Bo (parashah)

[54] In a New Kingdom Egyptian letter, one scribe chided another for leaving scribal work to labor in agriculture, where "The mice abound in the field, the locust descends, the cattle devour.

"[58] And the Vassal-Treaties of Esarhaddon, who ruled the Neo-Assyrian Empire 681–669 BCE, threatened the vassal who breached the treaty with these threats: "May Adad, the canal inspector of heaven and earth, put an end to vegetation in your land, may he avoid your meadows and hit your land with a severe destructive downpour, may locusts, which diminish the produce of the land, devour your crops, let there be no sound of the grinding stone or the oven in your houses, let barley rations to be ground disappear for you, so that they grind your bones, (the bones of) your sons and daughters instead of barley rations, and not even the (first) joint of your finger should be able to dip into the dough, may the .

"[69] Exodus 12:5–6, Leviticus 23:5, and Numbers 9:3 and 5, and 28:16 direct "Passover" to take place on the evening of the fourteenth of Aviv (Nisan in the Hebrew calendar after the Babylonian captivity).

Sommer did not find such a disagreement in this ancient Jewish literature surprising, arguing that two groups in the Biblical period agreed that the Passover sacrifice was important but disagreed on its precise details.

[74] The parashah is discussed in these rabbinic sources from the era of the Mishnah and the Talmud:[75] Reading Exodus 12:1, 43, and 50, a midrash taught that in 18 verses, Scripture places Moses and Aaron (the instruments of Israel's deliverance) on an equal footing (reporting that God spoke to both of them alike),[76] and thus there are 18 benedictions in the Amidah.

[78] Rabbi Joḥanan asked whether God's words in Exodus 10:1, "For I have hardened his heart," did not provide heretics with ground for arguing that Pharaoh had no means of repenting.

The midrash taught that the expression "I hardened" (הִכְבַּדְתִּי‎, hichbad'ti) implied that God made Pharaoh's heart like a liver (כָּבֵד‎, kaveid), which stiffens (and becomes unabsorbent) if boiled a second time.

[81] Reading the words "My signs (אֹתֹתַי‎, ototai) in the midst of them" in Exodus 10:1, Rabbi Judah ben Simon taught that God inscribed the letters of the plagues on their very bodies.

[96] A midrash taught that God brought darkness upon the people in Exodus 10:21–23 because some Israelite transgressors had Egyptian patrons, lived in affluence and honor, and were unwilling to leave Egypt.

[128] The Mishnah taught that during the entire time that one was permitted to eat leavened food, one was allowed to feed it to cattle, beasts, and birds; sell it to a gentile; and otherwise to benefit from it.

[130] The Mishnah taught that the grains with which one could discharge one's obligation (pursuant to Exodus 12:18) to eat unleavened bread (מַצָּה‎, matzah) on Passover included wheat, barley, spelt, rye, and oats.

Rabbi Eleazar bar Zadok taught that one had to destroy consecrated meat before the Sabbath (because if any was left, none could eat it), and unconsecrated food at its usual time (because one could easily find eaters for it).

And Rabbi Abuna bar Sehorah questioned the argument of the House of Shammai, as one will already have mentioned the Exodus from Egypt in the Sanctification blessing said over a cup at the seder's beginning.

[184] Rav Joseph interpreted the words of Exodus 12:22, "And none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning," to teach that once God has granted permission to the Destroyer, he does not distinguish between righteous and wicked.

The Egyptian men had thought that a man who had four or five sons would have lost only the eldest, in accord with the warning of Moses in Exodus 11:5 that "the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die."

And Exodus 12:37 records that "the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about 600,000 men on foot," demonstrating that Moses took responsibility for the Israelites in Egypt by number.

God then prompted each of the elders to conceive the same idea and not to follow the Masoretic Text in their translation in several cases, including Exodus 12:40, "And the abode of the children of Israel which they stayed in Egypt and in other lands was 400 years."

[202] The Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer read Exodus 12:51 to say, "And it came to pass at the essential part of the day, that the Lord did bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts."

[237] John J. Collins reported that some scholars have suggested that the plague stories contain a reminiscence of a mid-fourteenth century BCE epidemic referred to as "the Asiatic illness.

[242] Gunther Plaut reported that scholars generally agree that the term "Hebrew" (עִברִי‎, Ivri), as in Exodus 10:3, came from the name of a group called Habiru or Apiru, people who had lost their status in the community from which they came, and who were not necessarily related except by common fate.

[249] Julius Wellhausen conceived of early Israelite religion as linked to nature's annual cycle and believed that Scripture only later connected the festivals to historical events like the Exodus from Egypt.

James Kugel reported that modern scholars generally agreed that Passover reflects two originally separate holidays arising out of the annual harvest cycle.

Collins argued that all we can really say is that the biblical Exodus account was written some time after the building of Pi-Ramesse and Per-Atum, and possibly that the author knew of a tradition associating Semitic laborers with those cities.

And Finkelstein and Silberman reported that the abundant Egyptian sources describing the time of the New Kingdom of Egypt in general and the thirteenth century in particular make no reference to the Israelites.

Finkelstein and Silberman concluded that based on the evidence at the specific sites where Numbers 33 says that the Israelites camped for extended periods during their wandering in the desert (and where some archaeological indication—if present—would almost certainly be found), a mass Exodus did not happen at the time and in the manner described in the Bible.

[255] Sarna wrote that in many ancient cultures, the miracle of new life was considered a divine gift and nature endowed the first fruits of the soil and animal and human fertility with intrinsic holiness.

[257] Ephraim Speiser wrote that the word "Torah" (תּוֹרָה‎) is based on a verbal stem signifying "to teach, guide," and the like, and the derived noun can carry a variety of meanings.

Speiser argued that when the noun is applied to God in Exodus 13:9, its connotation is broadened to embrace a cherished way of life, but cannot be mistaken for the title of the Pentateuch as a whole.

[261] According to Sefer ha-Chinuch, there are 9 positive and 11 negative commandments in the parashah:[262] Reading the Passover Haggadah, in the magid section of the Seder, many Jews remove drops of wine from their cups for each of the ten plagues in Exodus 7:14–12:29 to show their joy is lessened due to the suffering of the Egyptians.

[283] Also in the magid section, the Haggadah quotes Exodus 12:27 to answer the question: For what purpose did the Israelites eat the Passover offering at the time of the Temple in Jerusalem?