Bo in a Nutshell

The last three of the Ten Plagues are visited on Egypt: a swarm of locusts devours all the crops and greenery; a thick, palpable darkness envelops the land; and all the firstborn of Egypt are killed at the stroke of midnight of the 15th of the month of Nissan.

G‑d commands the first mitzvah to be given to the people of Israel: to establish a calendar based on the monthly rebirth of the moon. The Israelites are also instructed to bring a “Passover offering” to G‑d: a lamb or kid is to be slaughtered, and its blood sprinkled on the doorposts and lintel of every Israelite home, so that G‑d should pass over these homes when He comes to kill the Egyptian firstborn. The roasted meat of the offering is to be eaten that night together with matzah (unleavened bread) and bitter herbs.

The death of the firstborn finally breaks Pharaoh’s resistance, and he literally drives the Children of Israel from his land. So hastily do they depart that there is no time for their dough to rise, and the only provisions they take along are unleavened. Before they go, they ask their Egyptian neighbors for gold, silver and garments, draining Egypt of its wealth.

The Children of Israel are commanded to consecrate all firstborn, and to observe the anniversary of the Exodus each year by removing all leaven from their possession for seven days, eating matzah, and telling the story of their redemption to their children. They are also commanded to wear tefillin on the arm and head as a reminder of the Exodus and their resultant commitment to G‑d.

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January 20, 2013

to Jeff Pots

- The first born weren't all children!
- Read your history, like any other many were killed in the civil war. Story of passover is God's war on extreme injustice the civil war was man against man.
- Nations always pay a price for actions of their leaders, this was no different.
- Who's celeberating the slaughter of children? Where do you get this garbage from?

david k.
Utah

January 18, 2013

It is a sevenfold sort of thing....

The totalitarian Egyptians tried to murder the Jews, the Egyptian children ended up being killed by GD instead of murdering and enslaving the Jews. There is a difference between killing and murdering.

It reminds me of the firebombing of Dresden in which many of the Nazis' children were brutally killed...the Nazis' children were killed, they were not murdered, there is a difference. The families of Nazis actually do not have the legal right to be alive at all.

Anonymous
USA

January 18, 2013

Passover

I agree totally with you Yehuda Shurpin. G d dos not rejoice when the wicked are destroyed. Nor do we celebrate this. Israel doesn't mark holidays for this reason. We celebrate our freedom separate from this. Most importantly we are ordained to commemorate Israel's salvation. To keep all of G d Sabbath's and Feast Days for they are Holy.

Wendy Lockwood
Lawton, Oklahoma

January 17, 2013

To Jeff Potts

Freedom from slavery is being celebrated, not the slaughter of children, which the above author reminded you that was decided by the Egyptians.

Anonymous

January 17, 2013

Re: Firstborn

While sounding similar, those two words are spelled differently. Firstborn is BECHOR - BET, CHOF, REISH, while the word for "choice" is "BET, CHET, REISH.

Yisroel Cotlar
Cary, NC

January 15, 2013

The ten Plagues

The ten plagues were against the Egypt's gods
To prove to the Egyptians and the Hebrews That YHVY Is The only true and living G-D
The killing of the First born male was from birth to old age i am in my 50 's but i am still the first born male in my family so unless i was protected by The blood i would have been killed
Egypt's Ram god (Aries) was supposed to be at his strongest point but The Hebrews were roasting their god so all of Egypt could smell roasted lamb one big BBQ Basically hey we are killing your god But Our YHVY Lives

Graham
UK

January 15, 2013

First mitzvah (commandment) ??

Not hardly. The first mitzvah was given not to man but to animals {Gen. 1, V22}. It was later given to man as our first mitzvah. {Gen. 1, V28). It might be noted that the 15th of Aviv (now Nisan) is a full moon so everyone could see us as we left Egypt. No sneaking away on the shadows. Nisan is the "New Year" of freedom (vs. Rosh HaShana the new year of years and Tu B'Shvat, the new year of trees).
Interestingly, while non-Jews joined the exodus, we are told (Ex. 12 V43) that "no alien (non-Jew) shall eat of it" (the Passover meal).
FINALLY, we "consecrate" the first born of a woman, if a son, with a Pidyon HaBen 30 days after birth. Levys and cohens are exempt.

Yohanon
USA

January 15, 2013

Exodus in a Nutshell

This ancient story keeps repeating in that there are mirrors in time, and we all experience at one time or other "the desert" in our lives. We feel parched. We feel G_d has deserted us, or there cannot be a G_d. We are wandering and wondering souls, alienated at times from our roots, even by the routes that define our very lives.

I see the Moses story, Exodus, itself, as archetypal, and that we are all of us, Jews and non Jews, reliving in deep ways, these stories. The final destination is learning we were never truly deserted. We each have a story, and that story moves us to another place, and it is the journey, that deeply informs our individual and collective selves, and in deep ways too, we each have an opportunity to lead, and be, Moses.

We define ourselves by our stories. This, perhaps Jewish story, also belongs in a universal sense, to the entire world. Metaphor is a dominant force in our lives.

ruth housman
marshfield hills, ma

January 15, 2013

Firstborn

I have heard it said that the word for firstborn may be a mistranslation of the original script and that it should have been another almost identical word in the Hebrew, meaning 'the best of' or 'the cream of the crop' - in reference to the Hebrew youth. Any comments on this point?

David H.
Australia

February 5, 2012

to anonymous, Ny, NY

I don't know where I read this, but I once read that the early Habiru, (pre or beginning Judaic) were tribespeople who were hoods.
Perhaps they "liberated" jewelry from the Pharoahs children or guardspeoples' wives- or maybe, after all, it was a planned donation to Moses who was in the court of the Pharoahs?

Anonymous
Kanata, ON

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Bo in a Nutshell

Exodus 10:1–13:16