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Eloquent Conversationalist
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Posted: Sun Mar 28, 2010 9:39 am
We all know what Pesach is, right? The Jews were slaves to the Egyptians, then Hashem told Moshe to go become a leader and get us out of there. There were plagues, and then we left. But in between the plagues and the leaving, there was an event that took place that must have shaken the Egyptians. If they'd had the Inquirer back in the day, this event would have been splashed all across the cover and it would have been the main story in the centerfold. Any guesses? Never mind, I'll just tell you. Exodus 12:1-321 And the LORD spoke unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying:2 'This month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you.3 Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying: In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household;4 and if the household be too little for a lamb, then shall he and his neighbour next unto his house take one according to the number of the souls; according to every man's eating ye shall make your count for the lamb.5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year; ye shall take it from the sheep, or from the goats; 6 and ye shall keep it unto the fourteenth day of the same month; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at dusk.7 And they shall take of the blood, and put it on the two side-posts and on the lintel, upon the houses wherein they shall eat it.8 And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; with bitter herbs they shall eat it.9 Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; its head with its legs and with the inwards thereof.10 And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; but that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire. 11 And thus shall ye eat it: with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste--it is the LORD'S passover.12 For I will go through the land of Egypt in that night, and will smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD.13 And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and there shall no plague be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt...'The parashah (Bible passage) goes on with further instructions from Hashem to the Israelites. Several things are happening here, but the foremost is that this part of the parashah isn't saying "here's what happened," but rather, "here's what Hashem told them should happen." But why is it important? Keep reading!
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Posted: Sun Mar 28, 2010 9:52 am
Look at the verses. Hashem tells the children of Israel to go get a lamb or a kid for every household that's large enough to eat an entire one; and if a household isn't large enough, let them go over and share with the neighbors. Keep that lamb right in the front yard where everyone can see it for the next two weeks. And not just any lamb or kid, but a perfect one, a young one. At the end of two weeks, go out into your front yard and kill that lamb right at dusk.
Pay attention, here. How do you know it's dusk? Because you're outside, looking right at the sky -- which means that your Egyptian neighbors, are looking right at you. Why is that a big deal? Because Egypt considered the sheep and goat to be sacred animals. They worshipped them, they protected them, they even identified somewhat with them. So for the Israelites to keep the animals, it looked like they were just about to honor an Egyptian custom. But then, instead, the Israelites were told to the animals, right out there in the sight of their neighbors. What an outrage! And then if that wasn't bad enough, they were to take a hyssop -- a plant similarly revered by Egyptians -- and dip it in the blood of the freshly killed animal, and smear it all over their doorposts.
Hashem was telling the Israelites to make a blatant insult to the Egyptians. Keep in mind, the Israelites are a minority. They're oppressed, they have no power, they have no allies among the surrounding populace, they have no safe place to run to (at least, no place that they're sure of). They're like Cleveland Indians fans going to the middle of Yankee Stadium and shouting "YANKEES SUCK" at the tops of their lungs, and they didn't even bring bus or cab fare for a quick getaway... that is, if they actually do it. Right now, the above verses don't say that they did it. They just say that Hashem told them to do it.
And keep in mind, too, that at this point the Israelites haven't seen Hashem do anything all that great for them. They've seen Hashem sending plagues to the Egyptians, so they know that he is the master of the smackdown, but they haven't seen him do anything positive for anyone. They're still slaves, despite all the promises of Moshe. Over and over, Moshe has said "Hashem will send a plague on the Egyptians, and then Pharaoh will have to let us go." They've seen ten plagues now, but they haven't been let go. The promised miracle-salvation hasn't arrived. As far as they know, Hashem's track record isn't all that great at this point.
Keep reading.
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Eloquent Conversationalist
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Eloquent Conversationalist
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Posted: Sun Mar 28, 2010 9:57 am
So, let's sum up: Ten plagues have come; ten times, Moshe says Pharaoh will surely soon have to let them go; ten times, the Israelites have been disappointed; and now Moshe tells them that Hashem wants to take the Egyptians' sacred animals, kill them in their front yards, and smear the blood on their doorposts.
Talk about trolling for vengeance! The Israelites have got to know that if they do this, they're going to enrage the powerful Egyptians beyond belief. They have got to know that if they do this thing, the Egyptians are going to start passing out whoop-a** and lollipops, and lollipops haven't been invented yet. They've been slaves for 400 years, so they're used to kowtowing and obeying. They don't know what civil disobedience is, let alone this blatant slap in the face that they're being asked to deliver to their strong, mighty, multitudinous oppressors. Why in the world would they do it?
Keep reading!
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Posted: Sun Mar 28, 2010 10:07 am
Here's the thing: they do it. A few verses later in Exodus 12, the Israelites actually do everything that Hashem, through Moshe, has told them. They actually go out and get lambs and kids. They actually put them in their yards for two weeks. They actually slaughter them at dusk, right there in the yard where everyone can see them. They actually smear that blood on their doorposts.
And then, do they leave Egypt right away? Do they flip Egypt the bird and then run like heck?
No, they don't. In fact, they roast that meat. The smell must have been delicious, but so scary. After all, if the Israelite family has slaughtered a baby goat while his Egyptian neighbor was away from home, maybe the neighbor won't notice, and the Israelites will be safe... but if the Egyptian neighbor comes home and smells roasting kid, he jolly well knows what went down, doesn't he?
Okay, after the meat is roasted, then do the Israelites leave? No again! They sit down instead to a leisurely dinner of roasted lamb or goat, with bitter herbs and matzah. Sure, they baked the matzah in haste to keep it from rising; sure, they're wearing their traveling clothes and they have their walking staffs near to hand; but those are just reminders for them that they'll be departing soon. They actually don't leave before eating.
So, after they've eaten, then do they leave? You guessed it -- they don't. Indeed, they clean up the kitchen, say their good-nights, and they lie down in bed to sleep... you know, if they can.
I mean, listen to what's going on outside. Not only are the neighbors enraged, probably having a town meeting and working themselves up into a froth, getting out the torches and pitchforks so they can have themselves a good old-fashioned lynching... but the Angel of Death is also out that night, going into any home that doesn't have lamb's blood smeared on the doorpost, and killing every firstborn son. The shouts of the mobs would be competing with the cries of the mothers, the wailing of the fathers, the death sounds of dying firstborn all over the land. What a horrible night to be an Israelite, knowing that the noises outside must surely be soon coming right into your own home, and having little to no assurance that Hashem will protect you! After all, he's shown that he's the God of vengeance and death and scary stuff, but remember, at this point the Israelites have no evidence whatsoever that he is a God of anything good.
Keep reading!
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Eloquent Conversationalist
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Eloquent Conversationalist
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Posted: Sun Mar 28, 2010 10:17 am
And yet, the Israelites did take the lamb, keep the lamb for two weeks, slaughter the lamb, smear its blood on their doorposts, roast the meat, eat the meat, and lie down in their beds.
Why? How?
Emunah. Faith. In spite of the magnitude of what they were doing, and in spite of the fact that they had no rational reason to trust in their own safety, they did it. They had the stones to look at what they were being asked to do, and trust. They must have been scared out of their wits, and yet they still had something within them that enabled them to believe that when Hashem spoke, he spoke truthfully and he had the power to back up his words. They had the instinct to know that the dozens of Egyptian gods were no match for Hashem; and that, strange as it must have seemed to them, Hashem was actually willing to throw in behind the Israelites, who had nothing -- no power, no clout, no might, no connections, no money, no allies, no self-confidence.
Later, Israelites saw miracles. They saw a pillar of smoke turn into a pillar of fire. They saw the Sea of Reeds part for them. They saw the mighty Egyptian army drown. They saw the walls of Jericho come crumbling to the ground. But right then, that two-week period, with its bloody culmination and its night of tense attempts at sleep, they made their own miracle. They trusted the God who had been silent for 400 years, who hadn't done anything they could see as directly benefiting them, simply because he spoke and promised that they would soon be free.
Think about the last relationship that you were in, how you entered it with some residual bitterness from the previous one, how every friendship you enter into is possibly tainted, just a little bit, with the fact that your best friend in kindergarten is now your enemy because she stole your Barbie or because he pantsed you in gym class in front of everybody just for a laugh. You take the baggage with you. Now, think about how the Israelites never had a friend before at all. They may not have had friendship-baggage, but they certainly had outsider-baggage. There was never anyone they could trust; and yet they trusted Hashem. What hearts they must have had!
Miracles. Hashem gave them miracles because they, the Israelites, proved that they were still open to them, still able to expose their hearts and trust. That's emunah. And it was so, so richly rewarded.
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Posted: Sun Mar 28, 2010 8:59 pm
A good read. I really liked it. Never thought about the story in that light before.
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Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 5:07 pm
I'm sitting Passover out this year.
I've been having a lot of stomach problems. The doctors think Ulcerative Colitis. Getting a colonoscopy tomorrow morning to make sure. Between the Chametz I've been eating to calm my stomach lately and my missing my flight to the Seder and all the bad movies I've been watching to distract myself... I haven't had a thought of Passover.
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