Parashat Bo
January 26, 2023
Rachel Kirschbaum, Hebrew Department Chair
Man-Made Miracles
Even the Academy of Motion Pictures would struggle to categorize a cinematic production of Parshat Bo. The telling in Exodus of the last of the plagues and the subsequent wondrous exit of the Israelites from Egypt is an action-packed story of adventure, suspense, horror, fantasy, and, with an eye looking forward to Parashat Beshalach, it is even a musical! Theatrics notwithstanding, there are also textual subtleties that contribute to the tenor of our story.
וַיַּֽעֲשׂ֖וּ כׇּל־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל כַּאֲשֶׁ֨ר צִוָּ֧ה יְהֹוָ֛ה אֶת־מֹשֶׁ֥ה וְאֶֽת־אַהֲרֹ֖ן כֵּ֥ן עָשֽׂוּ׃ וַיְהִ֕י בְּעֶ֖צֶם הַיּ֣וֹם הַזֶּ֑ה
הוֹצִ֨יא יְהֹוָ֜ה אֶת־בְּנֵ֧י יִשְׂרָאֵ֛ל מֵאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרַ֖יִם עַל־צִבְאֹתָֽם׃ (שמות יב:נא)
And all the Israelites did so; as God had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did. That very day God freed the Israelites from the land of Egypt, troop by troop. (Ex. 12:51)
Even the Academy of Motion Pictures would struggle to categorize a cinematic production of Parshat Bo. The telling in Exodus of the last of the plagues and the subsequent wondrous exit of the Israelites from Egypt is an action-packed story of adventure, suspense, horror, fantasy, and, with an eye looking forward to Parashat Beshalach, it is even a musical! Theatrics notwithstanding, there are also textual subtleties that contribute to the tenor of our story.
וַיַּֽעֲשׂ֖וּ כׇּל־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל כַּאֲשֶׁ֨ר צִוָּ֧ה יְהֹוָ֛ה אֶת־מֹשֶׁ֥ה וְאֶֽת־אַהֲרֹ֖ן כֵּ֥ן עָשֽׂוּ׃ וַיְהִ֕י בְּעֶ֖צֶם הַיּ֣וֹם הַזֶּ֑ה
הוֹצִ֨יא יְהֹוָ֜ה אֶת־בְּנֵ֧י יִשְׂרָאֵ֛ל מֵאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרַ֖יִם עַל־צִבְאֹתָֽם׃ (שמות יב:נא)
And all the Israelites did so; as God had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did. That very day God freed the Israelites from the land of Egypt, troop by troop. (Ex. 12:51)
The Midrash Sifrei comments that God purposely took the Israelites from Egypt specifically during that day (and not that night) in order to avoid an inevitable claim. Had God liberated the Israelites under cloak of darkness, explains the Sifrei, the Egyptians would have protested to the other nations that had they known the Israelites were planning their escape, they would have slaughtered them on the spot. Therefore, says the Sifrei, God responded with the colloquial “bring it on.” The Israelites leave in the height of day. God is daring the Egyptians to try and stop them.
This thought leads to another idea. The Israelites themselves had to act midday! With their captors’ eyes upon them, the Israelites had to leave brazenly, when the sun was up. God could not perform his miracle of protecting the Israelites as they left unless the Israelites themselves took that first step. God’s miracle was dependent on Man’s initiative.
The ominous phrase “בעצם היום הזה – That very day,” appears in three additional narratives in Tanakh, and in all three instances the Sifrei explains the same idea as it does in our parashah. In Parashat Noach we are told that Noah and his family enter the ark “that very day.” In Parashat Lech Lecha we are told that Avraham and his entire household undergoes brit milah “that very day,” and finally, in Parashat Haazinu, Moshe dies on “that very day.” In the cases of Noah and Avraham and their families, they lived amid people who shamed them for their beliefs. Had Noah entered the ark at nighttime, the people of the world would lament that if they had known of Noah’s midnight run they would have slaughtered Noah and his family, and razed the ark to the ground. Similarly, the Canaanites would exclaim they’d have stopped Avraham and destroyed his family had they known what was happening when the Abrahamic clan performed the mitzvah of brit milah. In both cases, the acts occur during the daytime, intensifying the power of Man’s actions. Surprisingly, in the case of Moshe, it is not the Other who may claim to have halted Moshe’s death but the Israelites themselves who could not bear to allow Moshe, their freedom fighter, to slip between their fingers, into the unknown. In this situation, it is Moshe who must act midday as God protects him from his subjects, as it were, who out of grief would threaten progression toward death.
This thought leads to another idea. The Israelites themselves had to act midday! With their captors’ eyes upon them, the Israelites had to leave brazenly, when the sun was up. God could not perform his miracle of protecting the Israelites as they left unless the Israelites themselves took that first step. God’s miracle was dependent on Man’s initiative.
The ominous phrase “בעצם היום הזה – That very day,” appears in three additional narratives in Tanakh, and in all three instances the Sifrei explains the same idea as it does in our parashah. In Parashat Noach we are told that Noah and his family enter the ark “that very day.” In Parashat Lech Lecha we are told that Avraham and his entire household undergoes brit milah “that very day,” and finally, in Parashat Haazinu, Moshe dies on “that very day.” In the cases of Noah and Avraham and their families, they lived amid people who shamed them for their beliefs. Had Noah entered the ark at nighttime, the people of the world would lament that if they had known of Noah’s midnight run they would have slaughtered Noah and his family, and razed the ark to the ground. Similarly, the Canaanites would exclaim they’d have stopped Avraham and destroyed his family had they known what was happening when the Abrahamic clan performed the mitzvah of brit milah. In both cases, the acts occur during the daytime, intensifying the power of Man’s actions. Surprisingly, in the case of Moshe, it is not the Other who may claim to have halted Moshe’s death but the Israelites themselves who could not bear to allow Moshe, their freedom fighter, to slip between their fingers, into the unknown. In this situation, it is Moshe who must act midday as God protects him from his subjects, as it were, who out of grief would threaten progression toward death.
Revisiting the Parashat Bo film, God’s miracles do not happen by God alone. Alongside the grandiosity of the Exodus, lies a subtle and powerful image of the remnants of an enslaved and tortured family, who with trepidation and awe, initiate their first steps toward freedom. It is Man who triggers the miracles of God.