Bo - 7th Portion

Join me as we learn together for Shabas, the seventh Torah reading of Paris B. Yesterday we learned about the further details of the pascal offering as well as the Jewish people, how they protected themselves from the plague of the firstborn. And as the Jewish people left Egypt, the concluding verse was that the Jewish people in middle of broad daylight left the Egypt and they were all released and the exodus of Egypt occurred. Today we're going to learn about the mitzvah of consecrating the firstborn. But a person because of the mitzvah because of the plague of the firstborn and every Jewish p firstborn was saved. Therefore, we have a mitzvah of redeeming the firstborn and buying it back from the coh. Chapter 13 verse one and God spoke to Moses saying consecrate to me from among the Jewish people every firstborn of the man or beast of the Jewish people from the animals from the firstborn of every womb it is mine. What does this mean? So Rashi tells us as follows. What does it mean? The first of the womb. Every womb, the first child to his mother is called the first of the womb. Why? Because he opened the womb of his mother first. Like the person who opens up when there was a blockage of the water and you open it up and each person twists a little bit for finally it opens up and everybody else gets to enjoy it afterwards. We also find the words comes to when aim where it says means that the Jewish people all say it together. They open up they open up their lips to say and give praise to God. So the word means to open who is mine. Why is it mine? Everything in the world is God's. But I took them for myself to be holy because I killed all the firstborn of Egypt and I decided to keep these alive. So I took them to be mine. Verse two. Verse three said to the people, "Remember this day that you left Egypt from the house of slaves of bondage because God has brought you with his mighty hand. He has brought you here and you should not eat any leaven bread, any leaven food." Verse three, Rashi says, he taught them. Why does he tell them in a commandment? He is teaching them the commandments that every single day we have to remember the exodus of Egypt. Verse five ver verse four this is the day that you're going out in Egypt is the beginning of spring. What is the word? Why does Moshe have to tell it to them? Says do they not know which month they left? They didn't look around and see it's spring. This is what he was telling them. See the kindness that God has done for you and he took you out in a month which is convenient which is nice is still traveling. It's not too hot. It's not too cold. It's not raining. as it also says into that God took the Jewish people back the word when when it's comfortable is a month that it was beautiful it was fit to leave verse five and it will be when God will bring you to the Canananite land the land of the Amorites that he promised to your forefathers to give to you a land that flows with milk and honey. And you will shall perform this service, meaning the service of the passover sacrifice every single year in this exact month. Verse five, even though here technically was taking them to the land which land of Israel was the land of seven nations and he only enumerates five. includes all seven because they were all part of the and one of the family also was called Kanani itself but all the nations were under the name promised to your forefathers as we find made a covenant with this land and by Jacob the land that you're lying on that is what I'm going to give to So Rashi quotes three verses where God promises it to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Flowing of milk and honey. Where does the milk and honey coming from? Meaning it's a land that has you have the milk of good goats that they are plenty milk coming from them. And the honey flows from the dates and from the figs. This service, what was he referring to? the service of the pascal offering of the PES. It already says it earlier when you'll come to the land you will do it. So why does the have to repeat it again here? because of something which was going to be new in this verse that he tells it us which is the next verse that he's going to say in the previous para where he talks about in the previous time he tells us about in the first time he says if your children are going to ask you what are you doing this for which is alluding to the fact that he's talking about the evil son which in this case he excludes himself from the rest of the Jewish people by saying, "What is this service that you're doing for yourselves?" However, in the verse that he's about to tell us about the service of the of the Pascal offering, it says, "You should tell it to your child because it's talking about a child who doesn't have the capability of asking. He doesn't even know what to ask." And the verse therefore is telling us that you should open that you should find a way to draw the child in, get his attention to be able to explain to him what the pascal offering is all about. And this way you can tell him the story of the Exodus of Egypt. Verse six, seven days you should eat mis on the seventh day there should be a festival for God. So we know there are seven days from the 15th to the 21st of Nissan are considered the festival. Verse seven during these seven days mis should be eaten for these seven days. Nothing leavened of yours shall or any leavened agent as we no which is leaven or any leavenvening agent which is should not be seen in any of your domain throughout your domain in any place that's under your control. Verse eight And you shall tell your child on that day saying that is the sake of these that why am I fulfilling his commandments? calls God what God has done to me or acted on my behalf when I came out of Egypt meaning what am I saying this this always refers to something which you see in front of you and he tells him why do I have I am commandments why are we doing the he shows his son is because God took us out of Egypt us that we're talking about the child over here. He doesn't know how to ask as Rashi told us in the previous Rashi. And therefore he says Roma Rama already hinted at the fact in the response to the uh proper response to give to the Russia, the evil son. Blamer saying, God did it to me but not to you. Because if you have this kind of attitude, if you would have been still in Egypt, God wouldn't have taken you out of Egypt. Therefore, the whole concept of why the exodus of Egypt happened was that we should accept the commandments, that we should be able to fulfill the commandments. And therefore, he tells the son who doesn't have that ability to understand. And he explains to him that the very fact that we have these commandments that we're doing them is that God took us out of Egypt so we should be able to fulfill the commandments. Verse nine. And you shall place it as a sign for you on your arm as a reminder between your eyes. So that the word of God, the Torah of God should be on your lips because with a mighty hand, God brought you out of Egypt. Verse nash, the exor of Egypt. It just should be as a sign on your hand and a remembrance between your eyes. What does this mean? That these exact um parts of the Torah sections of the Torah should be written and they will be bound on your hand and on your head and on your arm. meaning infillin together with the other portions of shama which those are also explicit that say put this on your arm and on your head this will be there as well on your hand which hand your left hand therefore if you look at the word in the Torah as we're going to see later on in verse 16 the word is not written as it's written here but it's written when you make the word twice means If you read it, it makes it two words. Your weaker hand. And the weaker hand is referred to the left hand. For a lefty would be his right hand because that would be his weaker hand as well. Verse 10. And you will observe this ordinance in its appointed time from year to year. Yam was usually the word yim means days but over here it means mishana every single year. Verse 11. Now we continue back to the mitzvah which mo which God started off telling Moshe a few verses before this concerning the importance of consecrating the firstborn. God will bring you to the land. He promised to you and to your forefathers and he will give it to you. From here we learn the very fact that he connects and he juxtapose the concept of the consecration of the firstborn to the entrance of the land of Israel is because that those that were in the desert were not considered holy. According to the ones that say that even in the desert the firstborn were considered holy explains that the very fact that it says of a year when you will enter the land was a condition that God was telling them that if you do it here in the desert then you will have the merit to go into the land of Israel and do it there as well. Where did God promise it to the Jewish people? This was be said in chapter six in the beginning of the Torah reading of Shimos where God says I will bring you to the land that I brought you to I will give to you. You will consider it as if given today to you as a gift obvious. It's not something that you can consider you can as an inheritance you got from your forefathers. This is because then how are you going to be so thankful for it? But you appreciate it as if you got that gift today. Verse 12, and you will set apart every first issue of the womb to God and all mayor and all and all male firstly miscarriages of your cattle shall be gods. What does this mean? Rashi explains in verse 12 the word first of all when the word usually means to pass but in this case it means to separate so to it says and you will separate the person's inheritance to his daughter what is the word shear so we translated it for the miscarriages soel the miscarriage that his mother gave birth and was sent from her womb before its time. And this is what the Torah is telling us that even though it was a miscarriage still and all from the animal, it's still considered holy. You cannot bring it as a sacrifice, but it was still considered holy. What is it considered holy? That the next child that comes afterwards is not considered Holy because the miscarriage makes was the first of the womb and therefore the next one that comes is no longer considered the firstborn. Now where does the word shear why does the Torah use the word shear even though generally we don't find that a miscarriage is called shear which means they're um living animals. But in this case, it's coming to talk about a miscarriage. The Torah already told me about the firstborn of each womb. You're going to say maybe it's coming to tell me about a non-cultural animal. But I can say so because I already have that in the ver in the duter in in the uh later on in a different place in the book of Deuteronomy where it tells me about the firstborn that one has to bring as a sacrifice and it says cattle and your sheep. So therefore I know it only works by a kosher animal. However, there's another way of learning it is talking about the person and therefore when it comes later on and says that's talking about the animals and over here the Torah is talking about a live animal not necessarily coming to include a miscarried animal. Verse 13. And you shall redeem every firstling donkey by a lamb orchid. And if you did not redeem it, then you must kill it. Literally, you must killing it by breaking its neck. And then he says, "And you shall every firstborn child amongst your children you should redeem as well. The only non-coosher animal that you have an obligation to redeem is from a donkey. And this is a decree of the verse that a donkey is different in Tammuric language is this is a specific exclusion which the Torah tells us with not necessarily a rational reason. This is the Torah. But of he gives us an example, a reason, a rationale of why the Torah tells us specifically the donkey. Because the firstborn of Egypt were compared to their donkeys. That's why the firstborn of the dunkey has to be consecrated as well. And another reason because the dunkey they helped the Jewish people carry the loads of stuff that the Jewish people had when they left Egypt. As the Talma tells us, you there was every there was not a Jew there was not a Jew that didn't leave Egypt with having multitude of donkeys carrying gold silver clothing and everything they got from the Egypt from the Egyptians and in this merit and the reward for this was that the dunkey was an exception that it was considered holy and it had to be redeemed has to be redeemed with a lamb what does he do how does he redeem it So what? He takes the lamb, gives it to the coen in exchange of the donkey. The firstborn of the donkey is then exempt and you're allowed to enjoy it. However, this actual lamb doesn't become holy, but it becomes the is able to keep it and do whatever he wants with it. You kill it. You kill it particularly in this way that you break the neck behind it with a hatchet. He kills it. Why is this? This is a measure for measure. You caused that the coen shouldn't get it because you did not redeem it and you did not give the co. So you caused the co to lose money. So therefore therefore you're not going to enjoy it as well and you're going to have to kill your dunkey. How do you redeem your son? You give the coen five coins in redemption. This is a an amount which is stated in the book of numbers. How much a person has to give is the five silver coins that he has to give to the verse 14. Now the festival of Passover continues to tell us about the importance of remembering it for future generations. Come time to pass that your child will ask saying what is all this that we're doing and you will tell him because God took us out of Egypt with his mighty hand from the house of bondage. Verse 14, Rashi says, "What does it mean? It will ask tomorrow. The word tomorrow can be understood in two different ways. There's a tomorrow which is very soon like very close which is now which means for example tomorrow literally and then there's a when it uses a terminology tomorrow means in a later time like in this case where it talks about not necessarily right now not necessarily meaning tomorrow your kids are going to ask the question but later on it may come up that your children may ask later tomorrow your children will say to our children they and so on. What's this? This is referring to this is a foolish child. He doesn't know the depth of his question. Therefore, he just asks simply and in the he's referred to the the simple child. In a different place the verse says when your child will ask what is the laws, the statutes and the uh and the testimonial laws. This is a question of the smart child, the intelligent child that he knows how to ask properly. He knows how to differentiate the difference between the different laws. In this case where the Torah uses the terminology of telling your child, he uses to four different children Russia to the simple one which is right here, the evil one. whom we spoke about in chapter 12. The one who doesn't even have know how to ask the question was previously in verse 48 then the child who asks the question in an intelligent way that's referring to the child in that the Torah discusses in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 6 there an interesting thing the Reb mentions here when we talk about the two interpretations of which is soon says this doesn't only mean in the time table chronological time a tomorrow which is literally tomorrow, tomorrow which is in later times but also in ideas. You have a tomorrow which is a child that's asking because he understands he sees the logic he sees yesterday. He sees tomorrow he sees the system of days and therefore he tries to understand logically what this means and he asks questions in Judaism to have a basic understanding of relevance of where it's coming from. He sees the relationship in time but he wants to understand and the Torah says you have to address that child as well. But then there's a child that says he comes in a later time. He doesn't see any relationship. He doesn't understand it. He doesn't see any connection. It's at a later time. He thinks that he doesn't have a connection with God. And the Torah tells us you have to tell this child as well and explain to him that it came the time of the Exodus of Egypt and he has a relationship with God. And therefore also explain to this child who seemingly seems foreign. He's m he's tomorrow. He's in different generation. Doesn't look like he has any connection. He also has to learn about his relationship and know that he can also come to the level of the redemption of the Jewish people. The Torah now continues verse 15. When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let the Jewish people go and God therefore killed every firstborn in Egypt from the firstborn of the humans to the firstborn of the animals. Therefore, I bring a sacrifice today to God as well as every first issue of the womb of the males and all firstborn of my children I will redeem. Verse 16. And this continues the Exodus described. The Torah tells us there will be a sign on your arm and a reminder between your eyes because with a mighty hand, God took us out of Egypt. What does mean? These are the go on the head. How do I get the word shame? Because the as the t the unlas explains it's because it's split up into four sections. The one on the head the fillin on the head has four different compartments. Therefore was called tough. How do you see this? Because the word tap comes from the word. The word means to. So the words and then which also means two. So that's a total of four four compartments who explains this as well. He says that the word in the verse comes from the word comes from the word of speaking. And this is what the Torah says. The same way you have a reminder on your arm is something that will speak to you that will be on your head. the same one we mentioned previously in the first verse that when it talks about the it says will be a reminder on your eyes so too in this case this is the reminder that when a person sees you wearing the fillin they'll ask what is it about you talk about it it causes the person to remind them what happened to talk about the exodus of Egypt this concludes the Torah reading for Shabas the seventh Torah reading of parasite