming of the creatures were acts performed by God Himself, while Aaron's role was limited to drawing them up onto the dry land [מלבי״ם]. Behind this physical invasion operated a profound spiritual mechanism. Every living creature possesses a higher spiritual root, and the frogs were no exception. It was this higher spiritual force that sounded a call, gathering the frogs from across the entire country and bringing them up together onto the land [אלשיך].