Bo

We are approaching the end of servitude for the Jewish nation.  The plagues that God inflicted on Egypt are at their climax.  Darkness and the death of the Firstborn were the final plagues that struck the Egyptians in this parasha.

Imagine the terror everyone felt as one affliction after another the people were denied access to the life giving aspects of nature.  One by one the gods of Egypt were demythologized.  From the god the Nile to the sun god Ra each one was successfully degraded to show that there is only one God in the world who alone has the power to control destiny. 

For thousands of years humankind has worshipped nature.  They have exported the idea that nature needs to be appeased and cultivated so that the gods of the sky, rain and crops would be good to them.  Imagine their disillusionment when they found that everything they were taught to believe was a lie.

We live in a time when a plague confounds and constricts us.  But this is not God’s punishment but our responsibility.  The Torah is quite deliberate in setting out that the Lord put us in charge of His universe, gave us the ethics to guide civil society and the tools to heal and cure.  Yet we have abused much of God’s gifts.  This virus is not our fault but the cure is in our hands and we have the responsibility to act with truth, diligence and expediency to save lives.

Perhaps this is why we read this segment each year so that we will be reminded that there is a God who gave us ample tools - both mental and physical - to control our own destiny.

The ninth plague, darkness, was deliberate.  Its purpose was to show how when we wander away from our roots, let fear and ignorance guide us, we become blinded to the reality of life.

We are in such a time of darkness now and our responsibility to toward one another is staring at us.  Our task to take the hands of our brothers and sisters and lead them to a place of peace and understanding, not leave them to fear and a sense of abandonment alone.  We are the hands and feet of God.  With the guidance He has given us we can avoid the ultimate plague, the death of our firstborn (or elderly, impaired, those with underlying conditions, etc).

That is why when we reach the 12^th chapter of this parasha God deliberately tells us to mark our own calendars according to the day of Liberation from slavery.  God is telling us to take care of one another, stop the abuse and neglect. 

It is time to take our rightful place as guardians of each other.