Beit Midrash
- Torah Portion and Tanach
- Shmot
- Beshalach
In this week's Torah portion, "Bo", we learn about the plague of firstborns. A "firstborn" is the emergence of life; the magical moment when human beings become father and mother. In order to get out of the bondage of Egypt, one must strike at the "firstborn": not to just initially love the baby unconditionally, but during their continuous upbringing; not to get hooked on in initial success but to direct mental resources to perseverance; to feel renewal, not just at high points, but all along on the long and winding road.
The same idea is also found later in the Torah portion in which we are commanded to redeem the firstborn of the donkey "pehter chamor". We take the primal physicality (play on the Hebrew word for chomer) and take care not to wallow in it. In the last verse of the Torah portion, we are commanded to put these texts into the tefillin boxes, "and they [the sanctity of the firstborn in addition to the story of the Exodus] shall be a sign upon your arm and an ornament between your eyes" – every morning we tie this idea on the arm close to the heart and on the head; to imprint on both the heart and the mind – that no matter how long the road is, we will win. They will not beat us so fast.
Shabbat Shalom!
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