Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Parashat Bo SO THE PEOPLE TOOK THEIR DOUGH BEFORE IT HAD FERMENTED, THEIR KNEADING BOWLS WRAPPED IN THEIR CLOAKS UPON THEIR SHOULDERS…. NOW THEY BAKED THE DOUGH WHICH THEY HAD BROUGHT OUT OF EGYPT INTO MATZOTH CAKES, FOR IT HAD NOT FERMENTED, FOR THEY HAD BEEN DRIVEN OUT OF EGYPT AND COULD NOT LINGER; NEITHER HAD THEY MADE PROVISIONS FOR THEMSELVES.  (Shemot 12:34, 39)   "Before it had fermented" – The Egyptians did not let them wait for fermentation. (Rashi, Shemot 12:34)   "For they had been...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Parashat Bo The Lord said to Moshe and Aharon: This is the law of the Passover offering: No foreigner shall eat of it. But any slave a man has brought may eat of it once he has been circumcised. No bound nor hired laborer shall eat of it. It shall be eaten in one house: you shall not take any of the flesh outside the house; nor shall you break a bone of it. The whole community of Israel shall offer it. If a stranger who dwells...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Parshat Bo   Rabbi Yossi HaGalilli said: From where do we learn that on the Passover in Egypt the prohibition on hametz was in effect for only one day? It is written: "Hametz shall not be eaten" and immediately following: "This day you are leaving. . ." Why was the prohibition of hametz on the Pesach in Egypt in effect for only one day? On the Pesach in Egypt the hametz prohibition lasted only one day. The Sages further taught us that the first Pesach was not...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat Bo (link to original page) Parshat Bo Guarding the Doors of Israel Dov Gotlieb The departure from Egypt was accompanied by revealed miracles, a concrete proof of the "hand of G-d" and of heavenly, direct involvement with what occurs here on earth. The miracles reached their climax with the plague of the death of the firstborn – the straw that broke Pharaoh's hardened heart. The surprising and strange element of this plague is the hasty preparations for it and their ending point of staining the beam above the door and the...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat Bo (link to original page) Parshat Bo 'And they should put it on the doorposts and on the lintel': on the inside. But perhaps it really means on the outside? This is what the verse means by 'and the blood should be as a sign for you' – a sign for you, and not for others. (Mechilta Bo Masehet Depascha Parasha 6) The blood on the lintel: On the inside? On the outside? What for? Many have said that putting the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts was to...