Parshat Bo

This month shall be to you the head of the months;

to you it shall be the first of the months of the year.

(Shemot 12:2)

 

This month shall be to you the head of the months - By way of example: A son was born to a king, and the king made a celebration. The son was taken into captivity for many years. Eventually he was redeemed, and the king made for him a royal party. Before the Israelites went down into Egypt, they would count by the servitude; after they had gone down and were enslaved there, the Holy One performed miracles for them and they were redeemed. They then began to count by months, as is written, This month shall be to you the head of the months.

(Shemot Rabba 15)

 

Therefore, in the Land of Egypt, in the the land of the most consistent paganism, in the land in which this pagan immutability extended even into the state system of social life and created the chains of caste, in Egypt God called the future leader of His people out into the open, showed him the narrow crescent of the moon struggling out of complete darkness into new light, and said, "This is to be your model." Just as it, bound by physical laws, rejuvenates itself, so are you, but of your own free will, to create your own rejuvenations. Whenever it occurs it is to remind you of your own possibilities of rejuvenation, and inasmuch as I rejuvenate you and you rejuvenate yourselves, you are - moon-like - to pass across the night sky of the nations and proclaim everywhere the teaching of rejuvenation, this teaching that God has given man the possibility of always been able to start afresh, that his whole moral and physical fate is entirely in his own hands.

(Rabbi S.R. Hirsch Shemot 12:1-2, Levi translation)

 

 

Three Days' Journey and Borrowing Vessels

Ariel Stollman

In our parasha, immediately following the plague of arov, Pharaoh suggests that the Israelites offer sacrifices within the land of Egypt. Moses rejects the proposal and then demands: We shall travel a three days' journey (Shemot 8:23). Soon before the actual Exodus, God asks Moses: Please, speak into the ears of the people, and let them borrow, each man from his friend and each woman from her friend, silver vessels and golden vessels (Shemot 11:2). I would like to focus on these two items, the three days' journey and the borrowing of vessels. They seem to lack any connection with each other, but the link between them will become clear upon deeper inspection.

Moses' demand that the Israelites be allowed to make a three days' journey instantly suggests a question: what would the Israelites have done if Pharaoh had conceded this minimal request? Would they have been good to their word and returned to Egypt, or would they have taken advantage of Pharaoh's "generosity" by continuing their trek all the way to Canaan? Why didn't Moses and Aaron simply make their ultimate demand to leave Egypt for good? After ten plagues, wouldn't Pharaoh have freed the Israelites even without such trickery?

Similar questions can be asked in connection with the borrowing of vessels. True, by borrowing the vessels the Israelites saw the fulfillment of the ancient promise made by God to Abraham at the Brit ben Habtarim, that his descendants would leave their land of exile with much property. Furthermore, the book of Devarim tells us that a Hebrew slave who completes the period of his servitude has rights to a grant from his master. According to that principle, the Israelites deserved a grant from the Egyptians for their long period of servitude.

Despite all this, it remains unclear why the Israelites had to resort to deception. Even if the weak can be justified in their use of deceit to gain what is theirs by right, why would this be necessary in the case of the Exodus, which was entirely miraculous and involved the immediate revelation of God?

We can find the answers to these questions later when the Exodus story reaches its climax with the splitting of the Red Sea.

The standard reading of the story of the Red Sea has it that God saved the Israelites from their Egyptian pursuers by drowning the latter in the sea. However, a deeper investigation reveals a different course of events.

First of all, according to Scripture the entire situation was staged. God asked Moses to maneuver the people in such a way as to convince Pharaoh that they had lost their way in the wilderness. He also promised to "strengthen" Pharaoh's heart so that he would chase after the Israelites; otherwise, the Israelites would have left Egypt unimpeded - making it strange to call this a "rescue":

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and let them turn back and encamp in front of Pi hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea; in front of Baal Zephon, you shall encamp opposite it, by the sea. And Pharaoh will say about the children of Israel, They are trapped in the land. The desert has closed in upon them. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them, and I will be glorified through Pharaoh and through his entire force, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord And they did so. And I will strengthen Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them, and I will be glorified through Pharaoh and through his entire force, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord And they did so. (Shemot 14:1-4)

Secondly, take note that the sea trapped the Egyptians when they were already fleeing the great commotion and were on their way home to Egypt. By that point, the Israelites were in no danger at all, as is clearly implied by the relevant verses (I have written on this at length in my article "Iyyun Bekriyat yam Suf" in Alon Shevut 130):

It came about in the morning watch that the Lord looked down over the Egyptian camp through a pillar of fire and cloud, and He threw the Egyptian camp into confusion. And He removed the wheels of their chariots, and He led them with heaviness, and the Egyptians said, Let me run away from the Israelites because the Lord is fighting for them against the Egyptians Thereupon, the Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand over the sea, and let the water return upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen. So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and toward morning the sea returned to its strength, as the Egyptians were fleeing toward it. (Shemot 14: 24-27)

If so, one must conclude that the splitting of the Red Sea and especially the drowning of Pharaoh and his troops were not secondary consequences of Israel's rescue. They were purely punitive, just like the Ten Plagues.

I shall now demonstrate that the request that the Israelites be allowed to make a three days' journey and the borrowing of vessels were also aimed at getting Pharaoh and his people to chase the Israelites to the Red Sea - where they would find their deaths.

The plain meaning of Scripture (as opposed to popular opinion) has it that even after the deaths of the firstborn, Pharaoh only agreed to release the Israelites for a short time (and certainly not permanently) in order for them to worship God in the wilderness:

and he said, "Get up and get out from among my people, both you, as well as the children of Israel, and go, worship the Lord as you have spoken. Take also your flocks and also your cattle, as you have spoken, and go, but you shall also bless me." (Shemot 12:31-32)

Take note of the expression as you have spoken; it implies that Pharaoh acquiesced to the original demand. In contrast to the previous instances in which he tried to keep the entire people from leaving and suggested that only the men would leave, here he is prepared to allow everyone to go. However, he is still referring to the original demand, i.e., a three days' journey. Let us recall that Moses never actually asked that the Israelites leave for good. We can also understand the continuation of the verse in this light: It was reported to the King of Egypt that the people had fled. The people could be thought of as having run away since they did not return as required by the agreement. Ibn Ezra explains the passage precisely along these lines:

…Pharoah thought, based on what Moses said about a three days' journey, that they would go and then return to Egypt… it seems to me that this was said for two reasons. First, so that they would give them vessels of silver and gold, since if they knew they would not return, they would not have given them. And secondly, so that Pharaoh and his troops would drown. For if they had left with his permission, and he had no thought of their returning, he would not have chased them. The proof is [in the verse] It was reported to the King of Egypt that the people had fled. (Ibn Ezra Perush HaKatzar Shemot 11:4)

That is to say: the request to leave for only three days (rather than forever) was aimed at getting Pharaoh to chase after the Israelites in order for him to get his punishment.

The issue of the "borrowing" of vessels invites a similar explanation. Of course the Israelites deserved payment and a "grant" for all their years of servitude in Egypt, but that could have been taken by force rather than through deception. The reason why the Israelites were commanded to borrow the vessels (rather than take them outright) was to later convince the Egyptians to join Pharaoh in his pursuit of the Israelites. Hizkuni (Shemot 11:2) explains:

and let them borrow, each man: by this God's promise was fulfilled: and afterwards they shall leave with much property (Bereishit 15:14). As for it being borrowed rather than an outright gift, this was in order that the Egyptians be incensed to chase after them.

Seforno uses this idea to explain why God used the word na ["please"] (Shemot 11:2), entreating the Israelites to borrow vessels from the Egyptians. He says that the Israelites already knew that they were not coming back and were afraid that if they borrowed vessels it might spur on the Egyptians to chase after them. That is why the Israelites were not interested in borrowing vessels, but God promised them they had nothing to worry about, as this was all part of the plan that would lead to their salvation.

In conclusion:

The miracle of the splitting of the Red Sea was intended to punish Pharaoh and his people for what they had done to the Israelites; it was not carried out in order to save the Israelites. A few tricks were used to get Pharaoh and his people to chase the Israelites into the sea. The first one is found explicitly in Scripture: the maneuver before Pi-Hahirot that was meant to convince Pharaoh that the Israelites had lost their way, becoming easy prey. Similarly, the fact that the Israelites broke the original agreement - fleeing Egypt instead of leaving it for a limited period of time - spurred on the Egyptians to chase after them (It was reported to the King of Egypt that the people had fled; and Pharaoh and his servants had a change of heart toward the people, and they said, What is this that we have done, that we have released Israel from serving us?). Furthermore, the "borrowed" vessels held by the Israelites were certainly an important factor motivating the Egyptians' pursuit of the Israelites, as Rashi (Shemot 14:5) explains:

…he [Pharaoh] sent officers with them, and as soon as the three days they [the Israelites] had set to go [into the desert] and return had elapsed, and they [the officers] saw that they were not returning to Egypt, they came and informed Pharaoh… His servants [also] had a change of heart, for previously they had said to him, How long will this one be a stumbling block to us? (Exod. 10:7). Now they had a change of heart to pursue them [the Israelites] on account of the money that they had lent them.

Ariel Stollman is a software developer and an expert in solving operational problems of complex Internet systems

 

Light and darkness

and no one rose from his place for three days - the plague continued to keep them immobilized for so long that they would have died from thirst and hunger if the Israelites did not come to help them, feeding them and giving them drink. Thus it seems reasonable that they did this, and Scripture alludes to it the later verses; when the Egyptians saw the Israelites repaying evil with good, they lost their hatred of them and began to honor and love them, and to believe that they had a divine quality. That is why they generously lent things to them and showed them favor. They also greatly honored Moses, which they had not done previously, as is made clear in the coming verses.

(R. Yitzhak Shmuel Reggio 10:23)

 

Please, speak into the ears of the people, and let them borrow, each man from his friend and each woman from her friend, silver vessels and golden vessels." So the Lord gave the people favor in Pharaoh's eyes; also the man Moses was highly esteemed in the eyes of Pharaoh's servants and in the eyes of the people.

(Shemot 11:2-3)

 

and let them borrow [vayishalu] - as absolute gifts, as in, Request [she'al] of Me, and I will make nations your inheritance (Psalms 2:8).

each man from his friend and each woman from her friend - In this verse Scripture reveals to us that during the troubles of darkness the Egyptians became reconciled with the Israelites, since they [the Israelites] were good to them during the three days when no one could get up. The proof of it is that now they call them friends, while previously they were not their friends but rather oppressed them and worked them harshly.

(R. Yitzhak Shmuel Reggio 11:2)

 

Therefore the pure righteous ones do not complain about wickedness but rather increase justice; they do not complain about heresy, but rather increase faith; they do not complain about ignorance, but rather increase wisdom.

(Harav Kook Ztz"l, Arpelei Tohar 27-28)

 

"Mixed Multitude": Two Views

Your people have acted basely (Shemot 32:7) - It does not say the people but rather, your people: a mixed multitude that you decided to take in and convert of your own initiative, without consulting Me, and you said it would be good to bring converts close to the Divine Presence. Now they have become debased and debase others.

(Rashi on Shemot 32: 7)

 

Lover, indeed, of peoples (Devarim 33:3). Including the nations of the world such as the mixed multitude and those of the nations who converted and came to accept the Torah together with Israel - These, too, are beloved of God, He accepted them and His presence rested upon them.

(RaShBaM Devarim 33:3)

 

[Now when Pharaoh let] the people [go...] (Shemot 13: 17): The numerical value of the people [et ha'am] is equivalent to that of also a mixed multitude [ve'gam erev rav] (12: 38).

(Ba'al Ha'Turim on Shemot 13: 17)

 

Between Holiness and National Historical Ties

The sanctified sites are not founded in religion; rather, they derive from the nation and its roots. Mount Moriah, for example, was the place of man's creation, there Abraham sacrificed Isaac; later it was chosen by the word of a prophet. Religion writes only of the place which God will choose. Mount Sinai is the place of religion. Once the Divine Presence departed, the sheep and cattle could ascend it! God forbid that sentiments mislead us to lend any image to religion. [The significance of] Jerusalem, all the Land of Israel, and Mount Moriah is all built upon their relation to our fathers, fathers who are the roots of the nation; the nation must be one with its roots. All sentiments should be directed toward the unification of the nation.

(Meshekh Hokhma, Shemot 12:21,22)

 

And it shall be a sign on your hand - the Weaker Hand: Physical Strength and Intelligence

And it shall be a sign on your hand - Our Sages, of blessed memory, said: "The weak hand - to teach that tefillin are to be placed on the left hand" (Menahot 37)... therefore the passage specifies the weak hand, to teach that man not overcome with strength, but that the Lord wages war, for man's hand is too weak to accomplish things great or small if not for God's hand holding his hand... Therefore God commanded to place the tefillin, on which the name of God is inscribed, upon the weak hand to teach that God's strong right hand is that which gives power to this weak hand, as is written For with a powerful hand did God deliver us from Egypt - this is God's powerful right hand, which corresponds to man's left hand, and with it God delivered us, and since we face God, His right hand is juxtaposed to our weak hand, to teach that no deed depends upon man's activity, but rather upon the help of The Holy One, Blessed be He.

(Kli Yakar, Shemot 13:16)