Parsha Bo: Doing Mitzvot and Hashem’s Will, Even When Under Duress.
By Moshe Burt
Parsha Bo is the one which, for me, annually relates to that crazy tune which played back “in the Old Country” a couple of decades ago, “Does Your Korbon Pesach Lose It’s Flavor Tied to the Bedpost Overnight?” (Actually, the real title to the song was “Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It’s Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight?”)
Over the years, I’ve come to associate this nutty parody of mine with the very heart of our Parsha. That is the Mitzvot of taking the Korbon Pesach, applying the da’am on Jewish doorposts, the going up from Mitzrayim (Egypt)to “…a land flowing with milk and honey …” and the first mitzvah commanded of the National entity (B’nai Yisrael), the Kiddush HaChodesh — the sanctification of the New Moon and the relevance today of these mitzvot which relate to emunah (belief in) and yirat (fear of)Hashem. And each year, just like countless other stories of our heritage and Halachot, the perspective each year is unique just as the events of each year are unique unto themselves, yet part of Hashem’s “vast eternal plan.”
Rabbi Zelig Pliskin’s “Growth Through Torah” relates comments from The Chofetz Chayim on the verse “There will come a time when G’d will bring you to the land … He swore to your ancestors that He would give you — a land flowing with milk and honey, and you shall do this service.”
He states, “The Torah and the land of Israel are one unit. Their relationshp is as the relationship of body and soul. A soul cannot exist alone in this world. The body alone is just dust from the earth, it needs the soul to give it life. The soul of the Jewish people is the sacred Torah. The body is the land of Israel. There are many Mitzvot that cannot be fulfilled outside of the land of Israel. Nevertheless, with all of the difficulties involved in living in exile, we as a people are still alive. The land of Israel without Torah, however is like a body without a soul. It is just a piece of land. Only when both exist together is there a complete unit.” (“Growth Through Torah”, p. 168-169 quoting “Chofetz Chayim al HaTorah”, p.65)
Amd Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler added “In two hours, I attain in spiritual matters things that outside of Eretz Yisrael I had to work on a number of weeks.” (“Growth Through Torah”, p. 168-169 quoting Marbitzai Torah Umussar, vol. 3, p. 79)
But there is another dimension to tying that Korbon Pesach to the bedpost, the taking of the Korbon Pesach in the first place. We learn that lambs were among the “sacred” avodah zora of the Mitzrayim. Many of our brethren considered this act a great risk, the risk of angering the Mitzriyim thus risking their lives. A degree of Emunah was necessary, the faith that Hashem will protect his children who partook in this act. Many apparently arrived at a Cheshbon that by taking the Egyptian idol, tying it to the bedpost and then slaughtering it and smearing it’s blood on the doorpost, they would lose lives, limbs or whatever their Cheshbon was. Apparently, when many Jews had what to lose, and/or when they felt comfortable in their situation in Mitzriyim, their emunah, and thus their Mitzvot suffered.
And so we learn that as a consequence, roughly 20% of the B’nai Yisrael left in the Yetziyot Mitzrayim, the going up from Mitzrayim. The rest apparently died under cover of the plague of darkness, for those who remained applied the da’am to their doorposts, eat their Korbon Pesach and their first-borns survived the plague of the Egyptian first-born.
Similarly, today there are many among us here in Eretz Yisrael who are themselves unwilling to put it on the line against an oppressive Regime which harms their fellow Jews. They are concerned about their lifestyles, that they may lose that precious job — that the “boss” may not understand and they’ve got to have food on the table, a house over their heads. They can’t justify stepping out in defense of their fellow Jew — it doesn’t affect me, it’s not at my door. Why should I get involved in Yenamsville — in Gush Katif, the 4 Shomron Towns, the Shalhevet neighborhood in Chevron, the 9 new dwellings in the town of Amona and more?
And so the youth, the “real” Golden Youth, the youth about which there is no doubt that Rav Kahane would kvell were he with us today, and surely kvells about from his vantage point in Shemayim, they are the ones carrying the load for all of us in fighting an evil regime and evil decrees. Surely, these are the youth from which the real, genuine, rock-solid Jewish leaders of B’nai Yisrael will emerge.
But wait! From free, free-wheeling teens who have no responsibilities, no necessity to earn a living, no family mouths to feed, no mortgages, no bosses, no “permanent records”; they emerge to adulthood, go on shidduchim, get married, have children, take jobs, buy homes and cars and take on all of the responsibilities that go along with these.
Will the bloodied teens we saw on Wednesday in Amona have the fortitude to “take risks” for emunah when they have what to lose? And more yet, we are often taken to task and for depending on our youth to fight the regime because we, the adults have jobs, responsibilites.
For how long will Observant adults leave the dirty work to “the golden youth?” By doing thus, are we not emulating those in Mitzriyim who didn’t take the Korbon Pesach? Have we, as this author wrote in last week’s Parsha HaShevua attributing to Sforno, “as a result, … lost the priviledge of going to the Promised Land and their children were the ones for whom the promise … was fulfilled.” (Artscroll Stone Chumash, Sefer Shemos, Perek 6, pusuk 9, page 321)
May it be in this year and beyond, that our brethren; the refugee families from Gush Katif and the Shomron (may they soon be restored to new homes and neighborhoods, Bati Knesset, Yeshivot in Gush Katif and the Shomron and only happiness and success for all time), as well as our dear brother, Jonathan Pollard (may he soon know freedom and long life in Eretz Yisrael) be central in our thoughts, prayers, chassadim and actions. May this abominable period of history called hitnatkut be as a bad dream.
May we be zocha in this coming year to take giant steps toward fulfilling Hashem’s blueprint of B’nai Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, “Yom Hashem V’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bim hay v’yameinu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Meiyad, Etmol!!!
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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
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