This parashah Bo – בא speaks about the “birth of the nation Israel”.  Up to this time we were tribal with our forefathers, our leaders and the 12 children of Jacob. Now something greater is beginning.  This birth then and now brings with it the idea of man’s struggle where we seem to be in a constant battle with G-d or perhaps our struggle has to do with us being a part of G-d’s plan not matching our own plans. We need to understand that Israel was chosen not because we were the best but the least. Great empires have come and gone yet we remain. We have been abused, raped, destroyed almost to the point of annihilation yet G-d remains faithful. The birth of a nation was not a whimsical idea in the mind of G-d’s but serves to shows that He was always in control all the while establishing His Torah.

G-d made us a nation of individuals and wants us to be unified. He has not called us to be uniform. When an army is formed, the men wear uniforms and are not allowed to think for themselves. Religious people erase the identities of the people and in so doing destroy them.  Each of us have been made in a marvelous way with a little of Himself in each of us. Do you think that the people left Egypt because they believed in G-d? How many of us hold onto G-d not because we believe in Him but because we need Him. How many of us are self-serving instead of G-d-serving. Most religions today are falling apart because the people are fed up, discouraged with religion and the internet has become the new medium to receive immediate communication. Today people are waking up to the modern day sorcerers who think they are better than anyone else and demand from us rules which they themselves can’t keep. Sound familiar? Yeshua the Messiah said the same thing to the Pharisees. This has not changed today.

In Chapter 10-13 the last 3 plagues fell upon the Egyptians which finally allowed the people of Israel to be redeemed. The first mitzvoth as a nation was inaugurated —Pesach.  We see G-d asking the people of Israel to go and offer a sacrifice outside Egypt.  In Leviticus we will see two different types of sacrifices…two kinds - personal and communal at specific times to bring unity to the nation. Here Pesach has these two elements, both particular and communal… the offering of a lamb to avoid the 10th plague, the death of the first born pertaining to anything that had life in Egypt. The only one spared would be those who would be under the mark, a sign, Oht…the blood on the doorposts of the houses of the people obedient to G-d. Many people attribute magical powers to the blood. The blood was not magic. It was simply the sign to demonstrate that G-d would act upon the obedience of the people.  Otherwise you would have suffered the consequences. It had nothing to do with our righteousness, with how good or bad we were. The only one who can cover us is God Himself.

There is a practical aspect of Passover to think about. The Scriptures are clear...a male could not celebrate Pesach if he was not circumcised. It doesn’t matter what our religion or dogmas might have taught us. This is G-d’s revelation whether we like it or not. This included the Erev Rav, the mixed multitude.  It is written that 600, 000 men ages 20 to 50 left Egypt.  Imagine how many more left with them. Some say that the Erev Rav were slaves of the Hebrews but the Hebrews themselves were slaves so how could they have owned slaves? This mixed multitude left with and was part of Israel. They become one with Israel. They were all called for G-d’s service and were part of His plan and subject to the same Torah. It doesn’t matter how many times we read the Torah we will never fully understand it. Religious people give us rules and regulations but true believer goes to the Source, the Supreme G-d to be filled with His understanding and that of His Word.

Moshe to be accepted by his people needed to be very clear that he was only a spokesperson for G-d but he was not G-d. He was the instrument and whatever happened, it was not his hocus pocus that did it. It was G-d who gave him the power. Today it has become that the conduit or the person who represents G-d is like a god and thus have twisted the message. We have been constantly forced to believe in things that are outside the Word of G-d. Getting out of Egypt was not the most difficult thing we had to deal with, it was getting Egypt out of us. How many of us today rely more on man’s words, on man’s imposition instead of G-d’s way.

Our battles are who is right and who is wrong.  On the one hand we see the Israelites who were the conquered ones and the other hand the Egyptians, the conquerors. When we came to G-d we were nobody and like a new nation, G-d said that He would take the filthiness inside us and remake us, to make us walk in His statutes….no longer would we need to ask anyone what we could do. He would be with us and show us how to walk. In that process, we would be surprised at how much dirt is inside us. G-d is constantly trying to make a new nation out of his people. To do that we need to leave our comfort zones. With all the abuses they had received, the Israelites still did not want to leave their comfort zone. They were happy with the little they had instead of taking a chance with the unknown. G-d was offering everything to them.  Even after they saw the 10 miracles which G-d had performed and even after G-d had put it on the hearts of the Egyptians to give them wealth, they were still afraid. With this G-d showed Israel that not only was He was control not only of them but of the Egyptians and that truly the other gods didn’t exist.  But Israel was hooked to the other gods which we see as soon as Moshe was up receiving the tablets, they built a golden calf.  They had returned to their own vomit.  We need to be grateful that G-d didn’t give up on us.

Why is Pesach so important to us as Jews? It made us a nation. It is not coincidence that our Messiah Yeshua used Pesach as the symbol of the making of a nation. The problem is that men decided to create to their own nation instead of following G-d’s formation of this nation.  In spite of what we do by making our own religions He is faithful.

It is not only your desire to change that will allow you to change. You need to be honest with yourself. Many of us look to our Savior but we don’t want to look at ourselves.  The first step to change is accepting that we need help. To accept that we need help is to accept that we are limited in helping ourselves and that we need to depend on G-d. He wants us the way that we are. He transforms us. If you and I are willing to surrender to Him there is no limitation for Him. It is my prayer this Shabbat that we see the building of the nation as is relates to us today…. In relation to who we are as a community and to Whom we serve.  G-d wants unity not uniformity.

May G-d add blessing to His Word
רנב'י Ranebi