Summary: Bo means “come”, as in “come to Pharaoh”, even though the translation will say ‘go to Pharaoh’. And this is God commanding Moshe to talk to Pharaoh after the announcement that God has, indeed, hardened Pharaoh’s heart. We read the last three plagues: locusts, darkness and the plague of the firstborn. We read the very first collective mitzvah – establishing a calendar. We read the first passover of all times, with the lamb and the blood on the mezuzot. Passover specifics are given: not bread, no leaven for seven days, eat matzah, tell your children. The commandment of tefilin is also given.
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KS
The Kotzker Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Morgensztern of Kotzk lived from 1787 to 1859 in Poland wants to tell us an important point regarding our portion. He starts with, “Bo el Paro,” come to Pharaoh. Notice, he says, that the Torah does not say lekh, as in like Lekh Lekha to Abraham and Sarah. It could. And actually, good Hebrew would say it should read “lekh el Par’o, go to Pharaoh. But it doesn’t the Text says Bo, “come” to Pharaoh. The Kotzker will say that there is a reason for that, that the reason is that one cannot go from the Blessed Holy One – it is impossible to distance one’s self from God, because God exists in every makom or in English, “place,” in every place.
Every piece of reality we experience, the good, the bad, the ugly – there is God there too.
The Kotzker rebbe quotes Isaiah, which is a famous sentence if you come to shul on the morning: “Melo kol ha-aretz kevodo – The whole earth is full of God’s kavod.” – that is, glory, majesty, honor. The Kotzker continues: “Therefore God says here, ‘come’, as if to say, ‘Come with me.’ Hineni it’cha, Behold, I am here with you wherever you go.” Meaning, as the Talmudic rabbis say, the universe is not the place of God, God is the place of the universe. God is not a deity with limited location and powers, God is not a him, God is not a her either, God just is. Maimonides will say something to the effect that God is the background or ground of all meaning, of all reality. God is the touchstone of all morality and ethics. In other words, that God is not “a god,” but that God is the word our ancestors used to mean that reality that we need to acknowledge before we can do anything meaningful.
The Kotzker is saying is that Moshe needs to change his own paradigm about God. Moshe – and us, of course – need to stop thinking that God is going to take him by the hand and go somewhere with him, and fix all things. Moshe needs to understand that God, in the way that God wants to be known, is already with him and in fact also with Pharaoh, and that the responsibility is now entirely on Moshe to understand that truth and to do what needs to be done.
Another famous story of the Kotzker is him asking his bewildered students, “Where does God dwell? Where does God exist?” They say, “Well you taught us that Rebbe. You taught us that God is everywhere. The whole earth is full of God’s glory.” And the Kotzker answers “Not exactly – God is wherever we let God in.” In other words, there’s no place or person or thing or animal in whom God is not – there is no place in the world that is void of God’s presence. But we, we can be void of the awareness of that reality, we can feel that God is not there because we do not acknowledge that reality.
In a way, the Kotzker is trying to disabuse us of a childishly idea of God, that of a superman (or superwoman) or that of a big daddy (or mommy) that will make it all better. It is fine to have that idea when you are a kid, but once you have some more years and experiences under your belt, that theology is a recipe for disaster. The notion that the Kotzker is advancing here is that God is the reality who is already here with you, and will be with you even in the frightening moments of your life – in Moshe’s life, the moment of confronting a Pharaoh who has a hardened heart. In your life, think of whatever was the most frightening time you had – and God was there with you too, and God will be there with you. The only thing left for you to do is also the most fundamental: acknowledge and understand that reality.
So may this be a week of embracing this mystery: God is. In all of our experiences, God is, was and will be. Shabbat shalom.
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What are the mitzvot mentioned in our reading this morning? What are the connections that you can find between them?
[matzah, pessach, telling the story, sacrificing firstborn, tefilin] All hearken back to knowing we were slaves.