No one saw his fellow

 and no one rose from where he was three days,

 but all the Israelites had light

in their dwelling places.

(Shemot 10:26)

 

A man could not see his brother - Something new appeared before their eyes, a partition between the light and their eyes. Even people close to each other could not see one another. And so it is written in Midrash Rabba:

"A darkness one can feel" - how thick was this darkness? Our rabbis said: Thick as a dinar, as is written "can feel" - something of substance."

And no man rose from where he was - It is not the nature of darkness to restrict one to the extent that he cannot rise, for even the blind can walk and grope in the dark. Therefore we understand that they were frightened of strange apparitions to the point where they could not move from their places out of fear, as happens to a person who is frightened by sudden disaster.

But the Israelites had light in their dwelling places - In reference to the arov * and hail, the Land of Goshen is mentioned, whereas here it says "in their dwelling places". This is to explain for us the mystery of the matter, that the darkness upon the land existed only in the eyes of the Egyptians, and therefore even an Israelite in close proximity to an Egyptian had light, and this is the reason for "in their dwelling places", for it refers to the Egyptian dwellings, that is to say, even in Egyptian settlements, neighboring Israelites did see light.

(Rabbi Shmuel Yitzhak Reggio, Shemot 10:23)

 

*Translator's comment: Although traditional commentary understood arov to be a swarm of assorted wild animals, modern researchers identify arov as swarms of mosquitoes.

 

The Broken Man

Moshe Meir

The ten plagues are divided up among two parashot - Va-era - and this week's portion - Bo. Close examination reveals differences between the two sections. Pharaoh's reactions to last week's plagues are:

[BLOOD] And the soothsayers of Egypt did thus with their spells, and Pharaoh's heart toughened and he did not heed them.

[FROGS] And Pharaoh called to Moses and Aaron and said, "Entreat the Lord that He take the frogs from my people and I shall send off the people, that they may sacrifice to the Lord." [After their removal - ] And Pharaoh saw that there was relief and he hardened his heart and did not heed them, just as the Lord had spoken.

[LICE] And the soothsayers said to Pharaoh, "God's finger it is!" And Pharaoh's heart toughened and he did not heed them, just as the Lord had spoken.

[THE SWARM] And Pharaoh called to Moses and to Aaron and said, "Go, sacrifice to your god in the land.: [Following the rejection of this possibility] And Pharaoh said I myself will send you off, that you may sacrifice to the Lord your god in the wilderness, only you must not go far away. Entreat on my behalf. [After the

disappearance of the swarm] And Pharaoh hardened his heart this time, too, and he did not send off the people.

[PESTILENCE] And Pharaoh sent and, look, not a single one had died of the livestock of Israel, and Pharaoh's heart hardened, and he did not send off the people.

[BOILS] And the soothsayers could not stand before Moses because of the burning rash, for the burning rash was on the soothsayers and in all of Egypt. And the Lord toughened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not heed them...

[HAIL] And pharaoh went and called to Moses and to Aaron and said to them, "I have offended this time. The Lord is in the right and I and my people are in the wrong. Entreat the Lord, and no more of God's thunder and hail! And let me send you off, and you shall not continue to stay." [After the cessation of the hail] And Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had stopped, and he continued to offend, and he hardened his heart, both he and his servants. And Pharaoh's heart toughened and he did not send off the Israelites.

All of these reactions are of a single cloth. When Pharaoh changes his mind, his first position is gentle and receptive, whereas the second is harsh and final. His reactions to the plagues in Parashot Bo, however, are completely different.

[LOCUST- following the warning] And he said to them, "May the Lord be with you the way I would send you off with your little ones! For evil is before your faces. No so. Go, pray, the men, and worship the Lord, for that is what you seek." And he drove them out from Pharaoh's presence. [Following the plague] And Pharaoh hastened to call to Moses and to Aaron, and he said, "I have offended before the Lord your god and before you. And now, forgive, pray, my offense, just this time, and entreat the Lord your god, that He take away from me this death." [After the dispersal of the locust's And the lord toughened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not send the Israelites off.

Pharaoh's position following the warning is complex, hesitant, and confused, changing as it moves from beginning to conclusion.

[DARKNESS - following the plague] And Pharaoh called to Moses and said, "Go, worship the Lord. Only your sheep and your cattle will be set aside. You little ones, too, may go with you." And Moses said, "You yourself too shall provide us sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we do them to the Lord our God... And the Lord toughened Pharaoh's heart and he did not want to send them off. And Pharaoh said to him, "Go away from me. Watch yourself. Do not again see my face, for on the day you see my face, you shall die."

Pharaoh's second position here differs from all those preceding. It has no closing; it is rather a systems meltdown. He does not react to the request to leave Egypt; he is offensive and threatening.

If we can free ourselves of seeing Pharaoh as 'the other', we will find him to be a mirror of man as man. In our parasha in particular - where he reaches a stage of crisis - his shell peels away and his human and fragile self is exposed. This is a man: conflicted between different yearnings, between his desired reality and the sharp knife which punctures his dreams. This is a man: he is aware that he is wrong, but despite this he clings to his position. Lacking justification, he rages and threatens. The 'other', in his time of calamity, becomes most human. The strength of the powerful lies in his ability to see this 'other', and to inscribe him as a mirror in his book of books.

Moshe Meir, educator, Moderator of Beit Midrash study groups, Doctorate in Jewish Philosophy. His book "Two Together" on the new religious-secular philosophy will be published soon.

 

"This Month"

The renewal of this moon will be the beginning of renewals for you; that is to say, when you discern the renewal of the light of the moon, you will be aroused to accept upon yourselves similar rejuvenation; you shall

determine your moons, your periods of time by taking note of this ever fresh recurring rejuvenation. Writ does not say "This month will be the beginning of months" but "the beginning of your months". It is not a question of the actual months, but of our months.

(Rabbi Shimson Rafael Hirsch on Exodus 12:2)

 

The "Erev Rav" (Motley Throng): Two Points of View

"Your people have sinned." It is not written 'the people have sinned' but 'your people have sinned'. The erev rav which you accepted and converted on your own and did not consult with me, and you said that it would be good for strangers to adhere to the Shekhina, they have sinned and corrupted.

(Rashi, Exodus 32:7)

 

"He Has Also Loved the Nations". Even the nations of the world, such as the erev rav and those nations which converted and came to receive the Torah together with Israel, them too did the Holy One, Blessed Be He, love, and they, too, received reward, as is written in the Psalm: "The Lord will rise us and his enemies will be dispersed" where "the seat of the Almighty" is also mentioned.

(Rashbam, Devarim 33:3)

 

"The People" is, in Gematria, the equivalent of Also the Erev Rav".

(Baal HaTurim, Shemot 16:17)

 

The mitzvah of ‘remembering for generations' is different from the joy accompanying the experience of personal redemption.

You shall celebrate it as an eternal ruling" - Regarding the festival enumerated in Parashat Emor, it is written "It shall be a ruling forever for all your generations." It is obvious that such great joy as that experienced by those delivered from their suffering in Egypt and indentured slavery to become a nation distinguished by its kings and priests, it is natural and civil to celebrate this day. But this applies to this generation, but for later generations which were not witness to this great achievement, and were not partner to their travails, this would be unnatural. It is, therefore a Torah ruling, as all Torah rulings, and therefore "for your generations it shall an eternal ruling." For the current generation it is not a edict and ruling, but proper behavior and axiom of the laws of nature.

 (Meshekh Hokhma, Shemot 12:14)

 

"And you shall no bone thereof": The Symbols Expressing the Significance of the Delivery from Egypt.

And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "This is the statute of the Passover offering: no foreigner shall eat of it. And every man's slave, purchased with silver, you shall circumcise, then shall he eat of it. A settler or hired worker shall not eat of it. In one house shall it be eaten, you shall not take out any meat from the house, and no bone shall you break in it. All the community of Israel thus shall do. And should a sojourner sojourn with you and make the Passover offering to the Lord, he must circumcise every male of his, then may he draw near to do it and he shall be like a native of the land, but no uncircumcised man shall eat of it. One law shall there be for the native and for the sojourner who sojourns in the land.

(Shemot 12:43-49)

 

And no bone shall you break in it. - The real offering consists primarily of the blood, the flesh (i.e., the muscles) that is to say: the active part of the body; excluding the bones, which only form the passive framework. An offering is essentially a giving up of oneself and of the activities prompted by one's own will. In the Pessach offering one receives oneself back. This symbolic "enjoying of oneself again", represents the gift of the return of one's personality, i.e., regained freedom of will. This refers primarily only to the active part of the personality - the muscles. With this flesh, this precursor of the nefesh , the soul, there are the bones, the means placed at the service of the will, to enable the activity of the muscles to function, and to hold the whole together. They are not the creature itself but they are placed at the disposal of the creature and in conjunction with it, "bone with flesh", they represent, not indeed activity, but the means by which activity is achieved. As long as the flesh on them can represent the dedication by one's own free will of one's activities to God, i.e., as long is the flesh is pure, the bones, as the means used by this free will for activities, themselves become important, and must be treated with respect, must be protected from fracture. Apart from their use in conjunction with the flesh in pure and holy uses, the means themselves are worthless. In conjunction with it, they take on the importance and meaning of our morally free personality. Hence the dictum: If it has not an olive [size] of meat, there is no [injunction against] breaking the bone; the impure person is enjoined from breaking the bone.

(Pesahim 84).

 

Taken together with the two preceding precepts the verse would express: No person is to be withdrawn from the home, no flesh from the person, and no bone from the flesh; the consecrated idea of the home is to hold all everything fast itself.

(Rabbi Shimshon Rafael Hirsch, Shemot 1243-40. Translated by Isaac Levy)

 

(Editor's comment: Following R' Hirsch's thoughts on the Temple, we can understand the verse continuing the laws of the Pascal lamb sacrifice "There shall be one rule for the citizen and the stranger (49) " as an ethical statement expressing the deep significance of the delivery from Egypt: no man's freedom can be based upon the negation of another people's freedom or equality.)

 

Why Is the Prohibition of Hametz on "The Pesach in Egypt" Observed Only One Day

Rabbi Yossi the Galilean said: From whence do we know that on the Pesach in Egypt the prohibition on leavened bread lasted only one day? Writ teaches: "Unleavened bread may not be eaten" and this is immediately followed by "Today you are departing."

(Bavli, Pesahim 96b)

 

On the Pesach in Egypt, the hametz prohibition was for a single day, therefore - they wrote - the rejoicing was not instituted as it was on other holidays. In my opinion, the reason for instructing them regarding generations is to teach the perfection of His commandments, for all the nations customarily observe the defeat of their enemies as a holiday of victory. But not so in Israel, they do not celebrate the defeat of their enemies and do not joyfully commemorate it, as is written, "Do not rejoice in the defeat of your enemy... lest God see and it be sinful in His eyes, and He rescind his anger from him" (Mishlei, 54:9). A man of superior qualities does not rejoice in the fall of his enemy, because the joy is bad in God's eyes, and that which is bad in the eyes of God must be hated, and therefore on the day of Pesach (the sacrifice of the Pascal lamb) mention is not made of the Festival of Matzoth, because on that day God punished the Egyptians. We only recall that He delivered the children of Israel from Egypt, but there is no celebration and holiday over the defeat of the enemies.

("Meshekh Hokhma" of Reb Meir Simcha of Dvinsk on Shemot 12:15)

 

"And the men borrowed from their friends and the women from their friends": Assistance for the Suffering Knows No Boundaries.

When they realized that their deliverance would be delayed 12 months until the judgment of Egypt, and they (Israel) saw how their (the Egyptian's) situation seriously deteriorated from [the plague of] the swarm on, and then how during the plague of darkness no one could move and all suffered for three days while Israel enjoyed light in their settlements, they (children of Israel) extended them food and all necessities, and did not rejoice in their misfortune and took no revenge, thus Israel found great favor in their eyes.

(Haamek Davar, Shemot 11:2).

 

"And the Lord shall pass over the entrance, and He shall not allow the Destroyer to come into your houses to scourge."

In order to eradicate these false principles, the Law commands us to offer sacrifices only of these three kinds: "Ye shall bring your offering of the cattle [viz.], of the herd and of the flock" (Lev. i. 2). Thus the very act which is considered by the heathen to be a great crime, is our means of approaching God, and obtaining His pardon for our sins. In this manner, evil principles, the diseases of the human soul, are cured by other principles which are diametrically opposite.

This is also the reason why we were commanded to kill a lamb on Passover, and to sprinkle the blood thereof outside on the gates. We had to free ourselves of evil doctrines and to proclaim the opposite, viz., that the very act which was then considered as being the cause of death would be the cause of deliverance from death. "And the Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come unto your houses to smite you" (Exod. xii. 23). Thus they were rewarded for openly performing a service every part of which was objected to by the idolaters.

To the above reason for the exclusive selection of the three kinds of animals for sacrifices, we may add the following, namely, that these species are animals which can be gotten very easily, contrary to the practice of idolaters that sacrifice lions, bears, and wild beasts.    

(Maimonides, 'Guide for the Perplexed' Part 3, Chap. 46)

 

"As God commanded Moshe and Aaron, so they did"

The Mekhilta explained "Even Moshe and Aaron" - the revelation is that they took no privileges for themselves, but went themselves to choose a Pascal lamb and slaughter it.

(Haamek Davar, ibid. 12:58)

 

"Because you left Egypt, the house of slaves"

'House' is family, and the meaning [of the passage] is - spiritual delivery from a state of acceptance of slavery, and this (delivery) is a greatness of the spirit, the opposite of 'slave of slaves', and all this is indication that it is my desire to be king over them, and that their subservience to a ruler of flesh and blood does me dishonor.

(Haamek Davar, 13:3)

 

MIDRASHEI TSAFON - From the pen of Ronen Ahituv

And every male servant . . and you shall circumcise him and he shall eat of it… (12:42)

On the basis of this, Rav said: We do not recite "We were slaves" (Devarim 6:21) on the eve of Pesach, because the servant cannot recite this, because his fathers were not in Egypt, and he is not a free man; but rather [we recite] "In the beginning our fathers were idol worshippers, and now God has brought us close to worship Him." And how has he brought us close? As it is written, "And you shall circumcise him"

 

 

 

 

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