Torah Portion
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ELECTROLYSIS
Shabbat Bo:
Exodus 10:1-13:16•
Jeremiah 46•13-28.
G
o (Bo) to Pharaoh. For I
have hardened his heart ...
in order that I may display
these My signs among
them ..." (Exodus 10:1) So begins
this week's Torah portion.
This week's parasha continues and
concludes the story, begun last week,
which is so familiar to us from our
yearly Pesach observance: God tells
Moses to continue to plead with
Pharaoh to let the Israelites
go free. Each time Moses
and Aaron approach
Pharaoh, he refuses to free
our people. And each time
Pharaoh refuses, God brings
(Exodus 10: I 2)
another plague. In the
Why does it not say that
opening chapters of this
"they
(the Egyptians) may
week's reading we have the
know
that I am God"? Isn't
last of the 10 plagues:
God causing the plagues to
locusts, darkness, and the
RABBI AMY
prove to Pharaoh and his
death of the Egyptian first-
BROD SKY
people the power and,
born.
S
pec i al to
indeed, the very existence
The last part of our
ish
News
The
Jew
of God? No, a Chasidic
parasha, Exodus 12:1 -
commentary teaches us,
13:16, describes how the
God is not trying to convince the
Israelites are to observe the Passover.
Egyptians but rather the Israelites.
They are to make an offering of a
As God's emissaries to the world,
year-old lamb and to eat it hurriedly,
the Israelites ("you" in the text) must
ready to leave at any moment. When
know God. After years of slavery,
God strikes down the Egyptian first-
they will see God's miracles and mar-
born that night, Pharaoh will force
vels
in Egypt; they will remember
the Israelites to flee immediately, so
God.
They cannot transmit God's
they needed to be prepared to flee at
teaching to the world if they them-
a moment's notice.
selves do not know and understand.
The eating of unleavened bread,
To fully transmit a message to
matzah,•is also commanded in this
others you must comprehend it. We
week's portion. God tells Moses and
cannot teach our children and grand 1
Aaron, and through them the entire
children that which we do not know.
community, that this day is a day of
What
we know, what we need to
remembrance to be observed for all
know, is our Judaism. Whether we
time. They are also commanded that
realize it or not, Jewish values inform
for "seven days you shall eat unleav-
our daily lives. We learn them during
ened bread; on the very first day you
our youth. We live by such values as
shall remove leaven from your houses
tikkun olam ("repairing the world"),
... 'On the first day you shall hold a
tzedakah ("justice," "righteousness"),
sacred convocation, and on the sev-
and
bikkur cholim ("visiting the
enth day a sacred convocation; no
sick").
Even our seemingly modern
work at all shall be done on them ..."
concern
for the environment is really
(Exodus 12:15-16)
based upon the value of bal tashkhit
The 13th chapter of Exodus reiter-
("do not destroy") found in
ates the commandment to observe
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E:
this Feast of Unleavened Bread for
seven days, adding that "you shall
explain to your son on that day, 'It is
because of what God did for me
when I went free from Egypt.'"
(Exodus 13:8) Telling the story to our
children - is certainly central to our
modern observance of Pesach. Our
current Passover rituals developed
over time but find their genesis in
this text.
The opening words of our parasha
explain what is about to happen and
why. God tells Moses to go to
Pharaoh to plead for the Israelites.
But, God tells him, "I have hardened
his heart and the hearts of his
courtiers, in order that I may display
these My signs among them, and
that you may recount in the
hearing of your sons and
your sons' sons ... how I
displayed My signs among
them — in order that you
may know that I am God."
Amy Brodsky is the assistant director
of the Ecumenical Institute for Jewish-
Christian Studies and a teacher at
Temple Kol Ami.
Deuteronomy.
Talmud Torah, the study of Torah,
the study of Judaism, is the central
value. It's been said that Judaism was
the first religion to make the knowl-