Parashat Bo - English

Rabbi Mario Gurevich

Beth Israel Synagogue –

Aruba

This week’s reading covers the last three plagues of Egypt and the eve of the exodus, which would bring the Hebrews out of slavery.  However, there are two disturbing verses in the midst of the story, since they involve ethical and conduct issues.

It is written in Exodus 12:35:  “And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they asked of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment.  And the Lord gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked.  And they despoiled the Egyptians.”

This verse refers to a commandment that appears in a previous verse (Exodus 11:2), where we find:  “And the Lord said unto Moses…  ‘Speak now in the ears of the people, and let them ask every man of his neighbor, and every woman of her neighbor, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold.’”

This leaves us with a bad taste in our mouths.  It feels like a plot to despoil the Egyptians.  Furthermore, the Hebrew term “to ask” can be translated both as request or borrow (remember that Moses, at first, requested from Pharaoh to be allowed a three-day trip to make offerings and come back), which would additionally imply deceit in the act.

Although the Torah does not delve much into the subject nor does it give us any guidelines to help us understand this story or its connotations, commentators occupied themselves with this issue for centuries, which makes me think that the story disturbed them as well.

Mainly, the commentaries conclude in one of the following two outlines:

1)      What was obtained in this way, the “loot” as it could be called,  was the payment due for the works performed by the Hebrews throughout the years of slavery, during which they received no wages.  This would give it a moral overtone, since it would mean compensation instead of plundering.

2)      The Egyptians voluntarily gave their belongings to the Hebrews; according to some, because of the awe they felt before the wonders they had witnessed on the previous days, and according to others, acting on their wish that the Hebrews would leave as soon as possible, thus putting a stop to the plagues that had tormented them.

Be it as it may, both explanations lead us to understand these proceedings as an act of reparation at the end of a belligerent situation between two nations, although the parallel could be considered, in this case, slightly forced.

In the 1950’s, Germany (Western Germany, at the time) paid millions of dollars in war damages to the Jewish people, generating at the time a huge controversy.  Not at the level of the payments made to individuals, which allowed thousands of people to rebuild their lives or at least mitigate their economic hardships, but rather because Germany considered the State of Israel –which did not exist during the war– as the beneficiary for all those damages with no specific consignee, namely the six million dead, stripped of their lives, of their futures and, previously, of their assets.

Many believed that such horror debt could not be paid off nor valued in money; however, the pragmatic posture prevailed, and those damages served to fund the State of Israel during those difficult first years.  Six of one, half a dozen of the other…

And where did all those tokens go, taken, borrowed, or looted from the Egyptians, or eventually given freely by them?

First, to the golden calf, a bad start for a people just liberated by their true G-d, from which a little bit more gratefulness and faith was expected.  And later, to the building of the Sanctuary in the wilderness, which somehow served as a form of atonement and catharsis for the previous stumble.

I won’t arrive at any conclusion today.  It would seem there are actions and circumstances that cannot be necessarily condemned or praised until the epilogues of the story occur, when we will have the chance to judge a posteriori.

Further on, the Torah will offer us a series of rules to humanize war and its battles, which will finally be the guidelines that blaze a trail, placing ethics once again at the center and summit of our aspirations.

Shabbat Shalom.