Ziv: Parashat Bo 2

And you shall tell your son.

The ten plagues that God brought upon Egypt are split across two parashas. The previous parasha detailed the events of the first seven plagues while this week’s parasha presents the final three plagues. While it was certainly possible for those who devised the repartition of the parashas to contain the ten plagues in one parasha had they wanted to do so, the fact is that something new begins with this parasha and the ten plagues themselves are not the main point. Immediately at the beginning of the parasha we read: “Come to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine among them, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them, that you may know that I am the Lord” (Ex 10:1–2). The underlying foundation of this parasha is the story of the sons: the sons - the firstborn - of Egypt, and of the children of Israel. The message of this passage is that all firstborn sons - whether of Israel or of the nations - belong to God, as He explains in the book of Numbers: “all the firstborn are mine. On the day that I struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I consecrated for my own all the firstborn in Israel, both of man and of beast. They shall be mine: I am the Lord.” (Nu 3:13). Therefore, what would save the sons of the children of Israel throughout their generations is their memory of God’s dealings with Egypt, which are to be studied continually.

In the Passover Haggadah - read during the Passover Seder - there is the story of the four sons who ask their father questions about the exodus from Egypt, and the answers that should be given to them. Three of these sons are found in our parasha. According to the order of appearance in the parasha they are: the wicked son, the son who does not know how to ask and the simple son (the fourth son - the wise son - is found toward the end of the Torah in the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy). We find the first son in the twelfth chapter: “And when your sons say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’ ” (Ex 12:26–27), the second son, who wants to ask but does not know how to do so, simply receives his answer: “‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ And it shall be to you as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth. For with a strong hand the Lord has brought you out of Egypt.” (Ex 13:8–9) and the simple son: “And when in time to come your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you shall say to him, ‘By a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery. For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of animals. Therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all the males that first open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem”. (Ex 13:14–15). These answers teach us that redemption revolves around sacrifice: of the Passover and of the firstborn - which is redeemed by God - showing that redemption is personal, it is “for me”. As the people come out of slavery where individuality was completely blurred and ignored, our parasha teaches us that each one of our children is an individual needing to learn from the wisdom of God is his own unique way. Shabbat Shalom.