Parashat: Bo

Parashat: Bo
Torah Reading: Exodus 10:1–13:16

“This month shall mark for you the beginning of the months; it shall be the first of the months of the year for you”

— Exodus 12:2

The medieval commentator Rashi asked rhetorically why the Torah did not start with this verse, as this is the first commandment given to the Israelite people as a whole. The Israelites are about to depart Egypt and this commandment is the first in a list of instructions on preparing for the final plague on Egypt. Rashi answers his own question, saying that the first part of the Torah is necessary to show God as the creator of world, and as the one who chose Abraham and then the people of Israel to receive the Torah. Only by establishing God’s sovereignty do the commandments that follow both in this chapter and in the remainder of the Torah have any meaning. Therefore, when we learn Torah, we affirm not only our responsibility to the commandments as we understand them, but also our role in being that light to the nations God told Abraham we would be.

— Rabbi Daniel Plotkin