Our Parasha this week completes the story of the ten plagues
that strike Egypt, with the final plagues of locusts, darkness and the killing
of the first born of all the Egyptians. We get the instructions to the
Israelites regarding the Pesach sacrifice that they are to make on the night of
vigil before their liberation. Intertwined in the narrative about the sacrifice
are also instructions for the following generations to observe the festival of
Pesach.
In this Torah portion, at the beginning of Chapter 12, we
have the first instance of God giving ritual commandments to the Israelite
people through Moses. The commandment is to mark the month of Aviv, in which
the Exodus takes place, as the first month on the calendar. “this month shall
mark for you the beginning of the months. . .” (Ex. 12:2) The text continues to
prescribe the ritual of the Passover sacrifice and the Feast of Unleavened
bread, which are celebrated in remembrance of this seminal event of liberation.
Many Medieval commentators ask why the Torah starts with the
“In the beginning” – the Creation story
- and not with “This month shall mark for you the beginning of the
months.” Because in their context, these rabbis are more concerned with the
Jewish path of mitzvoth and halacha (law,) they wonder why it takes so long to
get to the first real law in the Torah.
Here, with these regulations concerning the calendar and the
first laws concerning a holiday, the Jewish way of life truly begins to take
shape. We also see a weaving of past and present and future in this parasha.
The text jumps back and forth from the narrative of the Israelites in Egypt
putting the blood of the lamb on the door to God’s instructions to future generations
to celebrate Passover “in remembrance” of these events.
God even thinks to tell us what to tell our children when
they ask us about the holiday, “What do you mean by this rite?”(Ex. 12:26) And
we then are to look back into our personal/mythic past and say, “It is the
Passover sacrifice to the Lord, because He passed over the houses of the
Israelites in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, but saved our houses.” (12:26)
At this critical juncture in our tradition, many questions
come to the surface. We have received other commandments such as circumcision
and “be fruitful and multiply.” These have been communicated to individuals
from God as commandments to be observed down the generations. But here, we have
the first ritual I can detect that is truly communal. What does it mean to us
that the Pesach holiday is the first communal observance to be commanded in the
Torah? What does this say about the story of the Exodus and its status in our
memory and ongoing life as a people? What does this say about who we are as a people?
What does it mean that this ritual is commanded while we are still in Egypt?
So many questions, and I’m confident you’ll bring your own.
Looking forward to studying with you tomorrow.
Rabbi G.
No comments:
Post a Comment