Parasha: Bo · Aliyah: Third (Tiferet)

ויקרא פרעה, Pharaoh called, etc. This occurred after the plague had run its course; previously the Egyptians had been incommunicado. Pharaoh expressed his anger over that fact by adopting a severe tone when addressing Moses in verse 28 when Moses had been adamant that even the livestock would accompany them into the desert. He would not have dared threaten Moses unless the plague had already run its course without Moses having prayed for it to be lifted.

גם טפכם, also your children. It is somewhat strange that Pharaoh mentioned first who could not go before conceding that the children could accompany their parents. Perhaps Pharaoh was clever enough to first spell out the conditions under which permission would be granted for the Israelites to leave [The author presumably refers to the halachah that unless the condition is mentioned first and not as an afterthought it is not binding. Ed.]. According to the above we may understand the verse as Pharaoh saying: "go and serve the Lord as you have said, i.e. the men and not the children; if you fulfil the following condition namely that your livestock stays in Egypt, I am even prepared to let you take your children along. If you do not agree to this condition I do not revoke my permission, but then only your menfolk may go because they are the ones who perform the religious rites you spoke about." Perhaps the Gentiles generally consider that any condition in a commercial transaction has to precede the main part of an agreement and not merely appear as a codicil.

גם אתה תתן בידנו זבחים, "you too will give into our hands meat-offerings, etc." It is somewhat difficult to understand why a servant of the only G'd should ask a confirmed sinner such as Pharaoh who had repeatedly raised his voice against G'd to offer his animals to the G'd of the Hebrews as sacrifices on his behalf. Do we not know that G'd hates the offerings of sinners? While it is true that we learned in Chulin 13 that the words איש איש in Leviticus 22,18 are the basis for our ruling that G'd accepts sacrifices from Gentiles, this certainly does not mean that a Jew should request a Gentile to offer such offerings!

A close look at our verse will show you that Moses did not request such offerings. He had only said ועשינו לה׳ אלוקינו. Moses predicted that Pharaoh would voluntarily give the Jews animals which would be suitable as offerings to G'd and that the Israelites would use these animals for such a purpose on their own behalf. The animals were to be viewed as gifts from Pharaoh to the Jewish people to enable them to have enough animals for their requirements. We have proof of what Moses had in mind because we are taught in Menachot 63 that the only sacrifices accepted from Gentiles are total offerings, as opposed to peace offerings. Since Moses spoke also about זבחים i.e. peace-offerings, it is clear that he did not mean to offer these animals on behalf of Pharaoh.

וגם מקננו ילך עמנו, "our cattle also shall go with us, etc." Why did Moses have to add that the Israelites would take along their own cattle seeing that Moses had already said they would even take along livestock donated by Pharaoh? Obviously, Pharaoh's animals would be in addition to their own! We have to assume that Moses was concerned lest Pharaoh misunderstand the words גם אתה as referring to the children. Pharaoh might have understood that Moses had demanded that not only would they take their children but they demanded that Pharaoh give them in addition of his own herds. To avoid such a possible misunderstanding, Moses, as if correcting himself, said "also our cattle will go with us. This is a very forced explanation. Another difficulty in the verse is Moses' having to justify that they would take their cattle because they would use some of it as sacrifices. What new facts did he reveal to Pharaoh with these words? If he wanted to tell Pharaoh that their sacrificial acts would include the slaughtering of sheep (a sacred animal in Egypt) he had already told Pharaoh this when he told him that Pharaoh himself would supply animals for that purpose. Another curious statement by Moses in this verse is his comment "we do not know what we must serve the Lord until we get there." Apparently Moses indicated that he did not know how many animals G'd would require of them and that was also the reason that he expected Pharaoh to contribute to the number of animals. However, if that were the reason, Moses should have spoken not about "what" would be required but about "how much" would be required.

Moses may have wanted to rebut one possible argument namely that they did not need to take along all kinds of species, only the ones suitable as sacrifices. This is why Moses said: "we do not know what (species) we will be required to offer as sacrifices." Therefore, Moses said we have to take along even those species which ultimately will not be used as sacrifices. This is also why he added: "not a hoof will remain." This reference included such animals as horses, mules, camels and donkeys as they are all included in the term מקנה. When Moses appeared to imply that the Israelites would even use the last-mentioned species as sacrificial animals we must understand this comment as similar to the Talmud Avodah Zarah 24 interpreting Samuel I 15,15 to mean that when King Saul referred to certain types of animals saved by the people for sacrifices, the proceeds of the sale of certain animals were also included. The expression: "we will take from them to sacrifice" does not have to mean that the actual animals mentioned have to serve as offerings. The words ממנו נקח have to be translated as "from their proceeds we will take, etc."

When Moses added "and we do not know what we shall serve," this means that he did not know what part of the value of the animals would be required in order to meet G'd's requirements and what part of the herds could safely remain behind. The word מה can have two meanings. 1) "how much," 2) "what," in the sense of "what is the nature of, etc." Moses referred to the fact that G'd would reveal what and how much He required. Perhaps G'd would demand that the people build an altar for Him made of gemstones or some other expensive way of displaying respect and admiration for Him. While it is true that Moses had always spoken about the fact that the Jewish people would "slaughter" animals, he had at the same time referred to some other undefined עבודה, service to G'd. After all, during the original revelation at the burning bush (4,23) G'd had told Moses to tell Pharaoh: "let My people (My firstborn son) go in order that they may serve Me (joyfully)!" This was a general statement which provided for more more ways of serving the Lord than merely the offering of sacrificial animals. As a result, Moses explained, they would need to take along everything they possessed in order to meet their obligations vis-a-vis G'd. This was also why Pharaoh would have to contribute of his own property.

Moses added the apparently gratuitous words עד בואנו שמה, "until we arrive there," because he anticipated Pharaoh challenging his competence as a prophet if he did not even know what kind of service his G'd demanded. Pharaoh might say to him: "if you really do not know, why do you not ask your G'd before setting out on a trek into the desert with all those herds?" Moses may also have reasoned that Pharaoh would not believe him in any event, preferring to believe that Moses was trying to trick him. At any rate, this answer of Moses to Pharaoh was obviously one that Moses invented and is not to be regarded as an instruction given to him by G'd. Pharaoh realised that Moses had acted on his own and that was the reason he was so angry at Moses. As long as Moses delivered messages from G'd, Pharaoh could have been angry at G'd but not at Moses, His messenger. As a result of his anger at what he perceived to be Moses' arrogance, Pharaoh forbade Moses to bother him again.

ויחזק ה׳ ..ולא אבה, G'd hardened Pharaoh's heart and he did not want to dismiss, etc. The Torah testifies that on this occasion Pharaoh decided not to let the Israelites go, period. He no longer weighed the pros and cons but decided to hang tough even if this should cost him his life. This is why the Torah attributes this decision to him with the words לא אבה.

Alternatively, he tried to outsmart G'd and Moses by analysing the pattern of the plagues to-date. There had always been two plagues which he was warned about followed by a plague without warning. The last plague, darkness, had not been preceded by a warning. Pharaoh realised that if there were to be another plague, G'd would first warn him. By denying Moses access to the palace he hoped to prevent Moses from issuing the warning which he thought had to precede the next plague. Since Moses was aware that there was only one plague to follow and that G'd would not need to harden the heart of Pharaoh again in order to have an excuse to inflict further plagues upon him, he was able to respond immediately: כן דברת לא אוסיף עוד ראות פניך, "you are quite right; I am not going to see you again, ever." I have already commented on Moses' response in connection with Exodus 7,3 ואני אקשה.

On a more subtle level, Moses may have taught Pharaoh a different lesson when he said כן דברת. Pharaoh had threatened to have Moses killed if he dared to appear before him again. Moses answered him in a sarcastic manner, i.e. "indeed you have spoken." He meant that all Pharaoh was able to do was to issue empty threats; there was no clout behind this paper tiger. He was not able to kill Moses or to have him killed. Moses may also have referred to a previous occasion in Exodus 2,15 when Pharaoh had given orders to execute him but had been unable to have these orders carried out. This could have been because of miraculous intervention by G'd such as suggested by Shemot Rabbah 1,31, according to which an angel had assumed the appearance of Moses and while the angel was arrested Moses had escaped to Midian. It could also have been due to what we are told in Yalkut Shimoni 175 that Moses outwrestled all his captors. At any rate, Moses challenged Pharaoh to make good on his boast. As far as Pharaoh's not wanting to see Moses again, Moses told him that the feeling was mutual, that he would not see him again.

ויאמר ה׳ ..עוד נגע אחד, G'd said to Moses: "one more plague, etc." This chapter tells us about matters G'd had already mentioned to Moses earlier while Moses was still in Midian. At that time (3,19) G'd had informed Moses that Pharaoh would not let the Israelites depart even after He applied a strong hand against him. In 4,22-23 G'd had already warned Pharaoh of the consequences of not letting the Israelites depart. You will observe that the end of the cycle of nine plagues left Pharaoh exactly as obstinate as he had been at the beginning. He had started out by not even considering the demands of G'd, and though he appeared to have softened his stance, making progressively greater concessions, he was now back to square one having ruled out the departure of any of the Israelites. In 7,4 G'd had told Moses that the sign that the plague of the killing of the firstborn was about to occur would be Pharaoh's refusal to listen. As soon as Moses heard that he was not to appear again at court he knew that the time had come for the last plague after which the Exodus would begin. Moses knew that this plague would be the most severe because G'd asked him to instruct the people to "borrow" as many silver and golden trinkets as they could. The word עוד then does not mean an additional plague as much as it means "the plague I have already spoken to you about once before, I am mentioning again." This explains why Moses did not wait after verse four until G'd described the plague to him, though G'd had done so every other time when Moses was told to warn Pharaoh. Moses proceeded to inform Pharaoh on the spot. Whereas it is true that we do not find that G'd had previously told Moses that the plague of the killing of the firstborn would occur at midnight, we may assume that G'd had told Moses that detail also at that time, but that the Torah did not record it there as it had not yet become relevant. This is why it is not difficult to understand that G'd repeated here what He had told Moses originally, i.e. that the Jews would take with them the silver and gold trinkets borrowed from the Egyptians as well as their garments and that they would "empty" Egypt (Exodus 3,22).