BO 1986

In the Torah portion Bo we learn about the last three plagues, about the locusts, the darkness, and the killing of the firstborn.  The first nine plagues could be called natural plagues because they could be explained naturally.  The last plague was a supernatural plague because we know of no disease which just strikes the firstborn.  It is hard to understand why the last natural plague should have been a plague of darkness.  Why should darkness be so bad?  People should just stay without light for a few days.  It has happened in other circumstances after a volcano when the skies would grow dark for a few days.

Also, when the Jewish people left Egypt they asked their neighbors for vessels of gold and silver, and the Torah says G-d gave favor to the eyes of the Egyptians and the people willingly gave them their gold and silver.  Why should this be?  How come the Egyptians gave them willingly their gold and silver?  Of course, you could say that they were glad to get rid of them.  They were so frightened of the plagues that they just chased them out.  But that would not explain why they did it with favor.  One of the most depressing experiences is to have your whole world view collapse.  Pharaoh thought he was doing the right thing; so did his people.  After all, slavery was a necessary institution.  Much later Plato and Aristotle said the same thing.  We tend to think that ancient Greece was a democracy.  It was not.  It was a slave state.  90% of the people were slaves and those that were not had to conform to what the state wanted them to do otherwise they were killed or had to leave.  Even Socrates had to take poison when he refused to worship the Greek gods.

In ancient days slavery was thought to be an important and necessary institution.  Pharaoh was, after all, a liberal ruler.  He gave his slaves one day off out of seven.  He did not kill Moshe and Aaron when they made their demands.  Only right after the plague of darkness did he tell them to never come see him again or he would kill them.  Pharaoh's heart was hard because he was able to justify all his actions until the plague of darkness.  This darkness was really a depression.  His whole world view had collapsed and, as often happens when a person's world view collapses, he turned to violence because his frustration is so great.  That's why he told Moshe and Aaron if they came to see him again he would kill them.

The rabbis explain that when it says "into all Israel there was light in their habitation" it means in the habitation of the Egyptians.  The Jewish people were going to the Egyptians in this period of their great depression and trying to explain that there was another world view.  They were helping them construct a world view not based on slavery.  We see today among the farmers in the United States how even though they are doing what they are supposed to be doing, working hard and diligently, they are failing.  Many of them are turning to violence the frustration is so great.  In Israel, too, we see a few people turning to Meir Kahane for the same reason.  The frustration is so great.  They have tried everything to make peace but the Arabs will not budge.  Meir Kahane is very dangerous because he clothes his political views in the garb of religion.  If Judaism is what Meir Kahane says Judaism is, then even I could not be Jewish.  He completely quotes out of context like the Jews for Jesus.  He is dangerous because anti-Semites throughout the world can quote him and say, "I told you so.  This is really what Judaism is about."

I am reminded of the story they tell about a fellow who came into a kosher restaurant and there he was waited upon by a Chinese waiter.  This was not so unusual because, after all, kosher restaurants hire everybody, but the Chinese waiter spoke perfect Yiddish.  The man was amazed.  He went to the owner and said, "Where did you ever get a Chinese waiter who could speak Yiddish?"  The owner said, "Sh, sh."  The man said, "Why sh, sh?"  The owner answered, "Because he thinks he is learning English."  People who listen to Meir Kahane might think they are learning Judaism.  They are not.  All they are learning is racism.