Parashat Bo

Exodus 10:1-13:16

וַיֹּאמֶר יְהֹוָה אֶל־מֹשֶׁה בֹּא אֶל־פַּרְעֹה כִּי־אֲנִי הִכְבַּדְתִּי אֶת־לִבּוֹ וְאֶת־לֵב עֲבָדָיו לְמַעַן שִׁתִי אֹתֹתַי אֵלֶּה בְּקִרְבּוֹ׃

“Then G-d said to Moshe: ‘Go to Pharaoh. Because I have hardened his heart and that of his courtiers, so that I can display My signs among them (...)'”

The night before they set out to freedom from Egypt, the Israelites were called to mark the doors of his house with lamb's blood. Our sources tell us, and our sages, that marking our doors was for G-d to recognize our doors.

However, other interpretations suggest that -in reality- marking our doors was so that our ancestors could recognize themselves. So that they could see their cloudy essences. To reconnect with the free being that they always were and that, at next dawn, they would be again.

Slavery forced us into eternal passivity, which clouded the imminent possibility of an inspiring and creative freedom.

Only when we were able to bring out that light, that internal freedom, and everything that we had inside; we could be free.

Perhaps that hardening of Pharaoh's heart was the trigger that allowed us to rediscover ourselves with our true identity, with our purest essence, with the spirit creator and liberator that always characterized us.

Is there a time in your life when you have felt that G-d hardened the heart of someone against yourselves? Have you ever felt that G-d brought plagues on you, your family or even about the Jewish people? And finally, how do you think did that help to have felt that you were freed from slavery?

The invitation is to give the world everything we are, with strength, love, passion and creativity. The invitation, is to take the hardening of the heart as motivators to mark the doors of our soul and, only thus, recognize ourselves.