The lamb, the calf and the kid

 A rather banal question bothered me in this past week's parsha: Why did God kill the firstborn animals in the plague afflicting human firstborns?

In essence, what I am asking is why was it necessary to kill the firstborn animals – was it not enough to have bloodcurdling cries and screams in every home, without exception? What added value, thus, was gleaned by the death of firstborn animals?

I asked a friend, Yehezkel Hojesta that question just minutes ago, and he asked a perhaps better question: Why were the firstborn Egyptians killed, to begin with? What wrong did they do?

In so far as I understand, his question is very pertinent, because until that point, it would seem that nobody was killed except for those who actively chose to diverge from the will of God. In the plague of hail, enormous frozen hail mixed with fire, those who did not fear God left their slaves, and animals outside to perish. At that time, slaves were no more than property, and thus, prior to the plague of the firstborns, no free-willed person was killed. What was the gamechanger in the plague of the firstborn?

One could argue that the plague was indiscriminate, the same way all Jewish male children were killed indiscriminately. It would seem that for the Egyptians to banish the Jewish people, a plague of such disastrousness had to be wrought, to enable the true revelation of Hashem's hand in the parting of the Sea of Reeds. Therefore, it was necessary to strike the firstborn, quid pro quo, for the horror, and holocaust imposed on Jewish homes.

At that point, then, what additional justice was attained by striking the firstborn animals? What ill had the animals done, or alternatively, what additional message could be conveyed to the Egyptians by killing their firstborn sons as well?

It could be that the message was as such. Men didn't know who their firstborns were, and in fact, there were at times multiple firstborn sons in a given home because of the promiscuousness of the Egyptian women; in light of that, at times multiple children died in a given home. A woman's firstborn from each and every illicit union, could be found in her husband's home. In contradistinction, a man did know who his firstborn animal was from each and every sheep, cow, and goat. Thus, when the head of the household saw that his firstborn lamb, calf, and kid goat had died, he understood that his firstborn child, or children, rather, had died for the very same reason, because they were the firstborns.