Bo 5761
Jan 28 - Feb 03, 2001 by Reb Yosef

God Works Miracles and We Remember

This is the Parashah that tells the story of the Exodus from Mitzrayim (Egypt).  What can we most learn from this?  We can learn about Pesach and the Seder.  After all, this is where the Seder comes from. 

Here is what the Torah says: 

14. This day shall become a remembrance for you and you shall celebrate it as a festival for Hashem; for your generations, as an eternal decree shall you celebrate it:

15. For a seven-day period shall you eat matzos, but on the previous day you shall nullify the leaven from your homes; for anyone who eats leavened food -- that soul shall be cut off from Israel, from the first day to the seventh day:

16. On the first day shall be a holy convocation and on the seventh day shall be a holy convocation for you, no work may be done on them, except for what must be eaten for any person -- only that may be done for you:

17. You shall safeguard the matzos, for on this very day I will have taken your legions out of the land of Egypt; you shall observe this day for your generations as an eternal decree:

18. On the first day, on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening shall you eat matzos, until the twenty-first day of the month in the evening:

19. For seven days, leaven may not be found in your houses, for anyone who eats leavening -- that soul shall be cut off from the assembly of Israel, whether a convert or a native of the land:

20. You shall not eat any leavening; in all your dwellings shall you eat matzos: 

There is a great deal that we can learn from this.  Most important is that we, as Jews, have been carrying on this tradition, remembering God's miracles, for over 3,000 years.  Even more important, very little has changed in how we remember.  For all that time, we have cleaned our homes and gotten rid of all the leaven.  For all that time, we have been telling the story through the Seder.  For all that time, we have been keeping this commandment of God.  Perhaps this year, when you listen to the Seder, you can think of this idea.  That for over 3,000 years, the Children of Yisrael (you and me) have been thanking God for His miracles by telling, and in some ways reliving, the story of those miracles. 

________

Translations in Torah Portions of the week are partially taken from the ArtScroll Stone Edition Chumash and from Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch Chumash

Back to Torah Portions Archive
click here or Torah for Tots