Questions — Parshah Bo
Exodus 10
Why does Pharaoh harden the heart of Pharaoh’s courtiers? Is this necessary if God has hardened Pharaoh’s heart?
Why is it important to God that his actions make a mockery of Pharaoh? This seems like a strike at Pharaoh’s dignity as a person. Is this what God wants, or is this a different understanding of what is meant by mockery? If a nation becomes a mockery in this context simply a name for having met with a terrible defeat. Isn’t mockery the easiest possible reaction one might have to another’s failure. Is this the lesson that God wants the world to learn from God’s actions? This seems less dignified than what I want to expect from God.
God wants Moses to know that he is the Lord, but why doesn’t God say at this point that this is what God wants for the whole world to see? Surely, all of this is not just for Moses' benefit.
“How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me?” Why is God so focused on Pharaoh? God seems more focused on Pharaoh than the supposed goal - liberation of the Israelites.
God is the one who provides the idea that the Israelites will leave to worship God. Does God have a chosen way that God will be worshipped? Is that God’s expectation or is God just providing Moses with language to be used?
Locusts will render the land invisible. Aside from the revulsion that that degree of insect infestation would bring, is there something to be learned from the sense that God can make the presence of the land disappear from sight?
Which are “the trees that grow in the field?’ Are these trees that bear fruit untended? Are they wild? Which trees are they?
The plague of locusts will enter indoors in an unnatural way. Is the purpose of this to make the Egyptians feel that the locust might consume them as well as the plant life. Are they meant to fear for their lives at this point?
The plagues affect Pharaoh and his household, his courtiers and all of the people of Egypt (except the Israelites). Is God bringing the plagues in this way to flatten the very stratified Egyptian society?
We have been told that God also hardened the hearts of Pharaoh’s courtiers. Nevertheless they advise Pharaoh to concede. They say, “Egypt is lost.” Do they say this despite their hardened hearts, or have they managed to unharden their hearts? Does Pharaoh listen to them? It is unclear who brings Moses back. Are they called by Pharaoh or the courtiers, or does God bring them back?
Why, for the first time does Pharaoh ask, “Who are the ones to go?” Does he not understand the situation, or has he been (at least partially) deceived up to this point? Is it reasonable that he might be surprised that all of the time he thought that only the males would need to go to worship, since perhaps, only the worship of the males was of consequence? Doesn’t Moses push the line about worshipping the Lord a bit far once he makes a point about the flocks and herds coming too? Has God spoken oracularly, in that perhaps by worship, God meant that they would be able to worship as a habitual practice ever after?
Pharaoh responds to Moses sarcastically. Is this the first use of sarcasm in Torah? Are they others (as opposed to irony)?
What is the mischief that Pharaoh suspects Moses and Aaron of? By mischief he might mean only that they might try to escape from their slavery? Or is it something else? What?
Pharoah does not do anything to prevent the men from leaving to go to the desert to worship, however, God brings plagues immediately. Was there no consideration of taking up this offer as a tactical opportunity to plan away from Egyptian eyes even if the maximalist position was always the ultimate goal?
Moses and Aaron are expelled from the presence of Pharaoh. Does this imply that his offer should be heard as another element of his sarcasm?
Is it normal in Egypt that locusts would come from the East? Do locusts always come from one direction? (a scientific question)
The locusts “invade.” Are they like the army that Pharaoh was earlier afraid that the Israelites would join up with against the Egyptians?
Is there some aspect of Divine mercy or regret in God’s statement that the plague of locusts will never recur in Egypt to the extent of this one outbreak?
Pharaoh tells Moses, “I stand guilty before the Lord.” In what way is he guilty? For not fulfilling an oath? For the original sin of enslaving the Israelites? What moral foundation does Pharaoh have that he is able to come to the conclusion that he “stands guilty”? [Adam and Eve as counter-text?] If God had not again hardened Pharaoh’s heart would Pharaoh had really let the Israelites go at this point. We often think that God only has to harden Pharaoh’s heart once, but it appears that Pharaoh's heart does not stay hardened.
Is the plague of darkness meant to be an extrapolation of the plague of locusts, a greater darkness?
Pharaoh may have learned from experience that what he offered before was not enough. Why does Moses insist on having both herds and flocks and the animals of the Egyptians (how are there any left? Are only the herds and flocks that are attended to by the Israelites in Goshen the remnant? Does God’s prophecy of the Israelites going up from Egypt with great wealth have to include herds and flocks as a form of wealth?
For Moses worship seems to mean animal sacrifice. Is this what he knows from Egypt, or Midian, or tribal memory of the lives of the patriarchs? Was there a time when the Israelites in Egypt sacrificed to God? If so, were they able to do so in Goshen or did they have to go out into the desert to do so? If so, who went and when did they cease to do so? Moses says that they do not know what they will have to sacrifice. Had they had a regular practice. Is Moses indicating that this is a place of discontinuity between the patriarchal era and their current times?
Pharaoh threatens Moses’ person directly at the end of the plague of darkness. Is Moses’ response to Pharaoh sarcastic? Does he know that he will never see Pharaoh again?
Exodus 12
Why do we need to know Moses and Aaron are in the Land of Egypt at the beginning of this chapter? Might we have thought that when they are not in front of Pharaoh they are coming and going from Egypt?
As part of the liberation from Egypt God declares that the liberation will coincide with a reorganization of the calendar, a kind of Annee Zero. How has time been organized in Israelite experience before this? Have the Israelites simply submitted to the calendars as they found them in the places where they were? How fixed (rigid?) had the organization of time been in the societies where they sojourned? How is this reorganization meant to determine their lives going forward overall, considering that Torah contains a variety of alternate ways of defining the year? The beginning and of months seems to have continuity under the old order of time and the new order.
Why a lamb?
The apportionment of the lamb to cover those who have and those who lack seems to imply, at this moment when social stratification is at the lowest possible point, that in issues of Kedushah the values of the community as a whole overrides the property rights and the role of the individual in society. Is this a mandate for social justice in general?
Torah clarifies its own language when it makes it clear that either a lamb or a young goat can be used. Ets Hayim comments that this openness might have been meant to reduce the sense of anxiety that the Israelites might have had about the difficulty of performing the protective ritual. Can we learn from this that we should seek leniencies in the language of Torah through interpretation?
“You shall keep watch over it…” The lamb or goat has to be without blemish. It seems that it has to be without blemish when it is selected and watched over throughout to see that it remains without blemish until the time of the sacrifice. This makes things harder and actually might raise the level of anxiety. What happens if the animal that you selected becomes blemished? What would you do then? Could you then find a replacement? (Watch goes from the 10th to the 14th).
What are the special spiritual qualities of the time of the watch? What else will be happening during this time?
