Shevat 5, 5776/January 15, 2016
Suddenly, in this week's Torah reading, Bo, after delivering nine straight devastating blows to the Egyptians way of life, their livelihood, their possessions, their livestock and food supply, their way of perceiving the world, their belief system, their sense of self and leaving their faith shaken and shattered, G-d calls for a time out, and focuses His attention on the children of Israel. He instructs Israel to mark the upcoming new moon, and fourteen days hence to slaughter the lambs that they will have acquired on the tenth of the month. This is the Korban Pesach - the Passover offering. G-d makes it clear that the Korban Pesach is Israel's ticket out of Egypt. Those who slaughter their lamb as commanded and smear the blood of the lamb on their doorposts will be spared when G-d releases His destroying angel to kill the first-born of every household in Egypt.
In the end, even after all ten plagues have made a mockery of Egypt and Pharaoh, it was Israel that had to achieve its own redemption by performing the Korban Pesach. But if the act of the Korban Pesach was the actual catalyst that compelled Pharaoh to release Israel, then why did G-d put everyone, Egyptian and Israelite alike, through the tension and turmoil of the ten plagues? Just slaughter the lamb and go. It is commonly understood that G-d performed His great display of awesome power for the benefit of all humanity, so that all humanity would understand that there is but One G-d , and that it is His will which will be fulfilled. But after each plague, no matter how destructive, Pharaoh would first consent to letting Israel go, and then he would repent and deny Israel. Even after the final and most crushing of plagues, the killing of the first-born, after Pharaoh finally relented and allowed Israel to leave, he soon 'repented' and gave chase with his entire army.
Ultimately, the ten plagues that reduced Egypt to ruins, were intended for the benefit of Israel. G-d could compel Pharaoh to harden his heart. That was easy. But what about Israel? G-d created a chain of events that left Israel in a very enviable but nevertheless perilous position. Israel was untouched by the fury of G-d's plagues, and for the moment the Egyptian people were in awe of Israel, just as G-d had said they would be. But how long would the admiration last, and when would it turn to murderous rage against the Israelites whose G-d so devastated Egypt? By calling upon Israel to perform the Korban Pesach G-d was bringing the crisis to its climax. Once Israel had slaughtered their lambs, a creature sacred to the Egyptians, their lives would no longer be safe in Egypt. They would have to leave, and leave in a hurry. The ten plagues compelled Israel to take fate into its own hands, to perform the Korban Pesach and all the other commandments that accompanied the Passover offering, and to follow G-d out into the wilderness, leaving every familiar thing behind.
There is a Midrash which describes the birth of a child. The child, while still in its mother's womb, is taught by an angel the entire Torah, including all the secrets of the universe. Just before the child is to be born, the same angel strikes the child on his upper lip, thus causing the child to forget all that he has learned. In the following moment the child emerges from his mother's womb into the world. But while the child's Torah knowledge is forgotten it nevertheless has made a permanent and indelible imprint upon the child's soul and psyche that will be with him throughout his entire life. The learning of Torah, the burning desire to understand G-d's will and His world will be with the child all throughout life and every grain of knowledge acquired will be another step on the road to regaining the knowledge that the child once possessed, to returning to one's true self.
The performing of the Korban Pesach while still in Egypt, still under the thumb of Pharoah, was the equivalent of the child's acquisition of his pre-birth knowledge of Torah. It changes Israel forever, it becomes embedded on Israel's spiritual DNA, it is the secret to who Israel is. There is no understanding the nation of Israel, its way of life, its way of perceiving the world, its faith and its purpose without understanding the secret of theKorban Pesach.
But like the child, we forgot, after emerging from Egypt, what is the Korban Pesach. This is why every Jew in every generation is commanded to perform his and her own Korban Pesach, in order to stir within us once again that moment when there was only G-d and Israel in the world, when all that mattered was G-d's will and Israel's performance of it. G-d commands us not just to re-experience the Korban Pesach each year, but to teach its all-encompassing importance to our identity as Jews: "And it will come to pass if your children say to you, What is this service to you? you shall say, It is a Passover offering to HaShem, for He passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, and He saved our houses. And the people kneeled and prostrated themselves." (Exodus 12:26-27)
For two thousand years, since the destruction of the Holy Temple, the Jews have been performing the Passover service without the Korban Pesach. Our children have been asking what the Korban Pesach is and we can't possibly answer them because we don't have the Korban Pesach. The secret of the Korban Pesach, and ultimately, the secret of who we, the children of Israel are, as individuals and as a nation, can only be unlocked by the actual fulfillment of the commandment to "Draw forth and acquire for yourselves sheep for your families and slaughter the Passover offering." (ibid 12:21) Once again, in our generation G-d has performed countless miracles for the children of Israel, gathering us up from the four corners of the earth and bringing us back to the land He promised. With an outstretched hand He has delivered Israel from the armies and the intrigues of its enemies. He has returned Israel to Jerusalem and to the Temple Mount, the place of the Holy Temple, the place in which we are commanded to bring our lambs every year and to perform the Korban Pesach, to rediscover ourselves and the secret of who we are and to teach our children well.
"And it shall be to you as a sign upon your hand and as a remembrance between your eyes, in order that the law of HaShem shall be in your mouth, for with a mighty handHaShem took you out of Egypt." (ibid 13:9) May we merit to perform the Korban Pesachthis year in Jerusalem!
-The Temple Institute
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