(for Parshat Bo)
i
God created Man with no partner.
He made Man sleep in loneliness
and detached a part of Man’s body and fashioned Woman.
The Man said: bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.
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Etzem means bone and also essence.
So bone of my bone means also: essence of my essence.
And basar means flesh.
*
The verse says: a man and his wife will be as one flesh.
The verse does not say: a man and his wife will be as one as one etzem—as one essence, as one self.
The verse says: as one flesh.
Flesh-deep, we unite.
But our etzem, our selves, remain apart.
ii
God says: as you are freed from Egypt
eat a meal of lamb.
Do not break or eat the bone—the etzem— of the lamb.
Only eat the basar—the meat, the flesh.
This is a meal with no etzem—no self that stands apart.
It is a meal with only basar—the part that unifies.
And God says: households and neighbors shall eat this meal together.
iii
In slavery, we lost our etzem, our self.
With no etzem, egoless, we were left with only basar:
we were left only with the part of us that joins with others.
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We were made ready to join households and neighbors.
We were made ready wholly for community.
*
We gained this in slavery
and this is what we celebrate as we leave Egypt.
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Shabbat Shalom, Abe
Please pray for the premature infants Kalev Ezra and Baer Yakov bnei Emunah. Please continue to pray for Achinoam Rina bat Avital Hodaya, Batya Shira bat Chasida, Ahuvah Rachel bat Orah and for Rachel Tovah bat Yehudit Esther
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