Daily Chumash & Rashi – Parshas Bo Chamishi: Moshe instructs the Jewish people regarding the Pesach lamb and the upcoming plague (Thursday, 4th Shevat )

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Chamishi

  1. Moshe instructs the Jewish people regarding the Pesach lamb and the upcoming plague:
  • Moshe summoned all the elders of Israel and instructed them: Each family should take for themselves one of the flock, and slaughter it as a Pesach offering. You shall take a bundle of hyssop and dip it into the blood that is in the basin, and touch with it the lintel and the two doorposts.
  • Not to leave home: No man may leave his house until the morning. Hashem will pass through Egypt and smite it, and when he sees the blood on your doorposts, the blood will prevent the plague from entering your home.
  • You shall guard the above [Pesach sacrifice] as a statute for all generations. When you arrive to the promised land and you follow these laws, your children will ask you why it [i.e. the Pesach sacrifice] is done, and you shall inform them that it is in commemoration of the fact that Hashem smit the Egyptians and passed over the Jewish houses.
  • The Jewish nation bowed and prostrated and they went to do that which Hashem commanded through Moshe and Aaron.

Q&A from Rashi

Q1: What does “מִשְׁכוּ וּקְחוּ” mean (12:21)?

A:

  • מִשְׁכוּ – “Draw”: If you already own flocks, draw one of your own.
  • וּקְחוּ – “Take”: If you don’t own flocks, acquire one from the market.
    Rashi also notes the deeper meaning: “Draw yourselves away from idolatry.”

 

Q2: Why does the verse repeat “in the basin” regarding the blood (12:22)?

A: To teach that each application (lintel and two doorposts) requires its own dipping in the blood, not just one dipping for all.

 

Q3: Why were they commanded not to leave their homes until morning (12:22)?

A: Because once the destroying angel is given permission to harm, it does not distinguish between righteous and wicked. Nighttime is when destructive forces roam freely.

 

Q4: What does “וּפָסַח” mean (12:23)?

A: It means “He will have pity,” and also “He will skip over”—God will pass over Israelite homes while striking Egyptian homes.

 

Q5: Why does the Torah say “He will not give the destroying angel” (12:23)?

A: It means God will not allow the angel to enter the houses, similar to “God did not let him harm me” (Gen. 31:7).

 

Q6: Why is the observance of this mitzvah linked to entering the Land (12:25)?

A: Because the Passover service was obligatory only once they entered the Land, except for the one Passover they observed in the second year after the Exodus by explicit command.

 

Q7: Why did the people bow down (12:27)?

A: In gratitude for three things:

  1. The news of redemption.
  2. The promise of entering the Land.
  3. The assurance that they would have children.

 

Q8: Why does the Torah say “they went and did so” even before the 10th and 14th of Nisan (12:28)?

A: Because once they accepted the command, Scripture considers it as if they had already fulfilled it. They even received reward for going and for doing.

About The Author

Rabbi Yaakov Goldstein is a 6th generation descendent of the famous Chief Rabbi of Izhmir, Rav Yehoshua Avraham Krispin, who authored a number of Sefarim, and was a colleague of Rav Chaim Falagi, and father in-law of the Pesach Hadvir. He currently lives with his wife Shayna, and twelve children K”H, in Tzfas, Israel. Rabbi Goldstein received Semicha from Rabbi Schneur Zalman Labkowski of the Tomchei Temimim headquarters in 2005 and served as a chaplain in the Lotar/Kalatz and K9 unit of the IDF from years 2005-2008. He is also a certified Shochet, and has performed Hashgacha work in slaughterhouses. Rabbi Goldstein is the director of Shulchanaruchharav.com, the world’s leading web-based Halacha database, and is the director of the Home Study Semicha Program, a self-study web-based Semicha program. He is a prolific author of over 50 Sefarim studied by a wide range of readers throughout the world, which is used regularly in Semicha programs around the globe. He is a world renowned Posek, answering questions to a web-based market, and serves as a local Posek, Rav, and Lecturer, in the Tzemach Tzedek community Shul in Tzefas, Israel. His many classes can be heard both from his website, Vimeo and YouTube channel. Students can join live to classes given in the Tzemach Tzedek Shul, through the “בית חבד צפת Chabad Tsfat” YouTube channel.

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