Ziv: Parashat Bo

The commentary on the previous parasha, “Vaera”, showed us how the story of Moses inaugurates a new era, a repetition of creation. This idea is confirmed by the commentaries of the passages that we are reading this week. In fact, the Talmud puts the ten plagues of Egypt in parallel with the first days of the world. The Maharal of Prague picks up this parallel: the locusts eat the grass and the fruits of the earth, the death of the first-born attacks the very image of the one God, and the darkness refers the world back to the original void, before there was even a word spoken, which would give rise to the light and to the first day… The world, like in the days of Noah is at the point of sinking into nothingness: the waters of the Red Sea recall those of the flood, for the people of Israel is mired deep in the idolatry of Egypt and its liberation requires such a radical purification that is evokes a new Genesis, a recreation of humanity. The plagues come to attack Egypt in its idolatrous worship, which they combat directly: the waters of the Nile, worshiped as a god, become blood, a symbol of impurity in Jewish law, the darkness extinguishes the luster of Râ - the sun-god - and the lamb, adored by the Egyptians, would be slain and eaten on the first day of Passover. Like Abraham coming out of Ur of the Chaldees, the furnace of the sorcerers, the people must leave the land of idols and sorcery. It will have all the time in the desert to study liberty.

The fourteenth of Nissan, first day of liberation, would henceforth be at the head of the religious calendar of the people of Israel, which open a new time-period. This calendar, a sign of the end of servitude, symbolized by the mastering of time, is based on the moon, a humble star that receives its light from another. It begins the cycle of the spring holidays which celebrate the liberation of the Hebrews and the giving of the Law, which is necessary for entering into covenant with the God of liberty.

Israel has another calendar, which begins at fall, the month of Tishrei, the day of Rosh HaShana. On that day, we celebrate the anniversary of the creation of the world, and it is the beginning of the holidays of the fall. Rashi ask himself why the Torah beings with the account of creation and why it does not begin with the chapter that contains the first commandment addressed specifically to the Hebrew people, Exodus 12… It is that these two accounts echo one another and tell of the double vocation, universal and particular, of the Hebrew people. Shabbat Shalom.