Darkness Before Light
By Rabbi David Polsky

Rosh Chodesh Shevat, which fell this past Tuesday, coincides with the week’s reading of parashat Bo. In the parasha we read the very first commandment given to the Jewish people, the commandment of setting up and sanctifying the Jewish calendar. This calendar is lunar-based, which conveys a profound message. Rabbi Simon, a Rosh Yeshiva at Yeshiva University notes that through the lunar month, the moon grows bigger but then shrinks. Only after the moon completely disappears does the new moon begin. In fact, the law states that the Jewish people are forbidden to sanctify the new month until the old moon vanishes.

This ebbing and flowing of the moon perfectly expresses the life of the Jewish people. Our fortunes rise, but then fall. Just as our hopes seem neigh, we prosper again. It often seems that it is only after we pass the nadir that we are able to succeed again. Just as an old building must be completely uprooted before a new building can be built in its place, the Jewish people sometimes must suffer before eventually being redeemed.

On Parash Bo
From Frameworks by Rabbi Matis Weinberg

Centuries of preparations and a year of crises come to a climax in Bo: At the precise conclusion of four hundred and thirty years, on that very day, all of the company of God left Egypt (12:41). But the parasha is more than a culmination of earlier approaches to ge'ula (redemption), taking a dramatic new tack: for the first time, the people of Yisrael become decisively involved in their own liberation. They need to pledge themselves to freedom and Jewish identity, literally "bonding themselves in blood": The blood of milah and the Paschal blood on the mezuzah become vivid historical associations. They must confront their erstwhile masters in the public slaughtering of Egypt's sacred calves and in requisitioning Egyptian wealth. The role of Moshe also changes from messiah to teacher of Yisrael - he is now and forever Moshe Rabbeinu, and the mitzvot he teaches emphasize a commitment to bequeath and communicate Jewish identity to future generations. Pesach becomes in Bo the anchor not only of Jewish mythos and freedom, but of Jewish education and future: When your child will ask in times to come...you must explain (13:14).