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24
Diamonds
and Fine Jewelry
Celebrate The Courage
To Choose Freedom
DR. RICHARD C. HERTZ SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
T
his sedrah is a continuation
of what went on before, de-
scribing the plagues in-
voked against Pharaoh by
Moses to show the power and
might of God. Seven plagues
have already been described in
previous sedrahs.
Now with the eighth plague,
locusts swarm all over Egypt in
the country's worst scourge. The
pattern is still the same: Pharaoh
summons Moses and admits his
guilt. Even his courtiers protest
to Pharaoh and plead with him
to let the Israelites go. Pharaoh
agrees again, only to change his
mind.
Then a ninth plague. Moses
invoked the plague of total dark-
ness over Egypt. Pharaoh sum-
mons Moses and says, "Be gone!"
Moses knew a blotting out of the
light of the sun carried an im-
portant message for the Egyp-
tians. The sun was their supreme
god. The plague of darkness had
a devastating impact. Blacken-
ing out the supreme sun god car-
ried a message of doom to the
Egyptians.
But natural disasters were
nothing compared to the 10th
and final plague that was to de-
scend upon Egypt — death of the
firstborn. That was the clincher.
Now the negotiations were
over. Moses never spoke to
Pharaoh again. The time for ac-
tion had come.
The sedrah is now interrupt-
ed in Chapter 12 with the actual
exodus. The paschal offering is
described, with blood to be put on
the homes of the Israelites so that
the angel of death will see the
blood and know to pass over, "so
that no plague will destroy you
when I strike the land of Egypt."
No harm is to befall the Is-
raelites.
The feast of unleavened bread
is here described as the Israelites
prepare to leave Egypt. They are
to remember always how they left
Egypt and why they left Egypt.
"When your children ask you,
`What do you mean by this rite?'
You shall say, "It is the Passover
because He passed over the
homes of the Israelites in Egypt
and saved our houses.' " (Exodus
Thus the Israelites hurriedly
left Egypt, their Pharaoh now
humbled by the awesome pow-
er of the God of Israel. The dough
of their unleavened bread was
still warm.
The final night in Egypt is de-
scribed in our sedrah as a diffi-
cult "night of vigil" for both Egypt
and Israel. Pharaoh himself lost
his firstborn son. The people of
Egypt in every household were
paralyzed with grief over the
deaths of their firstborn.
The Israelites, who for so long
were deliberating what to do and
when to leave, only to be disap-
pointed time after time while
Pharaoh changed his mind, fi-
nally seized the moment, despite
being unprepared for the long
and arduous journey. They were
"a mixed multitude" as they gath-
ered their flocks and herds and
assembled themselves for the
forced march out of Egypt.
Pharaoh was forced to yield
concessions to the Israelites time
after time until the last and final
plague, the death of the firstborn.
As awesome and tragic as that
was for all the Egyptians, it
brought about the complete re-
lease of the Israelites.
The plagues served the pur-
pose of demonstrating that Moses
and Aaron were the true mes-
sengers of God and that the
Shabbat Bo:
Exodus 10:1-13:6
Jeremiah 46:13-28.
plagues, while appearing to be
natural occurrences, were actu-
ally intended to bring about the
miraculous deliverance of the
Israelites from their bondage in
slavery.
The theme of this sedrah is the
same as in the earlier chapters of
Exodus. Pharaoh's arrogance had
to be humbled so that the all-
powerful reality of God's superi-
ority might be revealed. This se-
drah tells how God was superior
in might to the stubborn
Pharaoh. Only the final over-
whelming blow that was to de-
12:26)
An interesting play on words scend upon the Egyptians in the
became the name of the holiday. 10th and final plague, the death
The final night in Egypt de- of the firstborn, was what moved
scribed in the sedrah was one in Pharaoh, for he himself was now
which God watched over and involved.
In later centuries, the night of
passed the homes of the Is-
raelites, declaring it a night of Passover often became a night for
Jews to worry about. They feared
redemption.
attacks on their homes because
Dr. Richard C. Hertz is rabbi
of the blood accusation (the total
emeritus of Temple Beth El.
fabrication that Jews had used