Parshas Bo
The Torah uses the word “Bo” – come to Pharoah (Shemos 10:1) – instead of “Lech,” go to Pharoah (see Shemos 7:15). Bo means come with me, whereas Lech means go alone. In silencing the defiant voice that might rise up within us which, like Pharoah, might at some point rebel and ask, “Who is G-d that I should obey him?” (5:2), we need G-d’s help. And so G-d says Bo, let’s go together and I will help you overcome that interior rebellious voice in the spirit of “If one comes to purify himself, G-d assists one” (Avodah Zarah 55a).
Unlike Moshe’s previous meetings with Pharaoh in which he was instructed by G-d to ask Pharaoh to release the Jews and threaten him with plagues in the hope that he would comply, in the opening scene of Parshas Bo, G-d gave Moshe no such instructions. He simply told him “come to Pharaoh for I have hardened his heart.” There was no point in asking Pharaoh for anything. Even though he repented after the seventh plague and admitted that he was wicked and G-d is righteous (9:27), G-d had taken control of his volition and he would not be able to repent, even if he wanted to. This is because Pharoah still deserved another three plagues so that his punishment would match his crimes. Each plague was a punishment for each crime he committed, culminating in the slaying of the first born in retribution for the murder of the Jewish children (Rashi to 8:17). Furthermore, Pharoah, at this point, was used as a teaching tool for the benefit of the Jews. That is how G-d does things, he punishes sinful nations so that Israel should take heed and learn a vicarious lesson (Rashi to 7:3).
“When the night splits, I will go out in the midst of Egypt ” (11:4). The miracle of the Exodus was the second installment of the miracle which occurred in Avraham’s time and saved him in his battle with the five kings. We are told that the mud Avraham flung at them was miraculously transformed into lethal weapons. But this magic ceased abruptly for Avraham at midnight, (Rashi to Bereishis 14:15). That miraculous night split in two. The first half was used to save Avraham. The second half was reserved for the night of the fifteenth of Nissan, for the miracle of the Exodus. “It is a night in which G-d guards you to bring you out of Egypt” (Shemos 12:42).
“The month of Nissan is the first month of the year, lachem (for you), the Jews” (12:2). For the rest of the world, the first month of the year is the month of Tishri, when the physical world was created. True, we Jews celebrate the first of Tishri too as Rosh Hashanah. We are judged on that day for the sins we have perpetrated in this physical world we inhabit. But for the purpose of our spiritual existence, Nissan is the first month.
It is the Torah that counts for us and by which we count the months of the year. The month of Nissan in which the Exodus – the prerequisite to the giving of the Torah – occurred is the first month of our year.
Nissan was a month that the Egyptians celebrated too as their new year. But for a different reason. The month of Nissan is governed by the zodiac sign of the sheep. Sheep are referred to in the Torah as assets that make their owners wealthy (Rashi to Devarim 28:4, based on Chullin 84b). Sheep, which produce wool each year, symbolyze ongoing prosperity, and as such, the Egyptians worshipped them like a deity. The danger for the Jews was, and still is, that they too would worship wealth, rather than G-d. Too avert this danger, we were commanded to slaughter the deity of prosperity on the fourteenth of Nissan.
We began this procedure of the Korban Pesach four days in advance by putting aside one sheep for each family on the tenth day of Nissan (Shemos 12:6), to be offered up as the Korban Pesach on the fourteenth of Nissan. This is source for the four days of Selichot which we obseve before Rosh Hashanah.
On Rosh Hashanah we are told, “You shall make yourselves into an Olah” (Bamidbar 29:2). As we know, the korban is a scapegoat for our sins. But for the grace of G-d, our lives would be taken in atonement, as it says, “The person who sins will die” (Yecheskel 18:4). During those four days, between the 10th and 14th of Nissan, the sheep was inspected for any blemish that may disqualifiy it as a korban. Similarly, during the four days of Selichot preceding Rosh Hashanah, we must inspect ourselves to see that we have no blemish that would disqualify us for atonement on the day of judgment.
“Eat the meat during the night, roasted over fire with matzah and bitter herbs” (Shemos 12:8). These three ingredients, the meat of the Korban Pesach, the bitter herbs and the matzah, which were all eaten together, had one characteristic in common: Speed. “You must eat it in haste, it is the Pesach offering to G-d” (12:11). Time was of the essence.
We had to leave Egypt quickly before we would change our minds and elect to remain with the life we were accustomed to in Egypt rather than risk the uncertain and dangerous existence of freedom in the wilderness. And we had to leave quickly before G-d would change his mind too and begin to focus on our sins, rather than passing over them. After all, the angels were questioning G-d’s decision to save the Jews, and argued before G-d that the Jews are also idol worshipers, just like the Egyptians.
The fastest method of preparing the meat of the Korban Pesach was to roast it and the fastest way of baking bread was to interrupt the baking process before it became leavened. Neither was there time to separate the meat from the bone by breaking it. We had to understand, like Lot before us (Bereisis 19:17), that procrastination in times of national danger could be fatal to our continued physical and spiritual existence.