- Torah Portion and Tanach
- Bo
In the opinion of the commentators to the Torah, the word Bo, which appears at the beginning of this week's reading, contains a deeper meaning than the simple translation meaning โto come.โ The fact that the word is then followed by the Hebrew word โelโ meaning not only โtoโ but perhaps more literally โinto,โ gives us insight into what the word Bo in this context really means.
It was not sufficient for Moshe merely to visit or come to the Pharaoh of Egypt to deliver the warnings from God regarding the plagues that were going to descend upon the Egyptian nation, because of their refusal to free the Jewish people from bondage.
Moshe could have delivered this information by proxy, by messenger, by letter or any of the other means that human beings used then to communicate one with another.
Rather, it was necessary for Moshe to enter into the brain and feelings of Pharaoh, so to speak, that propels the entire narrative of this week's reading and will lead to the great moment of freedom and emancipation for the Jewish people.
It is as though the Lord, so to speak, wants Moshe to really understand the stubbornness and almost suicidal behavior of the Pharaoh, and to appreciate that it is this intransigence itself that will be his undoing and the destruction of Egypt.
It is as though the Torah is teaching us that if one is unable to comprehend the depths of the personality of evil, one can never really combat evil in a practical and strong fashion. It is this recognition of the evil lurking originally, though only in the background of events, that is the beginning of the process of preventing it from triumphing.
The Jewish people were fooled by the Pharaoh into volunteering for their own forced labor and eventual slavery. They did not recognize his call for patriotism as the true evil that lay behind his national plan for them. The Jewish people were so willing to be recognized as good Egyptians that they volunteered to become their own worst enemy and submit themselves to centuries of slavery and servitude.
Jewish people, for centuries, have often been unable to perceive that they themselves create the seeds of their own destruction. In the rush for acceptance and approbation by others, Jews are often blinded, willfully overlooking the evil arising around them.
It is insufficient to come to the Pharaoh to argue oneโs case. One must be able to come โintoโ Pharaoh and to see the true motivation that created this situation of sadness and servitude. This lesson, recorded for us in the Torah, forms a message that applies to all ages of Jewish existence and to all circumstances of political, social, and national life.

Parasha Summary - Bo
An Overview of the Torah Portion
Rabbi Stewart Weiss

New Month, New Effort
Harav Shaul Yisraeli โ from Siach Shaul, p. 214-215
Beit Din Eretz Hemda - Gazit | 5 Shvat 5784

National Light through the Darkness
Various Rabbis | Tevet 5767
Redemption Depends on the Kids
Rabbi Hillel Mertzbach | 2 Shvat 5785

The Righteous Whose Property Is Dear to Them
Rabbi Mordechai Hochman | Tamuz 5766

Some Laws Relating to Tu Bishvat
Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu Zt"l | 7 Shvat 5768

The Righteous Whose Property Is Dear to Them
Rabbi Mordechai Hochman | Tamuz 5766

When is it not Shatnez? Part II
Rabbi Yirmiyohu Kaganoff | Iyar 10 5780

Parashat Hashavua: The Ten Commandments โ A Blueprint for World Justice
Rabbi Yossef Carmel | Shevat 5785

P'ninat Mishpat: Unpaid Fees of a No-Show to Beit Din
based on ruling 84052 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts
Beit Din Eretz Hemda - Gazit | Shevat 5784
