Bo

This week’s Torah Portion, Bo, which means, Come, begins with God telling Moses to go back to Pharaoh to warn him about three more plagues, with which God will strike Egypt: the plague of locusts, of darkness, and the killing of the first born. As God predicted that Pharaoh’s heart has been made stubborn, Pharaoh refuses to allow the people to leave Egypt to perform a sacrifice to God, with disastrous results. God gives Moses instructions about the Pesach offering: how the Israelites must sacrifice, eat, and be ready to leave, and how the eating of Matzos and the celebration of the Pesach miracle must be remembered as an eternal decree. The people do as they are instructed and, as God foretold, Pharaoh sends them out and they begin their journey out of Egypt.

This Torah portion is remarkable for its story and its drama, It is a tale with which we are intimately familiar, and yet, in it is contained an amazing guide that is hidden in plain sight. This torah portion is a virtual Primer of the natural laws of the spiritual universe. In this portion, God tells us how the universe works vis a vis humans. It tells us how to behave, what to pay attention to, and how to relate to God.

The first natural law of the spiritual universe comes from the very beginning of the Portion. God said to Moses, “Come to Pharaoh; for I have made his heart and the heart of his servants stubborn, so that I shall place these signs of Mine in his midst; and so that you may relate in the ears of your children and your children’s children that I have toyed with Egypt, that you may know that I am God.” Spiritual Law # 1 is that God is active in human affairs. Maimonides, in his Guide for the Perplexed, remarks that the way we know God is through acts, or to put it another way, through Nature. That God altered Nature by performing the plagues is a demonstration of this Law. It accounts for large deviations from the expected, as well as the small coincidences that comprise our everyday lives.

The second law comes from the very same verse. This law is that God accomplishes many ends from one act. By sending plagues, signs, and wonders, God showed Pharaoh the limits to Pharaoh’s might, allowed the Egyptians to understand that there was a power higher than Pharaoh, and at the same time, gave the Israelites the experiences that would sustain them in the wilderness with faith in God’s existence and omnipotence. Our sage Nachmanides wrote that the plagues were sent because God wanted the Israelites to experience the truth about God and to refute false ideas. It was as much for the Israelites as for Egypt that the power of the plagues had to be experienced.

The third law comes from the third verse: “Moses and Aaron say to Pharaoh, So said Adonai, God of the Hebrews: Until when will you refuse to be humbled before me?” Our 3^rd law is that God wishes us to be humble before our Creator; to bend our wills to God’s will and to do what is asked of us. This sounds like a small thing, but in reality, it is one of the last things most of us can accomplish. In Numbers, it says that Moses was humble or meek. This was meant not only as description, but as a very high compliment. Usually, our egos do not permit us to be so humble.

The Fourth Law of the spiritual universe is found in the very next sentence: “for if you refuse to send out my people, Behold: I shall send a locust swarm into your border.” “This sentence confirms the principle of reward and punishment. This law is more real than we would like to admit, and our failure to recognize that the good we do increases good in the world and the anger and hatred with which we sometimes act comes back to us as well, is the source of much unhappiness.

The Fifth Law comes a few verses later (7). The Torah reads: “Pharaoh’s servants said to him, How long will this be a snare for us? Send out the men that they may serve God, their God. Do you not know that Egypt is lost?” This verse tells us that there is almost always a warning before something bad happens. In Exodus (21), in the Civil Legislation section, it is made clear that a warning needs to be given before an animal who is habitually belligerent is put to death. In Exodus, God makes sure that Pharaoh is warned before the plagues occur. So too, we usually experience a discreet warning, if we are paying attention, before disaster strikes, and our failure to heed warnings around us sometimes makes us wish we had listened before a negative event comes to pass.

The sixth Law of the spiritual universe is that our participation is required. Something is asked of us, and we must respond, in order to reap the benefits of that which God sets in motion. This law is established by the verse, “Speak to the entire assembly of Israel, saying, on the 10^th of the month they shall take for themselves a lamb or Kid for each household.” The Torah then gives instructions for the Pesach offering, the blood to be applied to the lintel and doorposts, the roasting of the offering, the meal, and the preparations for departure. We are required to take action by doing those things that are commanded, by being in partnership with God. The “with God” of the previous sentence is the key to this law. We must do what we can when we can. We are not passive witnesses. We must act.

The last law, is the 7^th, fittingly, for in Judaism, seven is a momentous number. The seventh law is that the lessons we learn in life occur to allow us to grow in knowledge and wisdom. This law comes from the verse, (12:14) “This day shall be for you a remembrance and you shall celebrate it as a festival for God for your generations, … as an eternal statute.” And also the verse, “It is a pesach offering to God who skipped over the houses of the Children of Israel in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, but he saved our households.” We are meant to remember, and in that remembering to gain understanding that once, long ago, God chose to allow us to know with certainty, that we are not alone; that there is one who knows; there is one who cares; and that we, by our conduct, can experience an intimation of God’s presence in our lives. Ken y’hi ratson. May we all be so blessed, to experience the divine in our modern lives. May this be God’s will.