WRJ Voices: Bo

This week’s Voices is written by Deena Gottlieb who is a 2nd year rabbinical student at HUC-JIR in NY. Deena is one of 6 students who are receiving YES Fund scholarships this year from WRJ.

This week’s Torah portion, Parashat Bo, continues the narrative of the ten plagues. As the parashah opens, God tells Moses to plead with Pharaoh on behalf of the Israelites. However, in the same verse, we also learn that Moses’ efforts will be futile; Pharaoh will not relent because God has hardened Pharaoh’s heart against any sort of persuasion. This seems rather cruel of God. In essence, God makes Moses plead with Pharaoh, despite Moses’ initial reluctance, even though God causes Pharaoh to ignore Moses’ pleas. It is only upon the tenth plague that Pharaoh finally relents and forces the Israelites to leave his land as he and his people cannot tolerate any more havoc. Because Moses persisted in his efforts to coax Pharaoh’s heart out of its obstinate ways, Pharaoh finally surrendered, and Moses brings his people’s 430-year history in Egypt to a close. 

Upon this great victory, God instructs the Israelites to celebrate their freedom. God also gives the instruction to retell the story annually as an ever-present reminder of the journey from tyranny to freedom. These verses are the source of the holiday of Passover. The Torah makes special emphasis on the mandate to impart this history to the next generation, so that they, too, will know the story of the Exodus. When children inquire about the meaning behind this celebration, the parent is to respond: “This is because of what God did for me when I came out of Egypt.”

Interwoven into this annual celebration is a physical reminder of the hardship that the Israelites endured while leaving Egypt: the unleavened bread, matzah, that they (and we) are required to eat. Every year, when upon reciting the story of the Exodus from Egypt, the Israelites cannot revel in their freedom simply by eating whatever delicious foods they wish. Rather, they must always remember the difficult conditions under which they gained their freedom. The Israelites had to leave Egypt in haste, without the luxury of time to allow their bread to rise. This difficult aspect of commemorating the Exodus ensured that the Israelites continued to recognize the privilege of living in freedom and did not become complacent. If they only recalled the great victory, and ignored the peril and hardship that they experienced under Pharaoh, the memories of slavery, over time, might fade. The purpose of the unleavened bread is to prevent the Israelites from forgetting the trial of slavery that preceded the great gift of freedom. And because each generation must think of itself as having personally left Egypt, we, too, are required to observe this mandate. It is not enough only to celebrate the achievement of our peoples’ freedom; we must also remember the suffering that the Israelites endured before God granted, and Moses organized, the Exodus from Egypt.

For every modern-day victory of freedom over tyranny, we need to celebrate. But for every gain, we must also recognize all of the obstacles that were overcome. From this parashah, we learn that we must never forget the struggles that we, and the people before us, faced prior to that victory. Remembering these challenges ensures that we remain ever-vigilant and ready to help those who continue to face hardships. And we must always teach our children – and remind ourselves – that when striving toward a society where all have a voice, there is always more work to be done.