What is Normal Life?

Parshas Bo

Posted on January 22, 2021 (5781) By Mordechai Dixler | Series: Lifeline | Level: Beginner

The current global upheaval due to the raging pandemic, combined with political upheaval, has made us all unsettled; many are even broken and in despair. We all ask, “When will life return to normal?” The Exodus story, which we read about in the Torah portion this week, teaches us a fundamental lesson to help us frame these events and cope with the unexpected twists and turns.

 

The ten plagues were an attack on the Egyptian nation and the natural world order. They demonstrated G-d’s authority and control over all elements of nature. Ultimately, they forced the leader of the civilized world, Pharaoh, a man who made himself a god, into submission. The Al-mighty stripped Pharaoh of his false sense of control over his world, to the point that he begged his Jewish slaves to leave Egypt after the final plague, the Plague of the Firstborn.

 

The Torah portion ends with a selection of Commandments: donning Tefillin (phylacteries), the recounting of the Exodus on Passover, and redeeming the firstborn – all reminders for future generations of the Exodus. The Mitzvos of keeping the Sabbath and observing the Jewish holidays also serve as a reminder of the Exodus, as is reflected in the liturgy recited on those days. The Exodus demonstrated G-d’s dominion over the world, and these Mitzvos, many of them daily, and weekly, would ensure the Jewish people never forget.

 

The message of the Exodus is simple but easily forgotten. Whatever your opinion is of mass media, there’s one thing we can all agree on – its failure to express the hand of G-d of world events. Yet, the fact remains –  He is in charge.

 

With the current rollout of the vaccine, and governmental changes, there’s the potential for our own Exodus from this upheaval and a return to normalcy. But times of upheaval, times when G-d’s presence is more obvious, remind us that “normal life” must still have that same awareness of G-d’s constant involvement in public and private affairs. Adam, the first man, was fully aware of G-d in his life, and the actions of man that followed muddled that reality through the generations that would follow. The lessons of the Exodus (and the Pandemic?) were a “reset” for the world, allowing all to see the reality of G-d’s involvement once again. That’s what a return to normalcy looks like – a return to the normalcy of Adam’s freshly minted world.

 

We all crave the return to the comfort of how things used to be, but our souls will only find true comfort with the knowledge of our Creator’s constant presence in our lives. I do hope life returns to normal soon. It is also my hope and prayer, that we listen to the lessons of the Exodus, (and the Pandemic) and the feelings of our soul, to recognize “normal life” as it was meant to be.

Understand the Pharaohs

Parshas Bo

Posted on January 21, 2021 (5781) By Rabbi Berel Wein | Series: Rabbi Wein | Level: Beginner

 

Since every word of our holy Torah carries with it many layers of significance and importance, it is incumbent upon us to understand why this particular word, Bo, is employed by the Torah to describe a certain situation.

 

In the opinion of the commentators to the Torah, the word Bo, which appears at the beginning of this week’s reading, contains a deeper meaning than the simple translation meaning ‘to come.’ The fact that the word is then followed by the Hebrew word ‘el’ meaning not only ‘to’ but perhaps more literally ‘into,’ gives us insight into what the word Bo in this context really means.

 

It was not sufficient for Moshe merely to visit or come to the Pharaoh of Egypt to deliver the warnings from G-d regarding the plagues that were going to descend upon the Egyptian nation, because of their refusal to free the Jewish people from bondage. Moshe could have delivered this information by proxy, by messenger, by letter or any of the other means that human beings used then to communicate one with another.

 

Rather, it was necessary for Moshe to enter into the brain and feelings of Pharaoh, so to speak, that propels the entire narrative of this week’s reading and will lead to the great moment of freedom and emancipation for the Jewish people.

 

It is as though the Lord, so to speak, wants Moshe to really understand the stubbornness and almost suicidal behavior of the Pharaoh, and to appreciate that it is this intransigence itself that will be his undoing and the destruction of Egypt.

 

It is as though the Torah is teaching us that if one is unable to comprehend the depths of the personality of evil, one can never really combat evil in a practical and strong fashion. It is this recognition of the evil lurking originally, though only in the background of events, that is the beginning of the process of preventing it from triumphing.

 

The Jewish people were fooled by the Pharaoh into volunteering for their own forced labor and eventual slavery. They did not recognize his call for patriotism as the true evil that lay behind his national the plan for them. The Jewish people were so willing to be recognized as good Egyptians that they volunteered to become their own worst enemy and submit themselves to centuries of slavery and servitude.

 

Jewish people, for centuries, have often been unable to perceive that they themselves create the seeds of their own destruction. In the rush for acceptance and approval of others, Jews are often blinded, willfully overlooking the evil arising around them.

 

It is insufficient to come to the Pharaoh to argue one’s case. One must be able to come ‘into’ Pharaoh and to see the true motivation that created this situation of sadness and servitude. This lesson, recorded for us in the Torah, forms a message that applies to all ages of Jewish existence and to all circumstances of political, social, and national life.

 

Shabbat shalom

Rabbi Berel Wein