SEDRA : BO: Hertz Chumash p. 248 Exodus Chap. 10 v. 1

This week's Sedra is generously sponsored by Mark Fagenblat.

SYNOPSIS:

After Moses warned Pharaoh that on the following day a plague of locusts would destroy Egypt's crops, Pharaoh's courtiers urged him to let the Israelite men depart. However, Moses and Aaron insisted that the women, children and flocks of the Israelites also be allowed to leave. As a result, they were driven from Pharaoh's presence.
The next day Moses extended his rod, and an east wind carried a swarm of locusts into Egypt which devoured the country's vegetation. After witnessing this disaster, Pharaoh admitted his error and begged Moses and Aaron to pray for the removal of the plague. They complied and a strong west wind drove the locusts into the Red Sea. However, once again Pharaoh reverted to his stubbornly negative attitude.

Moses then brought the next plague upon the Egyptians, a total darkness, which descended upon Egypt. For 3 days the Egyptians were unable to move about, but the Israelites were granted light within their dwellings. The resulting nightmarish chaos proved too much for Pharaoh and he now offered to allow all Israelites - men, women, and children to leave, provided their flocks and herds were left behind as surety that they would return. Moses rejected this stipulation and Pharaoh forbade him to appear again in the royal presence. Moses replied that there would be one final, devastating plague; one that would cost all Egyptian firstborn their lives.
Moses and Aaron then departed from before Pharaoh for the last time. G-d informed Moses that the redemption was imminent and that henceforth the Calendar would begin with the month of their deliverance (Nissan). On the tenth of this month, each head of a household was to set aside an unblemished male lamb to be kept until the evening of the fourteenth day, when it was to be sacrificed. Some of its blood was then to be smeared on the lintel and doorposts of the house as a sign that the inhabitants were Israelites. That night the meat of the lamb was to be eaten when roasted together with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Any of it remaining in the morning was to be burnt. Furthermore, it was to be consumed in haste and the participants were to be prepared to start on a journey. On that night G-d would smite all the Egyptian firstborn but would spare those whose houses were daubed with the lamb's blood. In the future, this festival was to be observed annually as Pesach, a permanent reminder of the deliverance from Egypt. Only unleavened bread was to be eaten for seven days and all leaven was to be removed. The first and seventh days of the festival were to be observed as days of holy assembly when all work would be forbidden. The sacrifice of the Pesach offering was to be observed in the land of Israel after the conquest, and its significance was to be explained to all future generations.

Precisely at midnight G-d smote all the Egyptian firstborn, both man and animal. Pharaoh and his fellow Egyptians rose in the middle of the night to bitterly lament their loss. They then implored the Israelites to leave, as G-d had predicted, speaking not from a position of power, but from one of utter subjugation.

The Israelites left in such haste that their leavened dough had no time to rise. (Therefore, Jews have eaten unleavened bread, or Matzah on Pesach ever since.) There were six hundred thousand men aged between 20 and 60 who began the journey and they brought with them their wives and children as well as a large number of other persons - "a mixed multitude". They also carried a large supply of gold, silver and utensils, which the Egyptians had given them. The Jews were commanded to bring a Korban Pesach every year on the fourteenth day of Nissan. They were to redeem their firstborn male children in all future generations, and to wear Tefillin "for a sign on your hand and for a memorial between your eyes" to remind them of the salvation from Egypt.

HAPHTORAH : HERTZ CHUMASH P. 263 Jeremiah Chapter 46

The prophet foretells the destruction of Egypt, thus presenting a similar theme to that in the Sedra.

TELL ME RABBI ... TEFILLIN

The tefillin (translated as Phylacteries) consist of two small black leather boxes, containing small scrolls of parchment upon which are written four Biblical passages.
They are Exodus 13: 1-10 ("Consecrate every first born to Me ..."); Exodus 13:11-16 ("When the Lord will bring you into the land..."); Deut. 6:4-9 ("Hear O Israel, the Lord is our G-d, the Lord is One..."); and Deut. 11:13-21 ("If you will diligently obey my commandments ...").
The two passages from Exodus derive from today's Torah Reading - Bo. The other two are from the Shma. These four passages from the Torah all include the commandment to don tefillin as a sign and symbol of Jewish faith and devotion. The word "tefillin" reminds one of the Hebrew word "tefillah", which means prayer.
Both words are derived from the same root meaning "judgment". Prayer and the ritual objects associated with it testify to our faith in the presence and judgement of the Almighty, while also providing the opportunity for self-examination and self-judgment.
Each Tefillah (black box) comes with leather straps (Hebrew: retzuot) so designed as to enable one to be bound upon the hand and for the other to be worn above the forehead. The leather straps, the boxes and the parchment are all made from the hide of kosher animals. The writing must be handwritten by a scribe on parchment made from the skin of kosher animals.
Putting on tefillin has become the most visible religious ritual that "sets the men apart from the boys." It is the religious symbol and ritual obligation that is most closely identified with becoming Bar Mitzvah. This mitzvah is observed only during the day, preferably in the morning in conjunction with the recitation of the shacharit, morning prayers.
Tefillin are not worn on Sabbaths or Festivals.

Tefillin serve as a symbol, a reminder to the Jew of all the commandments at a time when he is occupied and burdened by multiple concerns and may possibly forget. For such times, it is also considered an adornment. But the Sabbath and the Festivals are in themselves a symbol - reminders of the Covenant between G-d and Israel.
The very Sabbath day itself and the very Festival itself is intended to serve as an ever present reminder of G-d's Presence and of His commandments. The Sabbath and Festival days are themselves also special adornments to the life of the Jew. To add the observance of tefillin in the context of its meaning and purpose would not only be superfluous but would imply downgrading the Sabbath or Festival. Strange as it may sound, the sacred tefillin may not even be handled on the Sabbaths and Festivals.

"Shabbat Shalom" is generously sponsored by Rosetta and Nathan Baron