B"H

Thursday, Shevat 4, 5783 (Hakhel Year) / January 26, 2023

 

In this week’s Parsha, Bo, the Torah relates the story of the Exodus from Egypt. After being in Egypt for 210 years, G-d finally took the Jewish people out of Egypt.

 

Parshat Bo begins, "G-d said to Moshe, come to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his servants, so that I will be able to set these signs in his midst." 

 

The Parsha tells of the three final plagues: locust, darkness, and the death of the first-born. When G-d brought the plague of the death of the first-born, Pharaoh finally drove the Jewish people out of the land. 

 

The numerical value of "Bo" is three (2+1=3) and hints to the three final plagues told in the Parsha which G-d brought upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians.

 

The name of the Parsha, "Bo" consists of the first two letters of the Hebrew Alphabet, Bet and Aleph.  These two letters represent the Torah, which was the purpose of the Exodus. 

 

Here is how these two letters represent the Torah: The first letter of Torah is BET. The book of Genesis, which is the first book of the Torah, begins with the word, Breishis, which begins with the letter "Bet."

 

The Ten Commandments begin with the letter, Aleph.” (Anochi).  Thus, the name of this Parsha which speaks about the Exodus, hints to the fact that the purpose of the liberation of the Jewish people from Egypt was to bring them to Mount Sinai to Give them the Torah.

 

Q.   How was the tenth and final plague, when G-d killed every first-born Egyptian, a punishment measure for measure, for enslaving the Jewish people?

 

A.  G-d refers to the Jewish people, “My first-born son.”  Because Pharaoh and the Egyptians enslaved G-d’s, “first-born” and threw them into the river, G-d killed the Egyptian’s first-born.

 

To this day, we commemorate the miracle of the plague of the first-borns, in which only the Egyptian first-borns died, while the Jewish ones lived. It is the mitzvah of Pidyon Haben – redeeming the first-born son, from the Kohen, thirty days after the baby’s birth.

 

Q.   How many people came out of Egypt at the Exodus?

 

A.   The Torah tells us that 600,000 men, from the ages of 20 to 60, came out of Egypt, except for women and children. Although there is no exact figure for the total amount, surely a few million people came out.

 

Here too we find a connection between the number 600,000, who left Egypt and the Torah.  Our sages say that there are 600,000 letters in the Torah. Here is another between the Exodus and the Torah.

 

HAVE A VERY GOOD, HAPPY, HEALTHY AND SUCCESSFUL DAY