Pharaoh's Name Hints to the Plague

by Rabbi David Hanania Pinto

"Hashem said to Moshe, "Come to Pharaoh, for I have made his heart and the heart of his servants stubborn" [Bo 10:1]

The Mefarshim wonder how Moshe knew to tell Pharaoh about the plague of Locusts since Hashem did not mention anything about this plague? Here is just one explanation:

The Chatam Sofer brings in the name of the Gaon Rabbi Shimshon of Ostropoli zya"a, that the letters בומ"ף are  pronounced using the lips, and are interchangeable since they are all uttered using the same source. So too the letters אחה"ע  which are all guttural sounds, are also interchangeable.

So, if we change the פ of  פרעה to a ב, and the ע to א, and then re-arrange the letters, it will spell the word ארבה - locust. Through saying בא אל פרעה, Hashem was hinting to Moshe, put the letters בא into פרעה. 

This explains the continuation of the verse, למען שתי אתתי אלה בקרבו, translated as, "so that I can put these signs of Mine in his midst". The word אתת can also be translated as 'letters', meaning 'put these two letters (of  בא) in him', and you get ארבה. This is the plague with which you must now smite Egypt!