This week’s Torah portion is Bo, which means, Come. God commands Moses to go to Pharaoh to warn him of the last three plagues. Later in the portion, the Israelites are given instructions about the Pesach offering to God, in preparation for departure; the protection of marking the doors with the blood from the Pesach offering; and also staying inside, away from danger. We are given our own calendar and the commandments concerning Passover, to celebrate it with matzah and bitter herbs as an eternal decree; the first borns are consecrated to God. Then Moses leads the Israelites out of Egypt.
After the ninth plague, Pharaoh is ready to let the people go for a three day period to bring offerings to God in the wilderness. But when he hears that the people will take even their herds and flocks, there is an exchange between Moses and Pharaoh that reads like a page from a super-hero comic book. Pharaoh says: “Go from me! Beware! Do not see my face anymore, for on the day you see my face, you will die.” Moses then says, very evenly and with dead seriousness, “You have spoken correctly. I shall never see your face again.” But just then, God gives Moses more instructions for Pharaoh. I imagine that perhaps Moses is halfway down the hall when he has to go back and warn Pharaoh of the last plague, the only one that the Torah calls a plague: the killing of the firstborns. After carrying out this terrible task, telling Pharaoh about all the death that will occur, the Torah says, Moses “left Pharaoh’s presence in burning anger.”
We can only imagine why Moses was so angry. Here are some possibilities: 1) Because he had to go back on his word? 2) Because he was so frustrated with Pharaoh? 3) Because there was to be so much death and it was all avoidable? 4) Because he sensed that he was a pawn in a game he did not understand? 5) Because he had agreed to be God’s voice to improve the lives of people, and here, the longer he speaks for God, the worse everything has become? 6) He is caught in what to him may have been a hopeless situation, in which he is impotent: unable to bring about any positive change. No wonder he was so angry. God then explains to Moses, maybe to calm him down, that “Pharaoh will not heed you, in order to increase my wonders in the land of Egypt.”
Immediately after that, God says to Moses and Aaron: This month shall be for you the beginning of the months, or in Rabbi Hirsch’s translation, “This renewal will be for you the beginning of renewals.” This year, Rosh Chodesh, the new month and the new moon occurred yesterday, on the evening of January 1st. In both the secular and the Jewish calendars, there was a new month, a renewal, and the renewal of the New Year. Rabbi Hirsch has a wonderful teaching about the new moon and for us, the New Year. He says: “In the land of the most stubborn paganism…did God call forth the future leader of God’s people (to) show them the sickle of the moon struggling to emerge from darkness into renewed light….Every time the moon reunites with the sun, and receives new light from it, God wants us to find our way back to Divinity and receive new irradiation from God’s light, no matter where we may be and through what periods of darkness we may have to pass.”
Moses did not know that just one week later, all the people would have left Egypt, the Sea of Reeds would have parted, and the people would be freed from bondage. He didn’t know that a few months after that, God would reveal the Divine Presence to over a million people, giving them the Ten Commandments: a body of Law that has stood for all time. We have no idea what renewals await us, just a few days, weeks, or months away. In the Hebrew calendar, the first month, Nisan, corresponds to the beginning of the spring: April, the time in Israel of the first plant growth: the time of maximum hope and beautiful renewal for us all. This is what we call God’s daily continuing and renewing the work of creation, the words of which we pray in the Shacharit service, the morning service each Shabbat, which itself is meant as a weekly renewal.
We know that in this new year, there will be challenges as well as blessings. May we be patient through any frustrations we may experience, knowing that the difficulties are the prelude to our emergence into the light. May we be hopeful and secure, knowing that what we encounter are part of the process of Divine renewal, allowing us to play a part in the unfolding of goodness and blessing by striving to move out of darkness into renewed light. May each of us have a year of marvelous growth, increased understanding, and great blessings: of good health, prosperity, and happiness. May our renewal, as part of the Divine Plan, bring more Divine light to all.
Showing posts with label Bo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bo. Show all posts
Friday, January 10, 2014
Friday, May 25, 2012
Resisting Our Own Freedom
This week’s Torah portion is Bo, which means, Come. God commands Moses to go to Pharaoh to warn him of the last three plagues. Later in the portion, the Israelites are given instructions about the Pesach offering to God, in preparation for departure; and the protection of marking the doors with the blood from the pesach offering; and also staying inside, away from danger. We are given our own calendar and the commandments concerning Passover, to celebrate it with matzah and bitter herbs as an eternal decree; the first borns are consecrated to God. Then Moses leads the Israelites out of Egypt.
In the previous portion there had been seven plagues. Toward the beginning of this portion, Moses and Aaron approach Pharaoh. Now they warn him of the 8th plague, the swarm of locusts, yet Pharaoh still refuses to send the people out. Then Pharaoh’s servants say to him, “Send out the men that they may serve God, their God. Do you not yet know that Egypt is lost?” (Ex. 10:7). There is a hidden reality that Pharaoh needs to know. This verse seems to extend the theme of knowing that I spoke about last week. Pharaoh thinks he is resisting Moses. In fact, just before the 10th Plague, Pharaoh says to Moses: “Go from me, Beware! Do not see my face anymore for on the day you see my fact you shall die!” (10:28). Pharaoh actually thinks that by getting rid of Moses, he is eliminating his problems. Pharaoh holds the mistaken notion that he is resisting Moses and also the Jewish people. He doesn’t realize that he is resisting truth itself. Whatever shows up in one’s life repeatedly is an attempt by God to manifest a higher truth. God tries to attune Pharaoh’s consciousness to this by showing him that everything Moses or Aaron did or predicted was true or came true. But Pharaoh is just like us. We want to hold onto the present conditions and our present reality, our assumptions and frames of reference. We resist learning the lessons that God and life is trying to teach us.
A large part of gracefully making the transition from youth to maturity, to advanced age is to learn the correct lessons from our experiences. And we resist this, because we do not yet understand that cosmic truths are trying to become manifest in our lives. My favorite sage, the S’fat Emet said, “Always one must first set right the physical and the natural and only afterwards can we come to new insights.” In other words, we have to do certain work: the work of purification: of setting things right emotionally, intellectually, morally, and also physically. And then we will be able to apprehend the truth that is manifesting before us. There are those of us who have been hurt or disappointed by those we cared about. The wounds we suffered caused us to make decisions, which may or may not serve us later on in life. When we shut down certain parts of ourselves, we shut ourselves off from seeing certain truths. We only allow ourselves a kind of partial sight. We have chosen, like Pharaoh, to limit ourselves. In Pharaoh’s case, he transgressed the reality that the Moses and the Hebrews were connected to him and to the Egyptians. He couldn’t have fathomed this, but God was attempting to teach him. And because he kept resisting truth, resisting reality, the results that manifested in his life got worse and worse. When we make decisions that go against the truth of our connection to others, we not only learn the wrong lessons from our life experiences, but we lose opportunity for love, and friendship, and happiness. Things that happen to us occur in order to uncover a deeper truth. Isaiah said: For since the beginning of the world we have not heard, nor have we perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen a God besides you, who should do such a thing for him who waits for him. In the Talmud (Berachot 34b), R. Joshua b. Levi commented: This is the wine which has been preserved in its grapes from the six days of Creation. R. Samuel b. Nahmani said: This is Eden, which has never been seen by the eye of any creature. ( Isa. 64, 3.)
These quotations attest to the hiddeness of truth that gradually makes itself known. The S’fat Emet expresses it differently: “All choice, all human actions and undertakings, come about in accord with God’s will.” In effect, this seems to be about negating choice. If there is only one right decision, then perhaps we may conclude that we are not really free. But it is through a full understanding of truth and hidden reality that we can become fully free. We are most free when we understand that we have only one choice: to choose happiness or to choose suffering. Pharaoh chose suffering. Thank God, we know better or perhaps we are constantly coming to know better. May we each choose openness to each other: connection, giving up the me for the us, and forming friendships that nourish us and bring us joy. May we understand how much truth has been given to us, is being sent to us, and may we learn all that which the God of love and goodness is teaching us.
In the previous portion there had been seven plagues. Toward the beginning of this portion, Moses and Aaron approach Pharaoh. Now they warn him of the 8th plague, the swarm of locusts, yet Pharaoh still refuses to send the people out. Then Pharaoh’s servants say to him, “Send out the men that they may serve God, their God. Do you not yet know that Egypt is lost?” (Ex. 10:7). There is a hidden reality that Pharaoh needs to know. This verse seems to extend the theme of knowing that I spoke about last week. Pharaoh thinks he is resisting Moses. In fact, just before the 10th Plague, Pharaoh says to Moses: “Go from me, Beware! Do not see my face anymore for on the day you see my fact you shall die!” (10:28). Pharaoh actually thinks that by getting rid of Moses, he is eliminating his problems. Pharaoh holds the mistaken notion that he is resisting Moses and also the Jewish people. He doesn’t realize that he is resisting truth itself. Whatever shows up in one’s life repeatedly is an attempt by God to manifest a higher truth. God tries to attune Pharaoh’s consciousness to this by showing him that everything Moses or Aaron did or predicted was true or came true. But Pharaoh is just like us. We want to hold onto the present conditions and our present reality, our assumptions and frames of reference. We resist learning the lessons that God and life is trying to teach us.
A large part of gracefully making the transition from youth to maturity, to advanced age is to learn the correct lessons from our experiences. And we resist this, because we do not yet understand that cosmic truths are trying to become manifest in our lives. My favorite sage, the S’fat Emet said, “Always one must first set right the physical and the natural and only afterwards can we come to new insights.” In other words, we have to do certain work: the work of purification: of setting things right emotionally, intellectually, morally, and also physically. And then we will be able to apprehend the truth that is manifesting before us. There are those of us who have been hurt or disappointed by those we cared about. The wounds we suffered caused us to make decisions, which may or may not serve us later on in life. When we shut down certain parts of ourselves, we shut ourselves off from seeing certain truths. We only allow ourselves a kind of partial sight. We have chosen, like Pharaoh, to limit ourselves. In Pharaoh’s case, he transgressed the reality that the Moses and the Hebrews were connected to him and to the Egyptians. He couldn’t have fathomed this, but God was attempting to teach him. And because he kept resisting truth, resisting reality, the results that manifested in his life got worse and worse. When we make decisions that go against the truth of our connection to others, we not only learn the wrong lessons from our life experiences, but we lose opportunity for love, and friendship, and happiness. Things that happen to us occur in order to uncover a deeper truth. Isaiah said: For since the beginning of the world we have not heard, nor have we perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen a God besides you, who should do such a thing for him who waits for him. In the Talmud (Berachot 34b), R. Joshua b. Levi commented: This is the wine which has been preserved in its grapes from the six days of Creation. R. Samuel b. Nahmani said: This is Eden, which has never been seen by the eye of any creature. ( Isa. 64, 3.)
These quotations attest to the hiddeness of truth that gradually makes itself known. The S’fat Emet expresses it differently: “All choice, all human actions and undertakings, come about in accord with God’s will.” In effect, this seems to be about negating choice. If there is only one right decision, then perhaps we may conclude that we are not really free. But it is through a full understanding of truth and hidden reality that we can become fully free. We are most free when we understand that we have only one choice: to choose happiness or to choose suffering. Pharaoh chose suffering. Thank God, we know better or perhaps we are constantly coming to know better. May we each choose openness to each other: connection, giving up the me for the us, and forming friendships that nourish us and bring us joy. May we understand how much truth has been given to us, is being sent to us, and may we learn all that which the God of love and goodness is teaching us.
Friday, February 17, 2012
Choosing Suffering or Choosing Blessing
This week’s Torah portion is Bo, which means, Come. God commands Moses to go to Pharaoh to warn him of the last three plagues. Later in the portion, the Israelites are given instructions about the Pesach offering to God, in preparation for departure; and the protection of marking the doors with the blood from the pesach offering; and also staying inside, away from danger. We are given our own calendar and the commandments concerning Passover, to celebrate it with matzah and bitter herbs as an eternal decree; the first borns are consecrated to God. Then Moses leads the Israelites out of Egypt.
In the previous portion there had been seven plagues. Toward the beginning of this portion, Moses and Aaron approach Pharaoh. Now they warn him of the 8th plague, the swarm of locusts, yet Pharaoh still refuses to send the people out. Then Pharaoh’s servants say to him, “Send out the men that they may serve God, their God. Do you not yet know that Egypt is lost?” (Ex. 10:7). There is a hidden reality that Pharaoh needs to know. This verse seems to extend the theme of knowing that I spoke about last week. Pharaoh thinks he is resisting Moses. In fact, just before the 10th Plague, Pharaoh says to Moses: “Go from me, Beware! Do not see my face anymore for on the day you see my fact you shall die!” (10:28). Pharaoh actually thinks that by getting rid of Moses, he is eliminating his problems. Pharaoh holds the mistaken notion that he is resisting Moses and also the Jewish people. He doesn’t realize that he is resisting truth itself.
Whatever shows up in one’s life repeatedly is an attempt by God to manifest a higher truth. God tries to attune Pharaoh’s consciousness to this by showing him that everything Moses or Aaron did or predicted was true or came true. But Pharaoh is just like us. We want to hold onto the present conditions and our present reality, our assumptions and frames of reference. We resist learning the lessons that God and life is trying to teach us. A large part of gracefully making the transition from youth to maturity, to advanced age is to learn the correct lessons from our experiences. And we resist this, because we do not yet understand that cosmic truths are trying to become manifest in our lives. My favorite sage, the S’fat Emet said, “Always one must first set right the physical and the natural and only afterwards can we come to new insights.” In other words, we have to do certain work: the work of purification: of setting things right emotionally, intellectually, morally, and also physically. And then we will be able to apprehend the truth that is manifesting before us. There are those of us who have been hurt or disappointed by those we cared about. The wounds we suffered caused us to make decisions, which may or may not serve us later on in life. When we shut down certain parts of ourselves, we shut ourselves off from seeing certain truths. We only allow ourselves a kind of partial sight. We have chosen, like Pharaoh, to limit ourselves. In Pharaoh’s case, he transgressed the reality that the Moses and the Hebrews were connected to him and to the Egyptians. He couldn’t have fathomed this, but God was attempting to teach him. And because he kept resisting truth, resisting reality, the results that manifested in his life got worse and worse. When we make decisions that go against the truth of our connection to others, we not only learn the wrong lessons from our life experiences, but we lose opportunity for love, and friendship, and happiness. Things that happen to us occur in order to uncover a deeper truth. Isaiah said: For since the beginning of the world we have not heard, nor have we perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen a God besides you, who should do such a thing for him who waits for him. In the Talmud (Berachot 34b), R. Joshua b. Levi commented: This is the wine which has been preserved in its grapes from the six days of Creation. R. Samuel b. Nahmani said: This is Eden, which has never been seen by the eye of any creature. ( Isa. 64, 3.)
These quotations attest to the hiddeness of truth that gradually makes itself known. The S’fat Emet expresses it differently: “All choice, all human actions and undertakings, come about in accord with God’s will.” In effect, this seems to be about negating choice. If there is only one right decision, then perhaps we may conclude that we are not really free. But it is through a full understanding of truth and hidden reality that we can become fully free. We are most free when we understand that we have only one choice: to choose happiness or to choose suffering. Pharaoh chose suffering. Thank God, we know better or perhaps we are constantly coming to know better. May we each choose openness to each other: connection, giving up the me for the us, and forming friendships that nourish us and bring us joy. May we understand how much truth has been given to us, is being sent to us, and may we learn all that which the God of love and goodness is teaching us.
In the previous portion there had been seven plagues. Toward the beginning of this portion, Moses and Aaron approach Pharaoh. Now they warn him of the 8th plague, the swarm of locusts, yet Pharaoh still refuses to send the people out. Then Pharaoh’s servants say to him, “Send out the men that they may serve God, their God. Do you not yet know that Egypt is lost?” (Ex. 10:7). There is a hidden reality that Pharaoh needs to know. This verse seems to extend the theme of knowing that I spoke about last week. Pharaoh thinks he is resisting Moses. In fact, just before the 10th Plague, Pharaoh says to Moses: “Go from me, Beware! Do not see my face anymore for on the day you see my fact you shall die!” (10:28). Pharaoh actually thinks that by getting rid of Moses, he is eliminating his problems. Pharaoh holds the mistaken notion that he is resisting Moses and also the Jewish people. He doesn’t realize that he is resisting truth itself.
Whatever shows up in one’s life repeatedly is an attempt by God to manifest a higher truth. God tries to attune Pharaoh’s consciousness to this by showing him that everything Moses or Aaron did or predicted was true or came true. But Pharaoh is just like us. We want to hold onto the present conditions and our present reality, our assumptions and frames of reference. We resist learning the lessons that God and life is trying to teach us. A large part of gracefully making the transition from youth to maturity, to advanced age is to learn the correct lessons from our experiences. And we resist this, because we do not yet understand that cosmic truths are trying to become manifest in our lives. My favorite sage, the S’fat Emet said, “Always one must first set right the physical and the natural and only afterwards can we come to new insights.” In other words, we have to do certain work: the work of purification: of setting things right emotionally, intellectually, morally, and also physically. And then we will be able to apprehend the truth that is manifesting before us. There are those of us who have been hurt or disappointed by those we cared about. The wounds we suffered caused us to make decisions, which may or may not serve us later on in life. When we shut down certain parts of ourselves, we shut ourselves off from seeing certain truths. We only allow ourselves a kind of partial sight. We have chosen, like Pharaoh, to limit ourselves. In Pharaoh’s case, he transgressed the reality that the Moses and the Hebrews were connected to him and to the Egyptians. He couldn’t have fathomed this, but God was attempting to teach him. And because he kept resisting truth, resisting reality, the results that manifested in his life got worse and worse. When we make decisions that go against the truth of our connection to others, we not only learn the wrong lessons from our life experiences, but we lose opportunity for love, and friendship, and happiness. Things that happen to us occur in order to uncover a deeper truth. Isaiah said: For since the beginning of the world we have not heard, nor have we perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen a God besides you, who should do such a thing for him who waits for him. In the Talmud (Berachot 34b), R. Joshua b. Levi commented: This is the wine which has been preserved in its grapes from the six days of Creation. R. Samuel b. Nahmani said: This is Eden, which has never been seen by the eye of any creature. ( Isa. 64, 3.)
These quotations attest to the hiddeness of truth that gradually makes itself known. The S’fat Emet expresses it differently: “All choice, all human actions and undertakings, come about in accord with God’s will.” In effect, this seems to be about negating choice. If there is only one right decision, then perhaps we may conclude that we are not really free. But it is through a full understanding of truth and hidden reality that we can become fully free. We are most free when we understand that we have only one choice: to choose happiness or to choose suffering. Pharaoh chose suffering. Thank God, we know better or perhaps we are constantly coming to know better. May we each choose openness to each other: connection, giving up the me for the us, and forming friendships that nourish us and bring us joy. May we understand how much truth has been given to us, is being sent to us, and may we learn all that which the God of love and goodness is teaching us.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Coming Back
This week’s Torah portion is Bo, which means, Come. God commands Moses to go to Pharaoh to warn him of the last three plagues. Later in the portion, the Israelites are given instructions about the Pesach offering to God, in preparation for departure; and the protection of marking the doors with the blood from the pesach offering; and also staying inside, away from danger. We are given our own calendar and the commandments concerning Passover, to celebrate it with matzah and bitter herbs as an eternal decree; the consecration of first borns to God. Then Moses leads the Israelites out of Egypt.
The beginning of the portion reads, “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 child and your child’s child how I made a mockery of Egypt and of my signs that I placed among them; that you may know that I am God.”
This portion is notable for many reasons; among them is something it does not say. Moses has repeatedly come before Pharaoh with the plea that Pharaoh let the people go on a three day journey to bring sacrifices to God. Perhaps the request is a ploy to allow Pharaoh to save face, but in any case, Moses’ request is unsuccessful. What is never said is: enslaving and subjugating people is wrong. God never says to Moses, Tell pharaoh that cruelty to other human beings, that making people suffer, is wrong. The question is, why is this never said? The first few phrases of this portion may allude to why. One reason is that we already know that cruelty is wrong. But how do we know? A clue in the text speaks about the heart. The S’fat Emet points out that the heart is always mentioned, never the mind. Also, the text says, “that I may place these, my signs in his midst.” But “In his midst” b’kirbo in Hebrew, also means within him. We are being directed to think about our inner selves. What is being addressed here is often called Natural Knowing: the emotions, the intuition, the gut, and not the conscious, intellectual functions of thought and reason.
It has been suggested that all wisdom is like a hologram rather than a photograph. In a photograph you can snip off a small price and that piece contains just the part of the picture that you cut off. But even the very tiniest piece of a hologram contains the entire picture. So it is with spiritual wisdom: we each contain the whole of spiritual wisdom in some way, whether we are conscious of it or not. Rabbi Arthur Green says, in a commentary to the writings of the S’fat Emet, “Truth is already implanted within us.” The Chassidic teaching is that the Torah is within us – those ethical commandments and deeds of loving kindness that help us to feel good about ourselves and know we are doing the right thing in the world. It’s a perfect system. What is good; what is right, feels good. Love feels good. Food feels good. Unselfishness feels good. The text gives us more clues about how to continue in this line of thinking. If we consider the name of the portion, Come; Come to pharaoh, in light of natural knowing; the word, Come, rather than go, begins to make some sense. Bo begins to mean, Come to a union, even with pharaoh. Disunity must cease. I am leading you to a new place; a place of coming together. The commentary also suggests, “I, God, am with you.” We are going on our mission together. Perhaps the opposite of love is not hate. The opposite of love may be winning; domination; subjugation. We are being led back to unity – to peace – to harmony, the fundamental nature of God. This is the completion of the cycle of creation. First there was One. Then creation occurs. Out of a multiplicity of forms, objects, forces, people; out of the many comes a re-union, on a different basis. Not undifferentiated Oneness, as before creation, but differentiated Oneness: the ultimate multiculturalism on the grandest scale possible, with no one and nothing left out. Forced to leave the Garden of Eden, because we have become fully conscious and responsible for our choices, we are given the mission of striving to create a new garden, based on the natural knowing that love and unity are correct and subjugation incorrect. May God help us to stay on the path that leads back to singularity. May our ability to choose love over winning, respect over disdain, and unity over separation, help us to be of those who embody the vision of eventual Oneness. May we be agents of positive change as we create harmony in our relationships, understanding and appreciating that we are playing a part in the redemption which, we hope, will occur long after we are gone. In Pirkei Avot, Rabbi Tarphon said: It is not up to you to complete the work, but neither are you free to refrain from it either. Bringing goodness and unity into the world depends upon us. Come, and we will do it together, and you will know, and your will feel that it is good.
The beginning of the portion reads, “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 child and your child’s child how I made a mockery of Egypt and of my signs that I placed among them; that you may know that I am God.”
This portion is notable for many reasons; among them is something it does not say. Moses has repeatedly come before Pharaoh with the plea that Pharaoh let the people go on a three day journey to bring sacrifices to God. Perhaps the request is a ploy to allow Pharaoh to save face, but in any case, Moses’ request is unsuccessful. What is never said is: enslaving and subjugating people is wrong. God never says to Moses, Tell pharaoh that cruelty to other human beings, that making people suffer, is wrong. The question is, why is this never said? The first few phrases of this portion may allude to why. One reason is that we already know that cruelty is wrong. But how do we know? A clue in the text speaks about the heart. The S’fat Emet points out that the heart is always mentioned, never the mind. Also, the text says, “that I may place these, my signs in his midst.” But “In his midst” b’kirbo in Hebrew, also means within him. We are being directed to think about our inner selves. What is being addressed here is often called Natural Knowing: the emotions, the intuition, the gut, and not the conscious, intellectual functions of thought and reason.
It has been suggested that all wisdom is like a hologram rather than a photograph. In a photograph you can snip off a small price and that piece contains just the part of the picture that you cut off. But even the very tiniest piece of a hologram contains the entire picture. So it is with spiritual wisdom: we each contain the whole of spiritual wisdom in some way, whether we are conscious of it or not. Rabbi Arthur Green says, in a commentary to the writings of the S’fat Emet, “Truth is already implanted within us.” The Chassidic teaching is that the Torah is within us – those ethical commandments and deeds of loving kindness that help us to feel good about ourselves and know we are doing the right thing in the world. It’s a perfect system. What is good; what is right, feels good. Love feels good. Food feels good. Unselfishness feels good. The text gives us more clues about how to continue in this line of thinking. If we consider the name of the portion, Come; Come to pharaoh, in light of natural knowing; the word, Come, rather than go, begins to make some sense. Bo begins to mean, Come to a union, even with pharaoh. Disunity must cease. I am leading you to a new place; a place of coming together. The commentary also suggests, “I, God, am with you.” We are going on our mission together. Perhaps the opposite of love is not hate. The opposite of love may be winning; domination; subjugation. We are being led back to unity – to peace – to harmony, the fundamental nature of God. This is the completion of the cycle of creation. First there was One. Then creation occurs. Out of a multiplicity of forms, objects, forces, people; out of the many comes a re-union, on a different basis. Not undifferentiated Oneness, as before creation, but differentiated Oneness: the ultimate multiculturalism on the grandest scale possible, with no one and nothing left out. Forced to leave the Garden of Eden, because we have become fully conscious and responsible for our choices, we are given the mission of striving to create a new garden, based on the natural knowing that love and unity are correct and subjugation incorrect. May God help us to stay on the path that leads back to singularity. May our ability to choose love over winning, respect over disdain, and unity over separation, help us to be of those who embody the vision of eventual Oneness. May we be agents of positive change as we create harmony in our relationships, understanding and appreciating that we are playing a part in the redemption which, we hope, will occur long after we are gone. In Pirkei Avot, Rabbi Tarphon said: It is not up to you to complete the work, but neither are you free to refrain from it either. Bringing goodness and unity into the world depends upon us. Come, and we will do it together, and you will know, and your will feel that it is good.
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