After we read last week about the first 7 plagues—blood, frogs, lice, swarms of insects, pestilence, boils, hail—Parsahat Bo that we read this week continues with the final 3 plagues—locusts, darkness and the killing of the firstborn. The drama and the suspense have been building throughout, and they reach their climax when God tells Moses before the last plague, “I will bring but one more plague upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt; after that he shall let you go from here… “, and then Moses tells Pharaoh “Thus says the Lord: Toward midnight I will go forth among the Egyptians, and every first-born in the land of Egypt shall die… and there shall be a loud cry in all the land of Egypt; such as has never been or will ever be again… Then all these courtiers of yours shall come down to me and bow low to me, saying, ‘Depart, you and all the people who follow you’ (Exodus 11:1-8).
Thus, the stage has been set and the people are now waiting with great anticipation for God to deal the final blow to the Egyptians and then lead them out of Egypt and toward the Promised Land. Just when the drama is at its peak, however, God puts everything on hold and tells them to perform an elaborate ritual involving the slaughter and consumption of a lamb, called the Paschal, or Passover, Lamb, and known in Hebrew as the Korban Pesach. Why?
On the premise that sheep were part of the Egyptian pantheon, some suggest that the public slaughter of the sheep and the smearing of their blood were meant to prove to the Egyptians that their gods were powerless. The problem with this approach is that the plague of the firstborn occurred while the Egyptians were largely indoors (see 12:30) thus they would not have been able to witness this act of defiance. Others suggest that the entire ritual, especially the requirement to apply the blood of the Korban Pesach to their doorways, was meant to magically protect them from “the Destroyer” (see 12:13, 23), an angel of death who was sent to kills the Egyptian first-born. Unfortunately, this approach is problematic as well because it is unclear why the Israelites would need protection from this plague and not from the others. Thus, we must seek an explanation elsewhere.
There are several striking similarities between the rules and regulations of the Korban Pesach and those of the sacrifices described in detail in the book of Leviticus. For example, the law requiring “your lamb shall be without blemish… male… from the sheep or the goats” (Exodus 12:5) resembles the requirement of “sheep or of goats, he shall make his offering a male without blemish” in the context of the burnt offering (Leviticus 1:10). The prohibition against leaving any sacrificial meat until the morning along with the concomitant obligation to burn any leftovers (Exodus 12:10) applies to all sacrifices (see, for example, Leviticus 7:15-17, 19:6, 22:30). Furthermore, the obligation to eat the Korban Pesach “with unleavened bread (matzot)” (Exodus 12:8) appears in the context of the thanksgiving sacrifice as well (see Leviticus 7:12). Finally, the putting of its blood on the doorposts is reminiscent of the dashing of the blood against the sides of the altar by the priests that is widely viewed as the central feature of sacrificial worship.
On the other hand, contrary to conventional wisdom, the text never refers to the Paschal Lamb as a Korban—sacrifice. Furthermore, unlike the situation in the Tabernacle and the Temple, the people in Egypt had no altar upon which to offer the lamb, and unlike other sacrifices, the people, rather than the priests, officiated, and only the people, rather than God, consumed the meat. So what is going on here and what is the point of this ritual?
It appears that its’ underlying purpose is to transform the home into an altar, for the members of the household to serve, at least temporarily, as priests, and for them to usher God’s presence into the home, just as they will later usher it into the Tabernacle and the Temple. Why was this necessary at this particular juncture in time?
The book of Exodus begins by reporting that each of the sons of Israel came to Egypt “ish uveito“—”with his household” (Exodus 1:1) and it was in Egypt that they became a nation (see Exodus 1:9 and my article https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BR3i3sw5n/). Later, however, the Egyptians removed them from their homes and families and resettled them near the sites where they were forced into slave labor, which the Torah calls beit avadim—”the house of bondage” (see Exodus 13:3, 14). Thus, before God could redeem the people and call upon them to build a Tabernacle to honor His presence, He had to first return each person to his and her family and home, and then ask each household to perform a ritual aimed at welcoming God’s presence within it.
Since the outbreak of the war, it has become abundantly clear that there can be no victory, no recovery and no rebuilding as a nation until all of our hostages return safely to their families and homes. After months of intensive negotiations, increasing political and military pressure, and the fervent prayers of Jews around the world, we were finally privileged and overjoyed to witness the beginning of the return of our hostages—who had experienced their own version of the “house of bondage”—to the loving embrace of their families and to their homes.
Let us hope and pray for the prompt release of all the other hostages so that they too may return to their families and homes, and so that we, as a people, may heal, recover, bring God’s presence into our lives and build a better and brighter future together.
Shabbat Shalom.