Exodus Cycle Three Bo 10:1 to 13:16

Bo


Bo is best known for blood on the doorposts, locusts, darkness, the slaying of the first born. For a quick back story…we’ve been stuck for 430 years in Mitzrayim (12:40). Moses has told Pharaoh to let my people go but Pharaoh, who seems to suffer from the plague of indecision, says yes, says no, says yes, says no. God meanwhile wants us to go with our sons and daughters, with our sheep and cattle…it is a festival of God to all of us…(10:9).

But from where does God want us to go? From Egypt? From the terrors of some mind-monster named Pharoah? Is that why this happens each winter and on Passover and we place two (of four) portions in our tefillin? Is it all about skidaddling away from Egyptians, or having compassion for them or blaming ourselves or our God for being harsh, angry, frightened? Is it all about running fast, killing lambs for a sacrifice? This is all important, of course...I just think there's something happening here that resonates with us on a deeper level.

Look at it from another angle. Paul Simon clinches some of Bo when he sings his well known song Thirty Ways to Leave Your Lover. Imagine the lover as Master Darkness. The problem is immediately clear: except for in B (or A) rated films there isn’t a Master Darkness. As much as we’d love him to materialize so we can skewer him, he tends to spend more time sliming about in non-material ethereal ooze. And this ooze can go oozing anywhere. As Eziekiel writes (9:4-6) Go through the midst of Jerusalem and set a mark on the foreheads…of the men that sigh and cry for all the abominations…and smite…the old (and young) men, the maidens…but not any man with the mark.

The Egyptians in other words (along with all Gnostic-influenced creatures, Gods and Goddesses of evil) are in Jerusalem…they are us, our neighbors, people we pray with, we love, we teach, we feed. Taking this even farther….open any book by Hillman, Jung or Kushner and yes….the Egyptians are within us, our bodies, our minds. Thirty Ways to Leave Your Lover therefore can be seen as a step by step exodus from the addiction of a self induced hell. And Bo, the same.

Therefore, with the help of sages, we can all see Bo as a heightened manual on catapulting our stuck selves (and lovers/friends) out of the slime-grip… So here we go:

Step One: Discernment. Focus on the distinction between your point-of-soul and the surrounding darkness (in you and in your community). Seek to make clear in the world that which the Creator already knows (Sfas Emes). Know the boundaries. This way the darkness will contribute its force to your freedom…literally ejecting you. As we read in Exodus Rabbah 14:3….the Israelites had light in all their dwellings…within barrels, boxes, chests…wherever they went.

Step Two: See the heart of darkness, know it. Make it tangible in your mind. Darkness is everywhere, on the highway, in nature, in the store, in other’s eyes, in your own. If you are aware you can shine right through. One must first set right the physical and the natural and only afterwards can we come to new insights (Sfas Emes). Keep trying. Keep seeing your own shadow as more and more solid. The plague of darkness could be touched like a coin (Exodus Rabbah 14:1).

Step Three: Listen. Get the darkness at its inception. This doesn’t mean you kill people. It means you kill the fresh instinct in you that needs to kill people/joy/love/laughter or faith. Know the dead. The wicked turn things upside down and are called dead within their lifetimes (Sfas Emes). Be aware that this stuff will be the object of the Destroyer so when it gets real bad out there you may want to pull into your light-self, hide in your houses. You may want to be real protective of the new-birth of divine sparks…mark them (Zohar).

Step Four: Timing is everything. You grow as you integrate the dying shadow. You shine bright as you buy the incense and smudge your house. You purify yourself, take part in ritual, festival, sacrifice, prayer, an eternal understanding that this is sacred. You put a boundary around the festival…watch carefully the vibrations that enter (13:43-50). Our hope is to enter the chamber, to live inside Torah….(Arthur Green in his translation/interpretation of the Sfas Emes).

Step Five….You act. As the Sfas Emes says: Truth depends upon human effort in the world of lies. You act fast, use the energy of the ejection from the darkness and let it carry you. You do it as a community, with compassion, organized, as an army of light. On that very day, God took the Israelites out of Egypt in their tsivotam…hordes (12:51).

Step Six…You have faith in your instincts. Rabbi Joshua ben Karhah points out that there is a lasting effect from every show of fierce anger in Torah (Bab Talmud Zevachim 12a). This refers to the anger of Moses at the Pharaoh (11:8) Therefore, there must be faith that every piece of the action is divine. If you know you are called by righteousness, the people will follow you (Zohar).

Step Seven…You remember. You wear this action and shine from the center of your forehead. You place it near your heart. These are your funnels, your paths, your channels, your beams to walk in through the darkness. You teach your children. This is for eternity. In Mishnah we read that a mistake in any of the four portions in tefillin impairs the validity of all four (Mishnah Menachot 3:7). Our memories are connected. We lead each other with our memory of moving from the darkness through the highest vibrations to the absolute radiance of God.

So may we never forget that we have been given ways to walk in the concealed light of God, that we have been handed the continual exodus from self-pity, self-indulgence, doubt, and fear in ourselves and in others, that we are to continually go to the mountain and serve our God, that it’s not just words, it’s in us, truth without manipulation and irony, faith without lies, discernment without self indulgence, knowledge, acceptance, courage and strength. And while some of us might lead and others might follow, we all jump on the bus Gus. We are all equal, going now and forever to receive the beauty an love of Torah.