Parsha Bo – Come
Exodus 10:1-13:16
Essay from The Glimpses of the Torah. Psychological Analysis of Human Behaviour in the Torah by Inna Rogatchi (C) 2020 – 2026 with Art by Michael Rogatchi (C).
Parsha Bo ( Come ) narrates three last from the ten plagues that the Creator has sent to Egypt at the time very close to the Exodus. That time was critical, for every party involved. And that climax impacted the hearts and will of all of them, each from their own side and each in their own direction.
The accelerated in their impact plagues although bearing the same rhythm in which it was started – 7 days of continuation of a plague, with 24-day interval in between – piled onto the Pharaoh, his household and the Egyptians in its intensified and horrific for them character.
The already hardened heart of the Pharaoh commanded his behaviour further on, with him decisively not standing any longer those two re-appearing messengers, one of whom he knew from his early childhood, and whom both he tolerated all the previous time, for something like nine months by the time. Being impacted by rising danger and serious damage caused by the plagues and their repeated character, the Pharaoh has finally recognised for himself, first of all, that he and his kingdom are facing real and present danger, intensifying one. His reaction was predictable – hardened hate.
Moses, for his part, had been strengthened psychologically. Learning in the process, by now he knew how to behave in front of that monstrous Pharaoh, and he was not afraid of him. He has become a leader who is self-confident. It was a serious and mattering psychological milestone for Moses.
As the necessity to leave Egypt was growing for its huge Jewish population, the decision of doing it was not an easy one to make for the majority of them. There were different reasons for that, applying for different groups. Many people were genuinely feared. This is understandable, and it is happening commonly, historically, as this is an integral part of human nature.
The other group was a site & time-specific, so to say. Those were many people who were not prepared to sacrifice and abandoned the constants – such as a place to live, feeding, somewhat organised habits – in their lives despite it was the life in slavery. Those people are also many in any historical period, but given the paramount fact of slavery, it was surprisingly large group, according to some stellar commentators of the Torah, such as Rashi.
There was also the third group mentioned in some classical Torah commentaries, the corrupted ones. Although it was not a large group , among huge Jewish population of Egypt, still, it was a significant one, because corruption is an infectious disease as the humankind got to know all the way during its history, without getting rid of it, although because some parts of human nature can be inclined towards things that make a quickly attained gains in life attractive for some of people. It is a choice. Those people among Jews in Egypt, according to Sforno, were influential in the Jewish society, they were connected to certain powerful Egyptians, they enjoyed comfortable life and amassed wealth, and their refusal to leave Egypt was conscious. Given their position in the Jewish society in Egypt, they did influence many people there with rejection and narrowed scepticism towards the road to freedom. The concept was completely alien to them.
What is central for the most profound commentaries for the parsha Bo is the essential importance of the timing of the Exodus. The mental conditions of the Jews in Egypt by the period of time of the last three plagues ( and the plagues in general, and the sending Moses and Aaron by the Creator to the Pharaoh to declare the intention of the Jews to leave Egypt, to get away from slavery) were such that if they would not leave at the given moment, their attitude to life, their world outlook, their self-determination will deteriorate in a qualitative change which would mean the way of no return. This is a principally important moment of the Parsha Bo.
Another essentially important circumstance responding in timing to the events described in Parsha Bo is about the young generation of Jews in Egypt. Many of the profound Torah commentators had emphasised that due to the general time of Jewish people being in Egypt, those 430 years, if at the moment described in Bo, Jews were not breaking away from Egypt, not only that generation that was young at the moment of the pre-Exodus, but the nation in total would be lost in the matter essential: its national identity. This is the consideration of a paramount importance.
This concern, the attention to the healthy maintenance of a national identity is the matter which is always important. For the nation which has been under oppression and persecution non-stop during all its history is vital. Given the fact that we did manage to keep our language, history, traditions in an integral wholesomeness for over three thousand years, it reflects an admirable effort of many in every generation. And it also tells us very tangibly that Exodus did happen just in time. Just in time, thanks G-d.
In Michael’s philosophical rendition of Exodus ( 1993) , there is everything as if he was illustrating the Parsha Bo, but he was not. It is his artistic view on Exodus in general. Here an adult, alluring to Moses , is leaving the dark land of slavery, misery and constant humiliation, keeping a child’s boy in his hand. Moses is leaving and leading at the same time. He saves the young generation and supports them, personified in the boy in the painting, on the way. There is indeed a white page in front of our people leaving Egypt, with anything possible on the way. But the sun is shining, and the sky is bright over the heads of the Jews who decided to leave. The life of Jews as a free people was just about to start. Nobody ever said that it would be an easy one. But our history as if looking back to those who were about to leave from this Michael’s painting.
The motif of time and timing is featured in parsha Bo in one more, very important aspect – the introduction of Jewish calendar, the lunar one. As it happened, it has been the very first commandment, mitzva, that Jewish people have received from the Creator via Moses. Significantly, it happened just before the Jews were about to leave Egypt. Why was it necessary to instruct Moses and the rest of the people at that very moment which has been overwhelmed with so many different things, all vital ones? Probably , because of several reasons: organising-wise, by leaving Egypt, Jewish people would come to live on their own, and to have a sense of time, they needed guidance. Spiritually-wise, a clear understanding of time-set, and following this chosen way of calculating time, meant the basics of the mode of behaviour . The observant Jews are still follow this calendar and that first mitzvah of ours till today. Socially-wise, the introduction and acceptance of a clear and known calendar meant the introduction of norm and the certain rhythm of functioning society.
Why it was the Moon is not difficult to understand: the planet’s permanent change of shape is the most visible one, and most importantly, that regular change is an objective factor that does not depend on anything else. With visible and regular phases of the moon, it was a natural and sure approach to attract the people’s attention, to discipline them, and to remind them what to do and, most importantly, when. From that organising point of view, setting the rhythm of Jewish life , precisely just before the nation will start its journey towards the life on its own, was indeed, the first necessity – thus, the introducing the lunar calendar has become the first mitzvah for Jewish people at the time immediately before Exodus.
Tellingly, as pointed out by Rashi, did not quite know which exact phase of the moon should signal to Jewish people a renewal of a month, and he requested the knowledge from the Creator, as he did every time when he was in need of precise knowledge. The Creator did respond to Moses’ request as he always did, and in this case, it was also the way in which the Creator did show the shape and images of the things and phenomena visual to Moses, by His ‘finger’, as Rashi explains. But how Moses could see the image of the correct shape of the moon’s phase in the darkness of the night, while the Creator has always communicated with Moses during the day time? – asks Rashi, and replies: “ It is understood that the Creator did show Moses the right shape of the moon to remember it for the introducing the lunar calendar and thus to know what the first mitzvah is about precisely in the late phase of the dusk when the moon is already visible, so Moses could see it”.
In one of my works featuring the moon, the idea of the moon’s special qualities, some of them mentioned above, is the point of the picture. It is not only about the shape. It is also about that very special shine that the moon can produce sometimes that has some magnetic qualities. From the point of view of symbolism in Judaism, and the role of the Moon in it, this magnetism came from us, notably, from that communication between Moses and Creator on the introducing the first mitzvah and the Creator’s visual explanation of it to Moses in the late hour of the dusk soon before Exodus.
Parsha Bo introduces two more cardinally important things in Jewish life from that moment for generations to come, Pesach and tefillin. For many observant Jewish people, Pesach is the holiday number one in our annual calendar. This is understandable: we celebrate the drive for freedom, at any given moment of both our history and present existence.
In my view, there is no coincidence the correlation of two facts to be found in the pages of the Parsha Bo: the strong insistence by the Creator in his specified on the matter addressing to Moses to make ‘this month’, the month of Nissan, in the middle of which the Jewish people led by Moses will finally leave Egypt, as ‘the first month in your calendar’ for generations to come, and the explicit, detailed description of the Pesach as the feast of freedom, with all corresponding details of it. A focused comparative research does show that no other festival mentioned in the Torah has been described there in such detail and with such fortitude to be implemented, to be remembered and to be carried on by Jews forever. There are very significant instructions in Parsha Bo regarding the Pesach as the most elevated of our holidays in the annual circle. Those instructions have been related in the way which is impossible to ignore.
In his well-known and highly critically acclaimed Family Supper painting, Michael reflected on the purity and engagement of the Pesach, of its directing the road of Jewish people towards freedom, and the freedom’s celebration of life, with its wisdom, freedom of choice, inner freedom under any circumstances, and knowledge as the fundamental basic and condition of the free choice. According to the leading art curators who did choose the work for a notable collection of an important museum in London,”there is no similar visualisation of Pesach has been created in a modern and contemporary art” ( prof. Julia Weiner, London).
And again, as there is no single ‘extra’ or ‘random’ letter in the text of the Torah, there is no any ‘extra’ or ‘random’ fact or subject mentioned there, with the place for all of it being absolutely precise and meaningful in the context of every Parsha. If there is ‘an absolutism’ of placing the knowledge in a written source, the Torah is a golden etalon of it.
To give the Jewish people several essential instructions at the very moment just prior to leaving Egypt in a conscious act, the effort for reaching freedom, the Creator gave Moses this: the first mitzvah, the establishing of Pesach, and the usage of the tefillin.
What is the first mitzvah, the introduction of the lunar calendar? The organising of life in big and small,, the template of it. What is Pesach? The celebration of our decision to move towards freedom and self-determination, but yet more, the eternal remembrance of it as this understanding and positioning in life is its most important basis and the starting point of every life in generations to come.
What is tefillin? The physical and tactile sign of Jewish observing man’s direct connection to the Creator, and also the most personal subject of that connection. Personal function of the tefillin also underlines both possibilities and power of a personal connection of an individual to the Creator, the opportunity of this encompassing all difficulties in life personal connection, a possibility to address and to appeal to the Creator one to one, in the most sincere addressing of one’s soul. This possibility is seen as one of the central power-points in Judaism.
In Michael’s Study for King David portrait, he featured tefillin to underline the message. King David whom Michael loves, was probably the most exponential figure among the Jewish heroes when it comes to the personal communications with the Creator. From this perspective, his tefillin is highly important in the portraying study.
Why did the Creator give Moses his strong instruction about the tefillin not once, but in two paces in the Parsha Bo? To underline its importance – precisely before the mass of six hundred thousand Jewish men would leave Egypt to leave on their own. And their own means the children of the Creator – thus, the physical connection of every Jewish man with the Creator, that is symbolised by the tefillin, has become a priority before Exodus, to infuse among the people the understanding of necessity to keep that individual connection. It was similar to keeping a life-rope on the eve of a journey, spiritually-wise. And observant Jewish men are keeping it still, all these over three thousand and three hundred years, in every generation.
Inna Rogatchi (C) 2020-2026