Bo

Hi,

This week's portion is Bo.

The portion begins where the previous portion left off – the Egyptian Pharaoh refuses to let the Jewish slaves leave Egypt, and Gd brings plagues upon Egypt.

Through Moshe, Gd warns the Pharaoh that the next plague, the eighth, will be a plague of locusts. Pharaoh’s own people see where Egypt is headed and argue to let the Jews go, but the Pharaoh is not willing to give in to Moshe’s demands, and he has Moshe and Aharon chased out of his palace.

Locusts arrive and destroy the Egyptian produce which had survived the previous plague of hail. Pharaoh calls to Moshe and Aharon and admits his error, but as soon as the locusts are gone, Pharaoh resumes his refusal to let the Jews go.

For the ninth plague, Pharoah does not receive a warning; Gd tells Moshe to raise his arm heavenward, and when he does so Gd brings a thick, tangible darkness upon Egupt. No one so much as leaves their homes for the first three days of darkness; only the Jews have light in their homes. Pharaoh calls for Moshe and tells him to take the Jews to worship Gd in the desert, but he insists that the Jews leave behind their animals. Moshe responds that they will take everything, so as to have everything available for their worship. Pharaoh refuses to let them go under those terms, and he warns, "On the day you see my face again, you will die!"

Moshe affirms that he will not come back to see Pharaoh’s face, and he then warns Pharaoh of the next, and final, plague – the death of the Egyptian first-born.

Gd then instructs the Jews to bring the Pesach offering on the night of the plague of the first-born. This would be a sort of "final exam" for the Jews, as they would slaughter the lamb which the Egyptians had worshipped. Further, the lamb would be on display for four days before the offering, so that everyone would see what they were going to do. Refusal to carry out this offering would indicate assimilation into Egyptian ideas and theology.

On the night of the 14th of Nisan, Gd brought a plague striking down all of the Egyptian first-born, as a punishment for their having enslaved and murdered the Jewish people, who Gd had described to Pharaoh as "My first-born."

The Torah portion concludes with Gd’s instruction for the Jews to dedicate their own first-born to Gd, in recognition of the way Gd protected them in Egypt.
The human first-born were to go serve in the Temple. This changed later, when the Kohanim (members of a subfamily within the tribe of Levi) began to work in the Temple, and so now we pay a sum of money to a Kohen as a substitute for having our first-born go off to work in the Temple. Among cattle, our first-born are to be brought as an offering. Among certain non-Kosher animals, which are ineligible as offerings, are instead redeemed with an animal which is brought as an offering.

Have a great day,
Mordechai