The parsha (weekly Torah portion) that we read this week is called, “Bo,” which means, “Come” in Hebrew.
The parsha begins with god telling Moshe (Moses) to come to Pharaoh, along with an explanation of why Pharaoh’s heart has been made heavy.
Moshe and his brother, Aharon, then come to Pharaoh and tell him to send out the children of Yisrael. If he doesn’t, locusts will come onto the land and eat up all the remaining vegetation (what remained from the hail haShem (god) rained on Egypt. See last week’s parsha). Pharaoh tries to limit who/what will go and stay, but Moshe won’t negotiate.
Pharaoh says no and the locusts come and devestate the land. Pharaoh admits to sinning and pleads with Moshe to ask god to stop the locusts. The locusts leave, but Pharaoh won’t send the people out to serve haShem.
God tells Moshe how to bring darkness to Egypt and he makes it dark. Everyone is afraid to move because it is so dark, except for the children of Yisrael who have light.
Once again Pharaoh calls to Moshe and tries to negotiate a deal, and Moshe still refuses. God then tells Moshe about the upcoming killing of the first born of all of Egypt. Moshe tells Pharaoh when the first born will die, and then leaves.
God now tells Moshe that this month (the first month of spring, Nissan, the month that these events are happening) will be the first month of the year, and to tell all the children of Yisrael that on the 10th day of this month to take a lamb and guard it until the 14th. On the 14th, everyone will slaughter their lamb in the afternoon and take the blood and put it on the door posts of the house that they will eat the slaughtered lamb in.
Directions for cooking the lamb are given along with eating and disposing of the remains. Moshe is then told to tell the people that god will come through Egypt on that night killing all the first born in houses without the blood, and also to make judgements on the gods of Egypt. Moshe is to continue to tell how to celebrate Pesach (Passover) for all generations, forever. We then read of Moshe telling the elders what god had told him concerning Pesach, and how everyone did just as god commanded Moshe and Aharon.
Next we read of the actual event of the death of the firstborn in Egypt, and that Pharaoh tells Moshe to take everyone and all their flocks and go.
At this point, we are told that the people were in Egypt for 430 years and that god protected, and will continue to protect the people on this night, forever.
We read more of what god told Moshe and Aharon regarding Pesach.
On the day they left, god tells Moshe to sanctify the first born, both human and animal, as they now belong to god.
The parsha ends with Moshe again telling the people about Pesach and about the first born belonging to god, and what to say to the children when they ask why this is happening.
Where can we go with this?
Perhaps a better question is WHEN can we go with this?
The reason I ask this is because we have a question about time in this parsha. More precisely, the question is about timing.
Moshe tells Pharaoh that the first born will die about midnight.
When does he tell him this? Logically it had to be sometime during the day before that very midnight.
Now what does Moshe tell his people? He tells them that on the 10th of the month each household is to take a lamb and guard it until the 14th, and on the 14th, they will sacrifice all the lambs and paint the blood of the lambs on their doors so that god will pass over these houses when he is killing the first born of Egypt.
This means that Moshe talked to Pharaoh on the 14th, but the people had to know at least 4 days earlier!
So, I want to identify a miracle here that nobody talks about: there were over 600,000 people who knew for at least 4 days what was to happen and nobody talked about it – they all kept the secret!
This is amazing if you ask me.
Now understand, I am not saying the children of Yisrael didn’t tell Pharaoh. I am saying that they didn’t tell even one Egyptian.
Why do I make this claim?
Because after all that had happened to them, do you think if an Egyptian knew what was about to happen and how to stop it from happening to his household, that he wouldn’t do it? Do you really think they wouldn’t put lamb’s blood on their door? You might argue that a lamb was one of their gods. However, the god of the children of Yisrael seemed to be a lot stronger then the lamb-gods of Egypt don’t you think?
This is only half of what I want to talk about today.
The other half is the question of why do we read this story now? Would it not make sense to read it closer to Pesach?
The answer to this question I think can be found in the idea that when we celebrate any special day in our year wheel, we are not just commemorating what happened once upon a time – we are also trying to relive that experience in our own day.
If this is true, how could we truly relate to Pesach if we only read it the week before we started to celebrate?
I mean, the family of Yisrael did not just wake up one day and leave Egypt. They had to endure suffering as slaves and the suffering of the Egyptians as they were hit by god ten times.
The ten things god did to Egypt did not happen all at once, but over time.
So now, even with Pesach, and the culmination of the end of our enslavement still a few months away, it is time to reconnect with the story and start to feel the energy of what god did to the Egyptians, and realize that god is doing it for you, now.
It is time to start to remember that freedom, like Passover, comes not just from a single event that happens, but from a process of the divine revelation that we humans can only handle slowly and not all at once.
This might also be why life is often difficult this time of year, and why we often feel stuck and unable to move. This is the energy of this part of the year, both today and around 3500 years ago.
The only blessing I can give you is to acknowledge the challenges in life at this time of year, and to trust that things will get better and that the good things in life will start showing up again soon. I bless you all to, “keep the faith!”
PS. A bonus question: this week god tells Moshe that it is the first month of the year (and hence Pesach is on the 14th of the first month of the year), and we read about it around the time of the new year for trees (the 15th of the month of Shvat according to Hillel and the first of Shvat according to Shammai). What is the connection? Share your thoughts in a comment below.
If you want to read what I wrote about this parsha last year, click here.
About the Author
Shmuel Shalom Cohen spent 10 years studying Torah in Jerusalem. Six years ago, he started Conscious Torah to help Jews connect to their tradition in ways they didn’t think possible. Shmuel also started, and is the executive directory of Jewish Events Willamette-valley, a non-profit whose mission is to build Jewish community, pride, and learning. In his free time, Shmuel likes walks in nature, playing music, writing poetry, and time with good friends.