Parasha Bo (בא) — Shemot 10:1 – 13:16. Read on Shabbat, January 16, 2027.
Summary of Parasha Bo
G-d sends Moshe to Pharaoh and declares that these signs will be recounted to future generations. Then comes the eighth plague, the locusts, which devour whatever the hail had left, followed by the ninth, a thick darkness lasting three days, during which the children of Israel have light in their dwellings. Pharaoh still refuses to let the people go with their flocks. G-d announces the final plague: the death of the firstborn of Egypt. He then gives the people their first collective commandment: this month shall be for them the first of the months. Each family is to take a lamb on the tenth of the month, slaughter it on the fourteenth, put its blood on the doorposts and the lintel, and eat it roasted at night, with matzot and bitter herbs, ready to depart. The festival of Matzot is instituted for all generations, with the prohibition of chametz for seven days. At midnight, G-d strikes the firstborn of Egypt; Pharaoh then urges Moshe and Aharon to leave. The children of Israel go out of Egypt, about six hundred thousand men, carrying their unleavened dough. The parasha sets out the laws of the Pesach offering, then commands that the firstborn be consecrated, that the Exodus from Egypt be recounted to one’s children, and that this remembrance be worn as a sign upon the hand and between the eyes: the tefillin.
The Themes
- The first commandment: the calendar
- The Pesach offering
- Telling one’s children
Rav Raphaël Benizri’s Lectures on Bo
There are no lectures by the Rav on this parasha yet. Find all the available lectures on the Weekly Parasha page.
A Question for the Shabbat Table
Why does the Torah place so much emphasis on telling the children about the Exodus from Egypt?
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Summary by the Pensées Juives editorial team. The Rav’s teachings are found in his lectures, linked above.