Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been fascinated by the plague of darkness. Maybe it’s the cinematic immediacy of it, the relatability of the fear of the dark; maybe it’s that of all the plagues, the ninth is the most purely psychological — the darkness isn’t said to damage the crops or the livestock or the people or the buildings or any other part of Mitzráyim’s physical infrastructure; it is a plague of pure foreboding, of dread. The lights go out, and they do not come back on again.