Parshas Va'eira

In this weeks’ Parsha we find the episode of the Makkah of frogs. Rashi comments on how the Makkah started. He says that there was one big frog and the mitzrim started hitting it. Everytime they would hit the big frog other frogs would shoot out.

Rashi is qouting a gemarah in Sanhedrin on Daf 87b. The other opinion in that gemarah is that there was one frog which made a great call to all the other frogs, and all the other frogs came to Mitzrayim.

What two ideas are these opinions trying to communicate? Also, why does Rashi only quote one of the opinions?

Perhaphs this gemarah is sheding light about the mindset and approach of the people of Mitzrayim. The opinion that Rashi quotes is that there was one frog that everyone hit and more came shooting out. There is a very basic and simple question that one can ask on this. why didn't the Miztrim stop hitting the frog after realizing that all ot was doing was causing more frogs to come out? Any rational and realistic person would stop! This is exactly what the gemarah is teaching. It is telling us that th Mitzrim had a distorted view of reality. they didn't view the world as a regular person would.

The second opinion is that there was one frog who called all the other frgs and all the other frogs came. In this opinion the frog that called his "friends" represents Pharoh and the frogs that came represent the Mitzrim. Pharoh said that all of Klal Yisraelshould be slaves and should work. All Of the Mitzrim went right along woth their leader and did'nt stand up for what was right and just. The frog s coming towards the Mitzrayim based on just a call from their Lead frog is illustrating the Mitzrim agreeing with Pharoh in a blink of an eye instead of investigating and thinking about what was happening.

These two deficiencies in the Mitzrim contributed to the bringing of the Makkos and at the end their downfall.

If these two opinions are a few reasons that caused the makkos then why doesn't Rashi qoute both?