PARASHAT Bo

This week's Torah Gems were prepared by

Adam Solomon


PARASHAT Bo

Parashat Bo is our source of laws of Passover. The parasha also recounts the first Passover celebration, even as it was happening. What does it mean that the first Passover festival was celebrated before Exodus actually happened? Why would our ancestors in slavery have to have eaten the symbolic foods of slavery, matza and bitter herbs, while still slaves?

Perhaps the answer lies in the Torah's anticipation of 'the wicked child's' question, "what does this mean to you?" Even before the actual Exodus takes place the foundation was laid for the Passover Seder. The Exodus is a liminal moment - I was going to say that it divided Jewish history, but perhaps it would be better to say that it started Jewish history. Prior to the Exodus we were a family, in Egypt we became a nation, but with the Exodus the Jewish people became independent actors in history.

The vigil of the original Exodus night is to be reenacted - in the era of the Temple in Jerusalem this would also have involved the paschal sacrifice. As Rashi, the prolific French medieval rabbi notes, details regarding this are expanded upon in BT Pesachim. Just as we left Egypt as a group, in Jerusalem the sacrifices were offered in large groups. Three different shifts were admitted to the Temple to do the sacrifice (the only one that non-Cohanim performed). In tractate Pesachim there is an extensive description of the ceremony.

The sacrifices were then roasted whole and eaten by families or groups of people who had signed up to participate together. Additional sacrifices were also prepared so that not only would there be plenty of food, but that the last bite people would eat would be from the paschal offering and that it would be that particular course which satisfied them.

Typically today the Passover Seder is a family affair - even with guests it doesn't seem to have the national flavor that Temple-era Passovers must have had and that the original Exodus certainly did. Of course with KI's community-wide second Seder on Thursday, April 9th, we will have an opportunity to come together in a manner similar to the gatherings described in Pesachim (if you would like to help with this year's second Seder contact the office).

Perhaps by creating the beginnings of the Seder and commanding the eating of symbolic foods, Hashem was giving the Jewish people the tools they would need to educate future generations even before Exodus! These tools anticipated and encouraged the questioning that children raised in freedom would ask.