Perashat Bo

Perashat Bo

After a devastating series of seven plagues that concluded last week’s Perasha, three more are to come in this week’s Perashat Bo. The last three plagues that came upon Egypt were even of greater import and devastation that overwhelmed Pharaoh to the point of expelling the Israelites from Egypt as G-d had originally assured Moshe. 

Where these last three plagues necessary? Weren’t the last seven distressing enough that brought Pharaoh to say “I have sinned now?” – In a sense he acknowledged his transgressions. That should have been enough for Pharaoh to let the Israelite leave! Yet, the A-mighty felt necessary to bring another three plagues “so that you may relate in the ears of your son and your son’s son that I made a mockery of Egypt…that you may know that I am Hashem”. Therefore, the purpose of the last three plagues was not so the Egyptian should acknowledge G-d, but that the Israelite should acknowledge Him and remember Him for all the generations to come.

The events that occurred in Egypt and witnessed by people and nations, were talked about for generations. Indeed in all future encounters, nations feared the Israelites because of what transpired in Egypt. Yet, the Torah instructs us that these miraculous events should be told into the ears of our children – to whisper them into their ears. If history proclaims these awesome miracles, why should we then whisper them into the ears of our children?

The Torah is teaching us an important lesson. The message of Jewish history depends upon its interpretation. Record of various historical events means very little; we have seen throughout the years how people attempt to manipulate historical events according to their own agenda, and most of the times we, the Jews are targeted as the culprits of historical tragedies. Even until today with excellent historical documentation including photographs, films and diaries, people still have the audacity to claim that the Holocaust never occurred! Even when the crematoriums are still standing and eyewitness accounts can testify to this horrible chapter in Jewish history, still people dare to deny it! Only 70 years later , as we commemorate the International Holocaust Memorial Day this week, people dare to deny it, imagine the events in Egypt 3400 years ago, the perversion of what occurred and how it occurred could be even greater!

Indeed, throughout the annals of Jewish history various miraculous events have been misinterpreted by historians and theorists, people who lack religious conviction, as being merely natural phenomena; refusing to recognize the Hand of the A-mighty.

Therefore, at the beginning of their national redemption, the Israelites in Egypt are warned that despite the world’s interpretation of the miracles of the Exodus in Egypt, their future depends on how they transmit these events to their children – in their ears! One speaks in the ears of another person not only that outsiders should not hear, but that the one in whose ears is being whispered, should ignore what others have to say and not listen to them. G-d was saying: whisper into their ears the truth so that they ignore the false interpretations.

The success of a Jewish family, for its children to remain staunch and secure in their beliefs, and loyal to its traditions, depends on its own whispering. We must whisper into the ears of our children our version of history, our version of who we are and what we stand for. Let them hear the whisper of our Torah, the whisper of our tradition, of our Missvot so that they go forward in the task of building a Jewish family and continuing the legacy of our People.