Parshat Bo tells of the last three makot (plagues) - locusts, darkness and the slaying of the first-born - the Korban Pesach (Pesach offering), the blood on the doorpost of each Jewish home on the night of the slaying of the first born, the Exodus from Egypt and the first mitzvah commanded to the Children of Israel - Kiddush HaChodesh (the sanctification of the new moon). The last makot, the Korban Pesach and the blood on the doorposts all have certain common attributes, as well as relevance for today.
In his weekly Torah lesson, Rabbi Aba Wagonsberg of Beit Shemesh spoke of a theme which is found throughout the Torah portions of Va\'era and Bo. This theme is that the People of Israel grow, thrive and accomplish things during the night, in the dark, when times are the worst. He said, in the name of the Zohar, that there is no light other than the light that comes out of the darkness. Rabbi Wagonsberg explained how it could be that Moshe Rabbeinu (Our Teacher) did not understand the halachot (laws) of sanctifying the New Moon. Moshe, Rabbi Wagonsberg related, never had a bad day in his life. Moshe was the attribute of the Sun. However, the rest of the Children of Israel bare the attribute of the Moon - the night, the darkness. Rabbi Wagonsberg said that from midnight - from chatzot, from the darkest of times - comes the Ge\'ula Shlaima (the Complete Redemption). From failure, from the darkest of crises for the people of Israel, the seed of Redemption grows. Therefore, God had to show Moshe, with his \"finger\" if you will, that aspect of the New Moon, so that he could understand its meaning.
Whereas Moshe Rabbeinu was instructed by God to bring the first seven plagues by day, he was instructed to bring the final three plagues by night. Rabbi Wagonsberg quoted from the Kli Yakar, who says that during the eighth plague the locusts covered ?the eye of the earth.? The locusts not only swarmed and ate all that remained on the land, they also swarmed in the heavens blocking the Sun\'s rays so that they couldn\'t reach the Earth. As the locusts swarmed, there was darkness as well. In fact, the plague of darkness itself was divided into two parts. Six days of the plague preceded the plague of the slaying of the first-borns and the seventh day preceded kri\'at Yam Soof (the splitting of the ?Red Sea?).
Rabbi Wagonsberg said, in the name of the Torah Temima, that the world grew from a dot. It kept growing and growing until God let out a scream, a roar, so to speak, for the world to stop. Enough growth! Had the World continued to grow, it would have matured to perfection without effort by man. Therefore, God decreed, long before the Children of Israel did any aveirot (sins), that the galut (exile) in Egypt would last for 400 years. The Children of Israel needed to experience the 49th level of tumah (impurity) in order for God to redeem them at the last second. The Vilna Gaon calculates that we actually suffered 400 years of enslavement, persecution and suffering in only 210 years.
Now what has all of this got to do with the Pesach offering and the blood on the doorposts of Jewish homes? I believe that the final three makot and the Sanctification of the New Moon are related to the Pesach offering and the blood on Jewish doorposts in that our emunah (faith) was tested in the very darkest of times. In order that we would merit the Redemption, it was necessary, despite all that had befallen us, that we show our emunah, our perfect faith, that God would take us out of the depths of Egypt and bring us to the Land of Israel, as he had promised to our forefathers.
Today, we face very dark times. Israel is in the midst of a war, a war different than her previous wars. It is a war in which her army is hamstrung due to a gridlocked, vacillating government leadership. This leadership lacks the necessary emunah - faith in God - necessary to initiate decisive, definitive action aimed at eradicating a cancer threatening the Children of Israel. Furthermore, the current situation and the world economic downturn threatens our economic well-being here in the Land of Israel, our ability to put food on the table for our families and keep a roof over our heads.
Yet, we are here. We remain here, steadfast. Our emunah gives us confidence that God will, in time, provide us with the means, the instrument, the antidote for the galut and it\'s ills. He will bring about the Ge\'ula Shlaima. But when?
In these dark times, our Jewish brothers outside of the Land of Israel need to be strong of faith and make the plunge. Join the few, the brave, the Olim Chadashim (new immigrants). The number of 1,000,000 new olim over the next 10 years has been mentioned in political circles. We have to make it happen. We must, despite the current dark times, have the emunah and courage that our brothers and sisters had in Egypt, to do what God commanded regarding the Korban Pesach and the blood on our doorposts, to cast aside ?The Iron Crucible?, the vicious circle and cycle of the Exile - the cycle of the mortgage, the new car every other year, the material furnishings and the accoutrements - those material things that look nice, look beautiful, but lack real value or worth. We must have emunah and courage to come Home ? to perform the mitzvah of Yishuv Eretz Yisrael (Settling the Land of Israel).
Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, of blessed memory, beautifully expressed the meaning of Yishuv Eretz Yisrael when he penned English words to the Hebrew prayer ?V\'HaSheiv Kohanim?, which many of us sing at the Shabbat table, both here in Israel and abroad. It reads in part, ?Return again, return again, return to the Land of your soul. Return to who you are, return to what you are, return to where you are born and reborn again?? The People of Israel belong in the Land of Israel. Only when the Moshiach within each of us brings us to our own personal Exodus will we truly merit the Ge\'ula Shlaima as the Nation of Israel.
At that time, we will all be zocheh (merited) to have our tefillah (prayer) reach the Heavens, unimpeded, ungarbled. As Rabbi Moshe Ungar would say each Thursday evening during his Talmud lesson back in Phildelphia, in ?the old country,? what we demand of God, what we compel Him to do, so to speak, is ?what He wants to do, to bring us the Moshiach and the Ge\'ula Shlaima, bimhayrah v\'yameinu (speedily, in our time).?
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Moshe Burt, of Beit Shemesh, is the founder of the Sefer Torah Recycling Network.
In his weekly Torah lesson, Rabbi Aba Wagonsberg of Beit Shemesh spoke of a theme which is found throughout the Torah portions of Va\'era and Bo. This theme is that the People of Israel grow, thrive and accomplish things during the night, in the dark, when times are the worst. He said, in the name of the Zohar, that there is no light other than the light that comes out of the darkness. Rabbi Wagonsberg explained how it could be that Moshe Rabbeinu (Our Teacher) did not understand the halachot (laws) of sanctifying the New Moon. Moshe, Rabbi Wagonsberg related, never had a bad day in his life. Moshe was the attribute of the Sun. However, the rest of the Children of Israel bare the attribute of the Moon - the night, the darkness. Rabbi Wagonsberg said that from midnight - from chatzot, from the darkest of times - comes the Ge\'ula Shlaima (the Complete Redemption). From failure, from the darkest of crises for the people of Israel, the seed of Redemption grows. Therefore, God had to show Moshe, with his \"finger\" if you will, that aspect of the New Moon, so that he could understand its meaning.
Whereas Moshe Rabbeinu was instructed by God to bring the first seven plagues by day, he was instructed to bring the final three plagues by night. Rabbi Wagonsberg quoted from the Kli Yakar, who says that during the eighth plague the locusts covered ?the eye of the earth.? The locusts not only swarmed and ate all that remained on the land, they also swarmed in the heavens blocking the Sun\'s rays so that they couldn\'t reach the Earth. As the locusts swarmed, there was darkness as well. In fact, the plague of darkness itself was divided into two parts. Six days of the plague preceded the plague of the slaying of the first-borns and the seventh day preceded kri\'at Yam Soof (the splitting of the ?Red Sea?).
Rabbi Wagonsberg said, in the name of the Torah Temima, that the world grew from a dot. It kept growing and growing until God let out a scream, a roar, so to speak, for the world to stop. Enough growth! Had the World continued to grow, it would have matured to perfection without effort by man. Therefore, God decreed, long before the Children of Israel did any aveirot (sins), that the galut (exile) in Egypt would last for 400 years. The Children of Israel needed to experience the 49th level of tumah (impurity) in order for God to redeem them at the last second. The Vilna Gaon calculates that we actually suffered 400 years of enslavement, persecution and suffering in only 210 years.
Now what has all of this got to do with the Pesach offering and the blood on the doorposts of Jewish homes? I believe that the final three makot and the Sanctification of the New Moon are related to the Pesach offering and the blood on Jewish doorposts in that our emunah (faith) was tested in the very darkest of times. In order that we would merit the Redemption, it was necessary, despite all that had befallen us, that we show our emunah, our perfect faith, that God would take us out of the depths of Egypt and bring us to the Land of Israel, as he had promised to our forefathers.
Today, we face very dark times. Israel is in the midst of a war, a war different than her previous wars. It is a war in which her army is hamstrung due to a gridlocked, vacillating government leadership. This leadership lacks the necessary emunah - faith in God - necessary to initiate decisive, definitive action aimed at eradicating a cancer threatening the Children of Israel. Furthermore, the current situation and the world economic downturn threatens our economic well-being here in the Land of Israel, our ability to put food on the table for our families and keep a roof over our heads.
Yet, we are here. We remain here, steadfast. Our emunah gives us confidence that God will, in time, provide us with the means, the instrument, the antidote for the galut and it\'s ills. He will bring about the Ge\'ula Shlaima. But when?
In these dark times, our Jewish brothers outside of the Land of Israel need to be strong of faith and make the plunge. Join the few, the brave, the Olim Chadashim (new immigrants). The number of 1,000,000 new olim over the next 10 years has been mentioned in political circles. We have to make it happen. We must, despite the current dark times, have the emunah and courage that our brothers and sisters had in Egypt, to do what God commanded regarding the Korban Pesach and the blood on our doorposts, to cast aside ?The Iron Crucible?, the vicious circle and cycle of the Exile - the cycle of the mortgage, the new car every other year, the material furnishings and the accoutrements - those material things that look nice, look beautiful, but lack real value or worth. We must have emunah and courage to come Home ? to perform the mitzvah of Yishuv Eretz Yisrael (Settling the Land of Israel).
Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, of blessed memory, beautifully expressed the meaning of Yishuv Eretz Yisrael when he penned English words to the Hebrew prayer ?V\'HaSheiv Kohanim?, which many of us sing at the Shabbat table, both here in Israel and abroad. It reads in part, ?Return again, return again, return to the Land of your soul. Return to who you are, return to what you are, return to where you are born and reborn again?? The People of Israel belong in the Land of Israel. Only when the Moshiach within each of us brings us to our own personal Exodus will we truly merit the Ge\'ula Shlaima as the Nation of Israel.
At that time, we will all be zocheh (merited) to have our tefillah (prayer) reach the Heavens, unimpeded, ungarbled. As Rabbi Moshe Ungar would say each Thursday evening during his Talmud lesson back in Phildelphia, in ?the old country,? what we demand of God, what we compel Him to do, so to speak, is ?what He wants to do, to bring us the Moshiach and the Ge\'ula Shlaima, bimhayrah v\'yameinu (speedily, in our time).?
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Moshe Burt, of Beit Shemesh, is the founder of the Sefer Torah Recycling Network.