TorahParsha

What matzoh tells us

for Parshat Bo

 

i

God said to Egypt:

let My people go

to worship Me in the Desert.

 

He brought terror upon the Egyptians,

the task-masters,

until finally they forced the people out

so they could be with God in the Desert

as God had wanted—

so God’s terror would cease.

 

Egypt forced the people out

just as the people were baking bread.

Their dough hadn’t risen up yet

and suddenly they were forced into their journey.

 

Their bread came out matzoh.

 

ii

Egypt knew

that their one path to safety

was for the people to be with God.

So Egypt drove the people toward God

before the people were ready.

 

iii

Sometimes you are not ready to follow God.

Not yet.

There is still bread to make,

dough to let rise.

 

But just then,

the people of the world might need you to be close to God—

not for your sake, but for their sake.

 

Then it is not up to you, anymore,

to say if you are ready to leave,

if you are ready to begin.

 

Your life with God

is not always about you.

 

That is the lesson of matzoh.

 

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Shabbat shalom,

Abe

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I got some interesting, thoughtful responses to my piece about forgiveness two weeks ago. As a response to those responses, I offer a recent news article—the amazing story of Eva Mozes, the Auschwitz survivor who adopted Rudolf Höss’s grandson.

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Please pray for Yechiel ben Michal

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You choose your role

for Parshat Bo

 

i

Moses tells Pharaoh that the people must bring an array of animals for the sacrifice for the great celebration to God.

And Moses says that Pharaoh, too, must send animals along.  

Because no one will know what God wants from them until the celebration comes.

Perhaps God could even ask for Pharaoh’s animal.

 

ii

Pharaoh refuses to let the people celebrate.

Soon after, God commands the specific animal and the specific manner of offering that He wants in the celebration that will happen, in spite of Pharaoh.

And God stipulates that only Israelites may participate.

 

iii

This celebration was to be for everyone—Israel, Egypt; and it was to be spontaneous; it was to be like the worldly religions.

But Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, the worldliest of nations, rejects his part.

Then it is guided by rules, and is for Israel alone. It becomes like the Judaism we know.

Pharaoh loses his role in the religion of God.

 

iii

Of the many things one could take from this, I will offer only thought:

We all reject our roles, all the time.

 

 

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This reading utilizes an ambiguity in Exodus 21:24-27; I leave it to readers to decide if it’s a forced reading. And, of course, I don’t know how rule-bound ancient Egyptian religion actually was. So I offer this week’s thought as a “vort,” if nothing else.

___

Shabbat Shalom,

Abe

www.TorahParsha.com 

Who is most important to God?

for Parshat Bo

 

i

Moses says to Pharaoh:

let us leave Egypt

to celebrate to God.

And Pharaoh asks:

Who amongst you will go and celebrate?

Moses says:

Our young, our old, and our flocks will go—

everyone.

Pharaoh says:

if you want to bring everyone

then I will not let anyone go.

*

Egypt has a citizen nation

and a slave nation

and priests who live in a separate land.

How could the king of Egypt

tolerate a communal festival?

 

ii

Later God tells the people:

When you come to the Land,

then the Levites,

who are the priests,

must live among the rest of the people.

And when you rejoice in all the good that HaShem has given you,

you must rejoice with the Levite.

And you must keep the Sabbath each week

a day of rest

for you and your son and your daughter

and your servant

and your animals:

for everyone.

 

iii

God does not want Egypt.

God wants us to celebrate to Him

as many people,

together.

 

_____

Based on the Ramban and a thought of Rabbi Menachem Leibtag

Shabbat Shalom,

Abe

www.TorahParsha.com

For Parshat Bo

 

What does loneliness offer?

 

i

There was famine in Canaan and there was no bread

but in Egypt there was bread

so Jacob’s sons came to Egypt

and came to stay.

In Egypt,

where their grandchildren become enslaved.

*

Israel rose from Egypt

baking matzoh:

bread that would not rise,

bread that is not bread.

*

And Manna was the bread from God

that Israel ate in the Desert.

 

ii

Israel eats the bread of Egypt,

and then of God.

Israel belongs to Egypt,

and then to God.

You belong to the one

who gives you bread.

 

iii

But what of matzoh—

no-man’s-land,

bread and not bread,

not of Egypt, not from God?

Matzo is the bread of growing up.

*

When you grow up

you come to someone

not as a child

not as a slave

but as a partner,

a groom,

a bride.

*

Before this

you must learn two things:

that you can bake your own bread;

that the bread you feed yourself

is no bread at all.

*

So you need a time alone,

in-between.

You need matzoh.

 

iv

(This is a lesson for those who seek others,

and for a nation coming to God.)

 

_____
Shabbat shalom,

Abe

 

Please pray for Ayelet Yakira bat Chaya Hinda Matel Nechama, Esther Chaya bat Yael Miriam, and for Neshama Emunah bat Batya

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The Value of Suffering

(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.

*

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.

*

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.

 

 

                                                                     

____

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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Freedom is Having Family

i
Joseph's brothers cast Joseph into a pit and from there he is picked up and is taken and is sold into slavery in Egypt.

So Joseph becomes Egypt's first Israelite slave.

*
Joseph will not see his brothers or his father or any one of his family, after this, for twenty years.

*
Joseph's presence in Egypt is what precipitates all the people of Israel's uprooting themselves and coming to Egypt.

In Egypt, all the people, eventually, will become slaves to Egypt themselves.

ii
When God frees the Children of Israel from Egypt, He commands the people to eat Passover meals according to the house of their fathers, on the very night that freedom comes.

iii
The destruction of family brings slavery.

When freedom comes, the family is joined back together.

*
To be a slave is to be torn apart from family.

To be free is to be together with family.

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Darkness is Presence

i
God describes the Plague of Darkness as darkness which may be felt.

This is a new idea. Thus far, we have only known the darkness of absence. The verse at the beginning of the world, for instance, says: The world was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep.

But here is darkness which may be felt.

Here is darkness of Presence.

*
The Plague of Locusts is darkness caused by life. The creatures covered the surface of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened.

And the Slaying of the Firstborn happens at midnight. This is the first time (to my knowing) that the Torah uses the word midnight.

*
So now darkness has presence. And darkness has life. And darkness is linked to time.

Darkness is tied to meaning.

*
This is the kind of darkness that God introduces in the land of Egypt.

ii
This darkness is Egypt's punishment for enslaving Israel. That enslavement is also characterized by darkness: When God warns Abraham of the slavery to come, a horror of great darkness befalls him.

*
So say that the Egyptians' darkness parallels Israel's darkness.

So that if the Egyptian darkness is tied to meaning, then the Israelite darkness is also tied to meaning.

iii
If darkness is tied to meaning, then darkness can now be tied to the process of God's redemption: the process by which all the world gains meaning.

The horror of darkness can be part of the order of the world.

It can be a part of Good.

*
That is a miracle of darkness. It is the miracle that God delivers in Egypt.

~~~~