A Thought For Shabbat
A Thought For Shabbat on this week’s Torah Portion, Bo. If you open up your Bible to Exodus 10:1, do you read, “And the LORD said to Moses, ‘Come to Pharaoh’...”? More than likely, your Bible reads, “And the LORD said to Moses, ‘Go to Pharaoh’...”. If you examine the Hebrew text of Exodus 10:1, it reads, “בא אל-פרעה” or “bo el-Paro”. “Bo” (בא) is the Hebrew word for “Come”.
If you look at Genesis 12:1, you read, “The Holy One said to Abram, ‘Go for yourself’ (‘lech-lecha’)’.” The Hebrew lech (לך) is used to mean “Go”. Here the Holy One is preparing to introduce Abraham to the covenant, telling him to ”Go” from all that you know, “Go” for your own benefit, “Go” to the place where I will show you, “Go”, I am going to make you a great nation!
So what exactly does the Holy One mean when He tells Moses to “Come (Bo) to Pharaoh”?
The first mention (1) of bo (בא) in the Bible is Genesis 2:19, “ADONAI Elohim had formed from the ground every animal of the field and every flying creature of the sky, so He brought them (2) to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called them—each living creature—that was its name.”
Here we see a picture of The Holy One, Himself, bringing each animal to Adam to be named. The Holy One brought them. The Holy One guided them. The Holy One accompanied them. The Holy One walked with them. The Holy One steered them.
Going back to our portion, Exodus 10:1 is not the first time during these plagues that the Holy One said, “Come to Pharaoh”. In the series of plagues there are several patterns. The 1st plague (blood) and the 2nd plague (frogs) both came with warnings, but the 3rd plague (lice) came with no warning. The pattern now repeats, the 4th plague (swarms/wild beasts) and the 5th plague (epidemic/pestilence) came with warnings to Pharaoh and Egypt, but the 6th plague (boils) came with no warning. Let’s finish them out! The 7th plague (hail) and the 8th plague (locusts) both came with warnings, but no warning was given for the 9th plague (darkness). Another pattern within the plagues is found with the phrase, “Come to Pharaoh”. The warnings delivered for plagues number one (blood), four (swarms/wild beasts), and seven (hail) were all delivered beside the water (Nile) in the morning. The Holy One spoke to Moses saying, “Go” “present yourself to Pharaoh”. The warnings for the second (frogs), the fifth (epidemic/pestilence), and the eighth plague (locusts) ALL contain the Hebrew, “בא אל-פרעה” (bo el-Paro) or “Come to Pharaoh” Moses was “invited” to the Palace of Pharaoh by the Holy One Himself. The Holy One was saying to Moses, “Come (With Me) to Pharaoh”.
The Zohar (3) explains “that by instructing Moses to “come to Pharaoh,” G‑d was inviting Moses to confront the essence of the Egyptian ruler. G‑d tells Moses to enter into Pharaoh, in the sense of entering deep within the mind and character of Egypt’s arch-idol.” Ezekiel 29:3 describes the essence of Pharaoh pretty well, “speak and say, thus says ADONAI Elohim: ‘Behold, I am against you ( I am going to deal with you), Pharaoh King of Egypt, the great crocodile (serpent) lying in his rivers, who says: “My Nile is my own —I made it for myself.”” Who was Pharaoh? Tyrant? Yes. Dictator? Yes. Killer of children? Yes. Oppressor of slaves? Yes. All of these character traits...or defects.. belong to the essence of Pharaoh. But the absolute worst part of Pharaohs essence was that he idolized himself. When you read in Ezekiel 29:3 “I made it for myself”, Pharaoh is exclaiming He made everything—even himself! Another understanding of what the Holy One was saying, ”Come, enter the essence of evil, confront it in it’s source, as it really is”.
So it is with us. Our inner Pharaoh is that ego that claims G-d like powers. Self control, willpower, pride, and intelligence (our own) all say “moderation is cool”, “you can just have one”, “you’ve got this!”. Our inner ego can convince us that we have our “thing” under control. By the time we realize that this “Inner Pharaoh” was wrong, his domination and power over us is already complete. Here we stand face to face with evil.
Thankfully, the Torah teaches us that in order to free ourselves from the shackles of our problems, our fears, our insecurities, we must Come (With The Holy One) and fully confront this ‘Pharaoh’, Understand the root of the power this ‘Pharaoh’ has over you! When we fully enter in to the domain of whatever it is that torments, suppresses, or keeps us down then we can discover the solution for liberation. The Holy One is also right there! Freedom awaits!
Shabbat Shalom,
Hallelujah Girl
(1) The First Mention- To understand a particular word, find the first place the word is revealed in scripture and study that passage. This will be the words clearest presentation.
(2) he brought them (ויבא) vay-ya-bo, Hebrew phrase from the root (Strong's Concordance) bo (בא): to come in, come.
(3) Sefer Ha-Zohar (Book of Splendor) Classic text of Jewish Mysticism. Written in the 13th century, mostly in Aramaic, The Zohar represents an attempt to “uncover hidden meanings behind the world of appearances”.