Parashat Bo
January 21, 2021
Rabbi Harry Pell, Associate Head of School
Facing the unknown. The concept can be daunting. And yet this year, it has become our norm. In reading this week’s parashah, though, I took great comfort in the reality that facing the unknown, and not knowing what it will be like until we get there, is actually built into our national experience as Jews.
In Shemot, Chapter 10, amid the plagues, Moshe is negotiating with Pharaoh about taking Bnai Yisrael into the wilderness to worship God. One aspect of their negotiations revolves around the Israelites’ flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, as well as Pharaoh’s livestock. Would the Israelites be allowed to take their own animals into the wilderness? Or would Pharaoh be required to provide yet additional animals for Bnai Yisrael to use as potential sacrifices during their sojourn in the desert?
Moshe’s demand of Pharaoh is that the Israelites must be allowed to take all of the animals, because they don’t know what they will need in the wilderness. According to pasuk 26: וַאֲנַ֣חְנוּ לֹֽא־נֵדַ֗ע מַֽה־נַּעֲבֹד֙ אֶת ה׳ עַד־בֹּאֵ֖נוּ שָֽׁמָּה׃ — literally, ” . . . we will not know with what we are to worship God until we get there.” On the one hand, that’s true, the Israelites don’t yet know what God will ask of them in terms of sacrifices in the wilderness. On the other hand, that’s far from the only thing they don’t know! In fact, they know next to nothing about what they will do in the wilderness if Pharaoh releases them for three days, much less what will be when he is forced to truly release them. “We won’t know . . . until we get there” could in fact be a motto for Bnai Yisrael as they set out on the journey into the wilderness that will ultimately turn them into the Jewish people.
Moshe’s demand of Pharaoh is that the Israelites must be allowed to take all of the animals, because they don’t know what they will need in the wilderness. According to pasuk 26: וַאֲנַ֣חְנוּ לֹֽא־נֵדַ֗ע מַֽה־נַּעֲבֹד֙ אֶת ה׳ עַד־בֹּאֵ֖נוּ שָֽׁמָּה׃ — literally, ” . . . we will not know with what we are to worship God until we get there.” On the one hand, that’s true, the Israelites don’t yet know what God will ask of them in terms of sacrifices in the wilderness. On the other hand, that’s far from the only thing they don’t know! In fact, they know next to nothing about what they will do in the wilderness if Pharaoh releases them for three days, much less what will be when he is forced to truly release them. “We won’t know . . . until we get there” could in fact be a motto for Bnai Yisrael as they set out on the journey into the wilderness that will ultimately turn them into the Jewish people.
But with a bit of faith in God that it would turn out alright, a sense of growing unity as a people, and the effort to be as prepared as they could possibly have been, I think our ancestors embraced this concept of לֹֽא־נֵדַ֗ע… עַד־בֹּאֵ֖נוּ שָֽׁמָּה — “we won’t know . . . until we get there,” and forty years later their descendants entered the promised land. It worked for our ancestors, and I believe that it can be a source of inspiration for us as well. Aspects of the future continue to feel uncertain, and we continue to not truly know “what it will be like until we get there,” but taking to heart this message of faith, unity, and doing everything that is in our power to do, I believe that we too will ultimately make it through this troubled time.
Shabbat Shalom.