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R' Shabsi Yudelevitch (who lived in Jerusalem from 1924-1996 and was a well-known maggid there) writes that makkas choshech was the worst (asides from makkas bechoros) makkah. How could that have been the worst makkah when it wasn't painful and the Egyptians didn't die? Wouldn’t you think that boils, wild animals, blood, basically all of the other ones, were worse? He answers that when it came to the other makkos, they might have been scarier, but the Egyptians were all together. However, for the makkah of choshech, they weren't able to see each other and they all suffered individually. That is why choshech was such a difficult makkah – only because they were alone.

In Pirkei Avos (1, 14), Hillel tells us אם אין אני לי מי לי וכשאני לעצמי מה אני – if I’m not for myself, then who is for me and when I’m for myself, what am I. What is this supposed to mean? Rav Shimon Shkop (1860-1939) explains that Hillel is saying the following: It is important for us to make sure that we take care of ourselves. However, if I’m only looking to take care of myself, and I don’t think about the other people in my life, then what am I really all about. The importance of being there for other people and going through things together, cannot be understated.

This is a lesson that we can take for life. Things are always easier when we go through them together. If we know someone who is going through something, we should try to be there for them, and if we are going through something, we should know that it is much easier to get through it with the help of someone else. We aren’t in this alone, and we should never forget that.