Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 8 Shevat 5784
Parsha Bo’: (Exodus 10:1 – 13:16)
Fifth Portion: Exodus 12:21 – 12:28

Good morning – we are drawing closer to the full moon of Shevat – the Holy Day of Tu B’Shevat – the New Year for Trees!  It’s time to plant newness in our lives!

Let’s dig in to today’s portion!  Hashem just gave Moses the commands to prepare for this first Passover.  He brings the leaders together:

21Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Draw forth or buy for yourselves sheep for your families and slaughter the Passover sacrifice.

22And you shall take a bunch of hyssop and immerse [it] in the blood that is in the basin, and you shall extend to the lintel and to the two doorposts the blood that is in the basin, and you shall not go out, any man from the entrance of his house until morning.

23The Lord will pass to smite the Egyptians, and He will see the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, and the Lord will pass over the entrance, and He will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses to smite [you].

24And you shall keep this matter as a statute for you and for your children forever.

25And it shall come to pass when you enter the land that the Lord will give you, as He spoke, that you shall observe this service.

Moses basically tells the leaders – here is what we need to do to be free tonight; AND what is asked of them moving forward to REMEMBER this.  Why? For the children.  This is a legacy.  And if the children push back? Moses tells the leaders how to handle this:

26And it will come to pass if your children say to you, What is this service to you?

27you shall say, It is a Passover sacrifice to the Lord, for He passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, and He saved our houses. And the people kneeled and prostrated themselves.

It’s interesting – we are currently these children. So many of us wonder “why?” “What is the Passover service?”

The only response Hashem gives is – It’s a sacrifice – BECAUSE – He saved us.  He saved our “houses.”

Now that’s interesting right? The word house evokes a dwelling. A structure. Except, the Israelites did not STAY in their houses, did they? They left.

I’m reflecting on this. How did Hashem save the houses of Israelites in Egypt?

Given this plague was about the first born children?  Houses are families.

I connect this back with the ideas from the past two years that Rabbi Schneerson wrote:

“In all previous cases, the primary purpose of the plagues was to teach the Egyptians about God, “Egypt shall know that I am God” (7:5; see also 8:6, 18; 9:14, 29; 14:4, 18). The Jewish people, however, already believed in God (since “the people believed” – 4:21), and there was no need for them to be taught a lesson of faith.

With the death of the firstborn, however, the goal was clearly one of punishment rather than education. (Once a person is dead he can no longer learn.) With the purpose of the plague redefined, the distinction between Jew and Egyptian was framed somewhat differently, because in terms of culpability for sins, the Jews were not too different from their Egyptian neighbors. Who could say that a Jew was better than an Egyptian?

So now it was crucial for the Jewish people to make a sign on the doorposts, and not leave their houses until the morning, for when the prosecuting angel comes to the streets or to unmarked houses, he will punish anybody for their sins.

Why was this seemingly minor “sign” sufficient to save the Jewish people if they were indeed guilty? Is it rational or fair that one sinful nation should be punished while another is saved?

The answer is no, it is not rational at all. But God’s commitment to the Jewish people is suprarational, it defies and transcends logic. He simply loves us, like a parent loves a child.

But to evoke that love we have to remind Him of it. We need to demonstrate our suprarational commitment to God. The blood of the Paschal Lamb required the ultimate suprarational commitment from the Jewish people–to endanger their lives by slaughtering a lamb, the deity of Egypt, merely to perform a religious ritual.

Love evokes love. The Jewish people’s irrational commitment to God, despite their low standing, aroused a similar sentiment above, and God saved His people whom He loves so dearly.”

It really does come back to this concept of love evoking love.

To love

To be love

To be loved.

That is what was saved. This is the meaning of Passover.  And how did they respond?

28So the children of Israel went and did; as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

Those are my thoughts. What are yours?

Here are my thoughts from the past two years:

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 4 Shevat, 5783

Todays passage has me focused on how “love evokes love.”

There is a lot to this statement. I am learning that my inner most soul desires the following:

1. To love
2. To be love
3. To be loved

And as I progress internally;

1. To love myself
2. To be love to myself
3. To be loved by myself

It reciprocates internally:

1. When I truly allow myself to feel loved by myself it evokes the desire…
2. To be the source of love to myself. To be love. Which in turn evokes the desire…
3. To love myself.

And the cycle repeats itself.

Love evokes love. Within first. Because if we can’t get to the place internally to be loved, we will never be able to allow Hashem or others to love us either.

Guilt, shame, worthlessness; these all block the process between step 2 and step 3. We want to be love for OTHERS. But we don’t want to be loved.

Of course we SAY we want to be loved. That is the ideal. But in reality we choose not to be loved. Either in the humans we choose to love us who are incapable of loving us, or because of our behaviors that drive those who would be capable of loving us away because we block the opportunity for them to love us.

But it starts within. Love evokes love.

And. One more thing….

Internally? There is the yin and the yang (light and shadow) and the divine masculine and feminine; and they work within us to love us.

Love evokes love. See below for a diagram I drew when I took myself out on a date last week; wanting to get to know myself better. It explores the concept of love evoking love internally. Between my divine masculine self and my divine feminine self.

What are your thoughts?

Edit:

And. I’m still learning this lesson. I did not live “love evokes love” this morning. So I’m having to love myself more.

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for Shevat 4, 5782

Todays portion follows yesterday’s list of commands Hashem gave to Moses and Aaron.

Moses summons the elders of Israel and tells them to:

1. Draw from your own flock or buy a sheep for your families and slaughter the Passover sacrifice
2. Take hyssop and immerse it in blood that is in a basin. Touch the doorposts and lintel (the upper part) with the blood
3. No one is to leave the house until morning
4. God is going to pass through Egypt and strike – He will see the blood and skip over the entrance and He will not allow the force of destruction to enter your houses and strike
5. You shall keep this as a statute for you and your children….FOREVER (highlight mine)
6. You will only have to keep this ritual service when you enter the land that God is going to give you, as He promised
7. When your children say “what is this ritual service to you?” You should respond “It is a Passover slaughter required by God because He skipped over the houses of the tmchildren of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and He saved our houses.”

When the elders heard this, they didn’t grumble “what do you mean I have to buy a goat?” Or “why can’t I leave my house until morning? Why are you trying to control me Moses?”

What they DID do is prostrate themselves on the ground and did exactly what God commanded Moses and Aaron.

So all of this was preparation for the final plague.

Rabbi Schneerson has some interesting thoughts on this:

“In all previous cases, the primary purpose of the plagues was to teach the Egyptians about God, “Egypt shall know that I am God” (7:5; see also 8:6, 18; 9:14, 29; 14:4, 18). The Jewish people, however, already believed in God (since “the people believed” – 4:21), and there was no need for them to be taught a lesson of faith.

With the death of the firstborn, however, the goal was clearly one of punishment rather than education. (Once a person is dead he can no longer learn.) With the purpose of the plague redefined, the distinction between Jew and Egyptian was framed somewhat differently, because in terms of culpability for sins, the Jews were not too different from their Egyptian neighbors. Who could say that a Jew was better than an Egyptian?

So now it was crucial for the Jewish people to make a sign on the doorposts, and not leave their houses until the morning, for when the prosecuting angel comes to the streets or to unmarked houses, he will punish anybody for their sins.

Why was this seemingly minor “sign” sufficient to save the Jewish people if they were indeed guilty? Is it rational or fair that one sinful nation should be punished while another is saved?

The answer is no, it is not rational at all. But God’s commitment to the Jewish people is suprarational, it defies and transcends logic. He simply loves us, like a parent loves a child.

But to evoke that love we have to remind Him of it. We need to demonstrate our suprarational commitment to God. The blood of the Paschal Lamb required the ultimate suprarational commitment from the Jewish people–to endanger their lives by slaughtering a lamb, the deity of Egypt, merely to perform a religious ritual.

Love evokes love. The Jewish people’s irrational commitment to God, despite their low standing, aroused a similar sentiment above, and God saved His people whom He loves so dearly.”

I’m chewing on Rabbi Schneerson’s take. I struggle to agree with him to be honest. I feel like his statement “the Jews already believed” is a big assumption. I feel like the final plague wasn’t for the Egyptians – it was for the Jews. It seems like this was a final exam so to speak.

It seems like each of the plagues was to strengthen the faith of the Jews; which would have been important in the next Phase of their journey.

What about you? What are your thoughts?