Parasha Bo 5786
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Parasha Bo 5786
Parasha Bo 5786
Synopsis: This week we read Parasha Bo (Exodus 10:1–13:16) which continues the confrontation between Moses and Pharaoh and brings the final blows against Egypt. The parasha opens with the eighth plague, locusts, which devastate Egypt’s remaining crops after the hail. Pharaoh briefly relents but quickly hardens his heart once again. The ninth plague follows—thick darkness covering Egypt for three days, a darkness so heavy it immobilizes the people, while the Israelites dwell in light.
God then announces the final and most severe plague: the death of the firstborn. Israel is commanded to prepare for redemption through the first Passover. Each household is to slaughter a lamb, place its blood on the doorposts and lintel, and eat the meal in haste, dressed for departure. At midnight, the plague strikes Egypt, and Pharaoh finally releases Israel.
The Egyptians urge the people to leave, and Israel departs with great wealth. The parasha concludes with the commandments concerning Passover, the Festival of Unleavened Bread, and the consecration of the firstborn, establishing these events as eternal memorials of the Exodus from Egypt.
Principle: The enemy tries to snuff out our future, God told us to teach it — the battle is l’dor vador.
(Repeat)
Parasha Bo 5786
1 Then Adonai said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, because I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, so that I might show these My signs in their midst,
2 and so you may tell your son and your grandchildren what I have done in Egypt, as well as My signs that I did among them, so you may know that I am Adonai.”
Parasha Bo 5786
Warning of locusts if not released:
7 Pharaoh’s servants said to him, “How long will this man be a snare to us? Send the men, so they may serve Adonai their God. Don’t you realize yet that Egypt is being destroyed?”
8 So Moses and Aaron were brought to Pharaoh again. “Go, serve Adonai your God,” he said. “But who will be going?”
9 Moses answered, “We will go with our young and our elderly, our sons and our daughters. We will go with our flocks and our herds—for we must have Adonai’s feast for Him.”
10 But he said to them, “So may Adonai be with you, if I ever do let you go, with your little ones. See clearly now! Evil is in your face.
11 Not so! Go now—the men—and serve Adonai! For that’s what you were seeking.” Then they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence.
Parasha Bo 5786
24 Also you are to observe this event as an eternal ordinance, for you and your children.
25 “When you come into the land which Adonai will give you as He has promised, you are to keep this ceremony.
26 Now when it happens that your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’
27 You are to say, ‘It is the sacrifice of Adonai’s Passover, because He passed over the houses of Bnei-Yisrael in Egypt, when He struck down the Egyptians, but spared our households.’ ” So the people bowed their heads and worshipped.
Parasha Bo 5786
8 “You are to tell your son on that day saying, ‘It is because of what Adonai did for me when I came out of Egypt.
9 So it will be like a sign on your hand and a reminder between your eyes, so that the Torah of Adonai may be in your mouth. For with a strong hand Adonai has brought you out of Egypt.
10 You are to keep this ordinance as a moed from year to year.
Parasha Bo 5786
Principle: The enemy tries to snuff out our future, God told us to teach it — the battle is l’dor vador.
Parasha Bo 5786
The rabbis read Pharaoh’s attempt to keep the children (Exod 10:8–11) as a spiritual strategy, and God’s command to teach the children about Pesach (Exod 12:26–27; 13:8,14) as the direct counter-strategy.
The Talmud treats this as more than politics. Pharaoh is trying to break Israel’s future by cutting off the next generation.
Sotah 11b – Pharaoh’s policies are aimed at destroying Israel’s continuity. The sages see his fear as demographic and covenantal: if the children survive and are shaped, Israel survives.
Midrash logic adopted by the rabbis: Pharaoh says, “Let the men go,” because children guarantee transmission of faith. No children in worship = no future people of God.
In rabbinic reading, Pharaoh is targeting education and identity, not just bodies.
The Talmud frames Pesach as a child-centered commandment by design.
Pesachim 116b – The entire Seder is structured around provoking children to ask questions. The mitzvah of sippur yetziat Mitzrayim (telling of the Exodus from Egypt) is fulfilled primarily through dialogue with the child.
Mekhilta on Exodus 13:8 – “For the sake of this the Lord did for me” is read as: the Exodus exists so that it can be told. Redemption is incomplete unless it is transmitted.
Yerushalmi Pesachim 10:4 – If a child cannot ask, the father must teach anyway. The command overrides the child’s ability or interest.
So the rabbis draw a sharp contrast between Pharaoh and God here:
Pharaoh:
→ Removes children from worship
→ Breaks memory
→ And Ends the people
God:
→ Centers children in worship
→ Preserves memory
→ And Ensures survival
The rabbinic principle behind it:
Continuity beats coercion.
Identity is taught, not inherited automatically.
Redemption that is not taught dies in one generation.
The Talmud reads Parasha Bo as a battle over the next generation. Pharaoh tries to win by excluding children. God wins by commanding Israel to build the entire festival around teaching them. The war is not just Egypt vs Israel — it is amnesia vs memory, extinction vs transmission.
The rabbis sharpen this focus. The Torah gives you the clash (Pharaoh vs. children; God vs. forgetting). The rabbis turn it into a full-blown theology of survival and education.
Here’s what they add that the plain text only hints at:
1. Children are not passengers — they are the mission.
Midrash (Shemot Rabbah 13:8) says Pharaoh was willing to let the adults go because adults can die off; children guarantee a future. The rabbis read this as: whoever controls the children controls the people. That’s why God refuses Pharaoh’s deal. Partial redemption is fake redemption.
2. Pesach is engineered to provoke curiosity.
Pesachim 109a–116a: dipping, matzah, bitter herbs, strange order — all designed to make a child ask “Why?” The rabbis say the ritual is deliberately awkward so memory gets embedded through questioning, not lecturing.
3. Telling the story is more important than knowing the story.
Mekhilta on Exodus 13:8: the Exodus didn’t just happen for you — it happened so you could tell it. Redemption that isn’t taught is wasted redemption. This is huge: history becomes obligation.
4. Every generation must experience itself as leaving Egypt.
Pesachim 116b: “In every generation, a person must see himself as if he went out of Egypt.” The rabbis make memory participatory, not archival. Children don’t inherit facts; they inherit identity.
5. Four sons = four strategies of transmission.
The Haggadah isn’t cute indoctrination; it’s realism. The rabbis admit not all children receive the message the same way. Torah doesn’t get one script. It adapts or it dies.
The rabbis turn Parasha Bo into a doctrine of continuity:
Pharaoh attacks the future by removing children from worship.
God secures the future by turning worship into education.
The rabbis institutionalize it: ritual becomes curriculum.
The rabbis realize this isn’t just about Egypt. It’s about every generation that will ever face assimilation, oppression, or comfort. The real battlefield is not Pharaoh’s court. It’s the table with the child asking, “What does this mean?”
13 Now people were bringing little children to Yeshua so He might touch them, but the disciples rebuked those who brought them.
14 But when Yeshua saw this, He got angry. He told them, “Let the little children come to Me! Do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
15 Amen, I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it!”
16 And He took them in His arms and began blessing them, laying His hands on them.
Parasha Bo 5786
Principle: The enemy tries to snuff out our future, God told us to teach it — the battle is l’dor vador.
Parasha Bo 5786
(Call worship team back up)
4 “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
5 Love Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
6 These words, which I am commanding you today, are to be on your heart.
7 You are to teach them diligently to your children, and speak of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up.
8 Bind them as a sign on your hand, they are to be as frontlets between your eyes,
9 and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Parasha Bo 5786
Principle: The enemy tries to snuff out our future, God told us to teach it — the battle is l’dor vador.
Parasha Bo 5786
