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THE JEWS; THE PEOPLE WITH THE BIGGEST HEART

Our Parsha opens with Pharaoh granting Moshe permission to leave. “You may go serve your G.D, who is planning on going?” Moshe responds “With our young and with our old, with our son’s and with our daughters, with our sheep and with our cattle we shall go for it is a Holiday of HaShem” Pharaoh responds “Not so! Only the men shall go for that is what you are interested in!”

Pharaoh is suggesting that Moshe is lying by saying that his interest is to serve HaShem. His argument is that if your interest is to serve HaShem why must women and children go? The implication is that Pharaoh does not understand that serving HaShem is a family event. Pharaoh is a man of religion, albeit idolatry, why does he not understand?

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LESS MAKES MORE

In this week’s Parsha, Bo, we became a people. Not a regular people, but specifically the people of HaShem. This happened through the command HaShem gave us and our fulfilling that command. There were two mitzvos in that command. The first mitzvah was to prepare and offer the Pesach offering to be eaten on the night of the 15th of Nissan. The second mitzvah was to circumcise every male in our nation. If, for whatever reason, they were not circumcised they were not able to participate in the first mitzvah. In fact, if one’s child or slave was not circumcised the father/owner could not participate in the Pesach offering either.

What is the significance of the Bris-Milah that it forms the cornerstone of our becoming the People of HaShem?

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TEFILLIN; OUR GPS THROUGH HISTORY

In this week’s Parsha, Bo, the ten plagues are completed and Pharoah relinquished his grip on HaShem’s people. HaShem gave us the mitzvah of Korban Pesach and Bris Milah on whose merits we became worthy to leave Egypt. We were ready to begin our anticipated journey to receive His Torah and become His chosen people. However, before the story continues Ha-Shem breaks to give us the mitzvah of wearing tefillin. What is the immediate relevance of tefillin that it warrants to be introduced before our journey begins?

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BLINDING BRILLIANCE

In this week’s Parsha, Bo, when HaShem instructs Moshe to deliver the plague of choshech, darkness, He says ‘stretch out your hand on the heavens and there shall be darkness on the land of Egypt, and ‘vayameish choshech’. The word ‘vayameish’ actually means to take away. This would imply that Egypt was to be covered with darkness by taking away the darkness. How do we make sense out of this statement?

The miracle of this plague is truly confounding; how can it be light for the Jew in the room and dark for the Egyptian in the same room at the same time? While we do not necessarily deserve an answer to this conundrum perhaps we can understand it with the following Midrash.

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DON’T CRY OVER SPILT BLOOD

Spilt blood; what image conjures up in our mind? Is it death and destruction or is it joy and vitality? In this week’s Parsha, Bo, we are taught that the Jewish perspective is the latter.

Pharaoh tells Moshe that it is not a good idea for the people to leave Egypt because his astrologers see the sign of blood on the path of the Jewish people. The implication is that there will be destruction. However, there was no destruction. Instead, that blood was the blood of our people’s performance of the mitzvah of Bris Milah in the desert just prior to our entry into the Land of Israel. It was a life giving blood not a destructive blood. What appeared to be our demise turned out to be the source of our life. We were only able to enter the Land of Israel once we were circumcised. Without the blood of our national Bris Milah we could not have entered our Land.

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THE BLUEPRINT

Every Shabbos generates its unique energy. That energy is reflected in the weekly Parsha. This week we read the Parsha of Bo, in which HaShem continues the process of the Exodus which began in last week’s Parsha. In an attempt to gain a taste of this Shabbos’s energy I would like to share a Zohar.

The Zohar asks why did HaShem use the word BO which means “to come to Pharoah” and not LECH which means “to go to Pharaoh”. The answer given is that BO is spelled beis alef, the beis is first letter of the Creation in the beginning of the Torah and the Alef is the first letter of the Aseres haDibros, Anochi. HaShem was telling Moshe that I am going to take My people from the beis of Breishis to the alef of the Anochi. They were going to come to Me from Breishis to Anochi.