Shabbat Parashat Bo 5785

Parashat Hashavua: A Look Beyond Time and Space

The material world in which we live operates within very set boundaries. However, our parasha (Bo, the Exodus) stresses the ability to go beyond these normal boundaries.

The first boundary is place. One cannot live without a place, and one can be in only one place at a time. These limitations are not only true for individuals but also on the national level. A nation needs a land to serve as its homeland; without one, it is difficult to view it as a nation.

Time is also a boundary, which is significant on two planes. A person moves on a timeline. He exists in the present, which is like the batting of an eye. On either side of him, there is the past and the future. There would seem to be no way to break free from this limitation. An individual has his time from birth “to 120.” This applies slightly differently for a nation. If a nation has no past, it has no future, and in general, it cannot last forever, as history teaches us. (You can assemble a long list of nations and empires that have disappeared.) We will now focus on two examples in the national realm that show how the Exodus from Egypt went beyond the normal limitations of time and place.

Parashat Bo begins with Bnei Yisrael still enslaved in Egypt, and Paroh continuing his intransigence despite the several plagues with which Hashem had hit the Egyptians. Am Yisrael still had next-to-no signs of nationhood, certainly not a significant time and place. Egypt was a place from which it was virtually impossible to escape to go to one’s own place, and slaves are people who lack control over their own time.

When Moshe commanded the people to sacrifice the Korban Pesach, he stressed their ability to breach both roadblocks. “You shall observe this matter as a statute for you and your offspring until eternity” (Shemot 12:24) – beyond the boundaries of time. “It will be when you come to the Land, which Hashem will give you as He said, you shall observe this service” (ibid. 25) – beyond the limitation on place, as existed at that time. This is a promise of the eternity of the nation with the gift of a Land that seemed beyond belief at that time.

Additionally, in the introduction to the commandment of Korban Pesach, Hashem instructed Bnei Yisrael to adopt a (lunar) calendar, even while they were slaves in a foreign land, even though a calendar is basically only feasible for independent people in their land. A calendar is a means to unite a nation in a manner that remembers the past and strives toward a better future. This commandment thus is a sign of the greatness that laid ahead.

Throughout our national history, often dispersed in exile, we clung to that calendar while being forced to live daily life under the realities of the local nation and its calendar. The p’sukim also prophesized an improbable phenomenon – non-Jews would want to join Bnei Yisrael (see ibid. 48-49). Who would want to convert to join a nation of lowly slaves? Yet they too would bring a Korban Pesach (see ibid.) and would enjoy full civil rights (see ibid. 22:20).

The first Rashi on Chumash made a point to look ahead to better times. During times when Christians and Muslims vied for control of the Holy Land, Rashi wrote about the rationale for Jewish sovereignty over it!

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