Modern Masters: Parshat Bo | Rabbi Sam Shor | January 20th 2026

So Rabbi Golden who normally teaches in this slot his series is called in the para and my series no matter where I teach throughout the week I typically call modern masters. Again in my course we focus on masters of Jewish thought particularly of the 20th and 21st century. Sometimes we go back a little bit earlier than that but it's primarily focused on masters of Jewish thought. So today we're going to do a little bit of a comino. We're going to do a modern master's class about parad. So this way those that came for a parha shir you're at least getting a paraset. So we're going to just jump right in. We know that para of course contains within it the instruction to offer the carbon pes and of course the the account of the first carbon p that's offered in mit. So, we're going to just take a jump right into where the you see on our sheets. And Moshe called out to the elders of the Jewish people and he spoke to them. Okay? You shall draw forth and take for yourselves a a lamb lambs for each of your families. And you shall you shall sacrifice the carbon. Okay? And you shall take a bundle of zatar leaves, right? And you shall you shall dump kind of dip them in the blood that from the meaning the blood that's been gathered from the animals that you've you've you've sacrificed. Okay? And that and the blood that's been placed in the bas basin. You shall dip that bundle of leaves into the basin that's full of blood. And you shall take the blood, okay, that was in that in that basin that you've now dipped that bundle of leaves into. And you take that bundle of leaves and you paint the door frame, okay, around your household. And no one from your household should leave. Okay. During the during this time, all right, until the morning. And when God comes to strike to bring the plague of death upon the firstborn of Mitim, he'll see the blood on the entryway to your your homes and he will pass over your homes and he will not allow the destroyer meaning the angel of death so to speak to descend upon this household. So the obvious question, we're going to come back to this question, is does Hashem really need us to see to to put to put a sign on the doorposts? Does Hashem really need to see the blood on the doorpost to know that this household is a Jewish household? And the answer obviously is what? >> No. So what is the significance of this act, the symbolism of this act of taking the blood from the carbon pes and painting the doorpost? We're going to come back to that question. Okay. And then he continues, you shall keep this this concept, okay? This aod this work, this sacrifice, this sacrificial right for you and your children for all generations for all eternity. Well, now there's another question. What are you supposed to do for all eternity? Here we're offering the carbon without a mdash without a mish without a mdash. So how come today what >> we don't it's supposed to be something it's eternal and in the first carbon p was offered without a mish without mikdash how come today in the absence of mikdash we don't sacrifice the carbon p okay we there are many answers I don't know if we'll get to all of them today but hopefully we'll touch on that okay and then it says so it'll be when you come to the land that you come to the that promised you as Hashem spoke of and you shall continue with this practice, okay, of bringing the carbon and when your children come to and say to you, what is this service, this sacrificial right to you? Now, why is that familiar to all of us? >> The Hagada, right? the second child in the Hagad of the Rasha that we spoke about briefly last week, right? The Rasha uses this Puk seemingly in a ci in a cynical way to respond and say, "What is this sacrifice and this whole carbon pes that you you guys are involved in that you're involved in?" Okay? Right. You and not him, right? We should say to him, "This is the sacrifice, the pascal sacrifice unto God once again because God passed over our homes when he struck when he struck and our homes were saved." Okay. So those are the psuki introducing the concept to carbak the symbolism of painting painting the doorposts and also there's another very very famous question that rashi addresses and that is that the opening pass of mish those two words mish and seem at face value as what almost synonyms okay mish means to take out or to draw forth and means to take. So draw out and take they seem pretty much like synonyms. So the famous comment of Rashi we all know text B text two on our sheets what is it? Someone who already has livestock of their own you should take one of his own. Okay. And if you don't yet have your own livestock, you have to go and purchase one and take one from the market. Meaning everyone is required to participate in this this sacrificial right of the carbon pes whether we already own livestock of our own or not. And therefore that's what the teaching us. If we already own if we already own livestock then we pick one from amongst the livestock we already own and if we don't yet own livestock then what we have to go to the shook and take one home take one home to our homes that's rashi okay so the meda which we're going to learn in text number three offers us a different interpretation of of why the P lab. Why the P uses these two words that seem synonymous with one another. If you take a look at the end of the second line here in text number three, Hashem spoke to Mosh. This is the call. The entire time that the Jewish people continued to in some way be involved with the idolatric idolatrous worship of they were not redeemed. You shall go and speak to them and say to them that you should go and tell them what change your wicked ways and reject the idolatry of Egypt. And this is the meaning of our first what? Take your hands away from idolatry and then and only then what? Take a [snorts] lamb and offer it. And what does the measure say? What's the symbol the added symbolism of taking a lamb? We're shifting so to speak what one of the gods of the mitzv apparently mit one of their the one of the forms of idolatry of the mitzv was that they worshiped the lamb and therefore the symbolism of taking taking the carba pesak is twofold. Number one, it's taking our hands, pulling our hands. That's Mishk, drawing away from the zara of the idolatrous ways of and then and then and only then taking on the mitzvah of and in so doing says the medish we are symbolically what rejecting the idolatry by shing the the symbol of that idolatry by sheing a lamb. Okay. So before we get to some of the other modern masters that are on your sheet, um there's one modern master that did not make the sheets because I saw it yesterday after we printed them. Um [snorts] this is Rab Moshv Kabrin. Capri was aidic master who lived in the 19th century and he speaks about this this medish that we just learned the okay explained the verse that first we have to take away our hands from and then the verse is okay and you shall take for yourself yourselves a a a lamb for your families okay and he says the word Men, okay, is are the same letters that make up the word meaning who's the melashem for your families. That the first stage before we can be redeemed from is to what? ratify together as a family. Declare unequivocally together as a household that who's the mel not parro is not our mel who's our mel. Okay. And therefore we're going to commit to live lives of and also what love for our fellow Jew. That's the idea of the carb being of eating together not as individuals but as a family or as a group of families. Why? In order that we do could cultivate immediately that part of our service is what not only to to show our love and and dedication to Hashem but to show our love and dedication to every member of Israel. Therefore the encrypted in this puk says the rebi of kabrin is this very very fundamental message that if we want to reject parro as our mel and take as our melik then it's not just making that declaration as an intellectual you know um uh uh statement it's what it's changing the way we relate to one another it's the capacity if we want to serve the ultimate king we have to see what the divinity and age with every single member of Israel. If every single member of Kal is indeed a a portion of divinity from above, then therefore if we want to serve Hashem and we want to express our love of fidelity to Hashem, we have to what? Similarly, express our love of fidelity for every member of Israel. So the the Rebi of Kabrin sees encrypted in his Pekk that beautiful fundamental message as as the necessary first stage towards what towards outright rejection of the idolatrous ways of Egypt. Okay. So now let's turn our pages over. We're now going to learn from from the Rambam and the Marim. You guys have been learning a lot of Rambam lately with Rabbi with Rabbi Brightawitz. Um, the Rama, of course, in the Moora is his great philosophical work, his great theological work. And the Rama in the Mora says the following. Again, the Rama wrote the Moa in in uh in in um Arabic. So, if we're already going to translate the Mora from the original, we may as well translate direct to English instead of going to Hebrew for us to then translate it to English. Okay? So, the this is what the Rambam writes. The Egyptians were accustomed to worshiping the zodiacal sign of the lamb. Okay? That was why they forbad the slaughter of cattle and despised shepherds. The text [snorts] alludes to this. If we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before the very eyes, will they not stone us? For this reason, we were commanded to slaughter a lamb of Pesak and sprinkle its blood in Egypt on the doors outside to cleanse ourselves of these ideas and demonstrate publicly our rejection of them. Now, the Rambam here makes something very says something very powerful, beautiful. The blood is placed not as a reminder for us on the inside of our house but what why is on the doorway to suggest that what what is remaining outside the household the idolatry of its okay we put the blood of the animal that they worship to say what and we put it on the doorpost to say inside this house there's no idolatry okay only outside the house there's idolatry that's the symbolism says the rabb of putting the blood on the doorpost. This would lead to the conviction that what had been considered lethal was now the source of deliverance. The Lord passed over the doorways and did not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to do your harm in reward for your performance of rights repugnant to the worshipper of idols. For this courageous stand of what? of rejecting the idolatrous ways of Egypt and stating unequivocally for the whole world to see that the idolatry stops where at our at our front door. We're not going to allow that idolatry to penetrate our homes for that courageous acts as the Ram. We were za we merited gula redemption. Okay. He says that's the significance of placing the door the blood in the doorpost and that Hashem should see the blood. It's not that Hashem needs to see the blood. It's what? It's that that act that demonstrative act of of total that we're going to do something that otherwise would get us in such trouble. But we're saying no, we're no longer to the we're nowad to the and therefore the idolatry of is not going to penetrate our homes. It's going to stop at the doorway to our homes. And through that courageous act, says the says the rabb to experience redemption from Egypt. Okay, we know there's a PK a very familiar PK that we all know inim that first what first you have to what comes first? First you have to turn away from Rah and then you can do good shalom and you should seek shalom and pursue it. Now we all know that we translate the word shalom to mean peace. But in reality, shalom is actually according to the mikubaleim is one of the names of Hashem. So seek God and pursue a relationship with God. Where does it start with? First, you have to reject, turn away from that which is wicked. And then and only then and only then can you do good. And we see we're going to look at two different modern masters, two different masters of the 20th century that kind of jump off from this. We're first going to learn in text number six from the kajnit, the rebi of kaj who we've learned together from over the past few weeks here in this in this forum and the kaj says our and he quotes the famous rashi. Okay. The rashi brings the the words of the medish explained. First you have to what? Take your hands away from and then and only then can you offer do the mitzvah of the we learn from this. Who who sorry [snorts] first? What do you have to do first? The first thing we need to do if we want to serve God is what? Distance ourselves from idolatry. That's the first thing we need to do. And that's a manifestation of what? Taking ourselves away, turning away from ra from that which is evil. Then and only then can we come close to holiness. And that is the idea of what? Doing good. Now listen to what he says here. He brings a very interesting garami. He says it's a famous garus in the if a person is holding on to a sheret which means a some kind of rodent some kind of impure impure animal. Okay. As long as they're holding on to that impurity, doesn't matter what they immerse themselves in, what mikvah they immerse themselves in, even the the waters of creation, okay? As long as they're holding on to that sherit, they will never become pure. Okay? And then he says, "But if you let go of that sher, as soon as you let go of that sher, you immediately become purified." Okay. That's the end of the gum. He says, "Therefore, what do we learn from this gamarra?" Says the rebi of kajnitz. The first thing we need to do is what? distance ourselves from impurity and evil in order that what we shouldn't go through life with the experience of what being toll being immersed in the waters of holiness of the mik proverbial mikvah while still holding on to what that sherit that impure animal meaning the first step in a vote has to be what letting go of that which is ra that which is a voda zar that which is foreign to us and by the way in text number seven the the he's actually going to take that in this in that exact direction okay what does it mean that first you have to let go of avodazar what is avodazar we translate as idolatry but you'll see that the basav actually has a very very l looser definition or more or more original definition in terms of what is listen to this is text number seven. So he says quoting our same he says there it's already been taught by many many great sadik and he quotes the of Chernobyl. Okay shalom is okay. What does it mean that first the Jews had to reject the vot of the avotazar of Egypt? He said, "God forbid that we should think for a moment," says the Reb Chernobyl, that what that the Jews that were enslaved in Mitim were actually engaged in idolatrous acts. God forbid that they actually worshiped the gods of Mit. He says he says not that they were actually involved in actual idolatrous works but any task any any activity that we are engaged in that are that are what inappropriate or foreign to you as a Jew that is considered avo you know offering sacrifice to the statues of Egypt. No, that's not what it means. It means that what? Because we were enslaved to Malik to borrow, we couldn't truly what serve Hashem in the way we were meant to. Okay? And says the Rebi of Chernobyl. Any avod, any avod that is, any service that is foreign to you, that is, you know, foreign to us as a Jew, that could also be likened to as the holy taught us, may his be bestowed upon us. Whose phone is that? You can just please shut the phone. Okay. As holy bashett taught us may his mer upon us on the vart from and you shall if you turn if if you turn and what serve other gods that if what if our mind means what doesn't mean to physically turn it means what that for a moment to to lapse our consciousness and if in that moment okay we turn away for a moment moment in terms of understanding that our role here in this world is to serve the that says the says the take questions at the end that says is already what we could call based on the because you lost your kavana you lost your focus okay our every every act that we do needs to be shim Okay. that even if we what simply turn for a moment if we lose that sense of consciousness that sense of purpose in terms of what we're meant to do here in this world our role here in this world is to be that pipeline to bring an awareness of to the world around us to be that pipeline to bring kadusha holiness to the world around us to emulate the ways of Hashem to be Hashem's partners in improving better in this world and if we don't have that nikuda okay that that important fundamental idea ingrained in our minds every single moment of every single day that that's our purpose. So according to we we lose that that sense of mission even for a moment that could be likened to what aazar is not solely actual idolatry it's what conduct activity that is z is foreign to us as a Jew because our purpose is what to serve hashem with everything that we do and with every fiber of our being. We'll take questions at the end. Okay. So, Reersh take a look at text number nine. Reverse and reverse many wrote many many works as we know the great 19th century leader of German jewelry and Frankfurt Alman and Rahers of course wrote most of his commentaries in in German. So, we learn them in English because we're already going to translate like we said earlier about the mo. We'll say the same thing about Rahers. And Rahers and Kore writes the following. He says behind the substance of the beings around you, you should discern the lawgiver whose law is unchangeable because his ever presence keeps it so. Meaning in everything that we see in the world, what else do we need to perceive always and what who who and what has to be on our consciousness in all circumstances says okay one can reach now listen what he says. One can reach idolatry or rather polytheism directly through the eye and the understanding of the senses. If Torah does not reveal to you the one and only God with your eyes and understanding you behold only specific beings and activities but not the invincible one, the invisible one, sorry, the source of all law and nature. H says that what what is idol? How can you define aar and that's not always actual idolatry but what having that lapse of consciousness if we look at the world around us and we don't perceive Hashem in everything okay in such circumstances one sees gods only gods not god when they see only the individual things they don't see what the source of everything this too says of hers is aazar So the fundamental of turning away from a vodara is not necessarily mean shalom that the Jews in Mitim were actually you know offering sacrifices to the Egyptian gods but rather because they were oppressed because they were forced to serve a foreign king. Okay. And therefore their survival day in day out maybe they didn't they didn't have Hashem on their mind at all at all moments and they didn't realize that who's going to bring be their salv source of salvation from everything all the trauma they've experienced for those hundreds of years and therefore in order to experience the gula they first based on everything we learned together from the Rambam and from others and the modern masters they first what needed to recalibrate how they see the world. They need to reccalibrate how they appreciate the day-to-day. They had to recalibrate in terms of who they need to turn to for their sustenance and salvation. Okay? And therefore, it's a message for all eternity. A Jew always has to have on their minds and in their consciousness, front and center, the hakara in the awareness that Hashem runs the world. Okay. So, now we're going to take this in a slight just to bring this all together. We're going to take this in a slightly different direction. We we we looked one one of the last pukim that we looked at in theim of of the of the carbon p is the and we discussed how that puk is familiar to most of us from the p when the hagada talks about the the wayward son the rasher the wicked son the son that seems to be what different than all of us so last week over the past number of weeks we've learned Torah from the oh yakov the rebi ofatan the lovingly called the admir at the who came at aliad to isel in 1938 and lives the last 19 years of his life in downtown Tel Aviv we're going to learn a short little piece from yal yakov which focuses on our puk what does it mean when your children come and ask you and this is a piece that he said in I believe uh in the 1940s just before the establishment of the state of Israel but as the movement to build the state of Israel was was taking footh here init. And he says the following words we're going to skip down he we'll see where the bracket is in the second paragraph. He says, "We're gonna explain the opinion in the media." There was a good it was a good tid sign for the Jewish people at that moment when your children come and ask. Now we we tend to think of that question as what the coming from the perspective of the Russia. Okay. So it's a cynical question, right? But he says no, that's actually a good sign. Okay. Why was it a good sign? Okay. And he says at that moment why because Hashem answered and gave you this gave you this this statement it shall be when your children come ask you what is this service to you. What do we learn from this? that even those who would ask what is this service to you they remain to be called what children they remain part of the Jewish people they remain our children even if what they've seemingly gone off and taken on their own path they've veered off the path they've stepped in the wrong direction they still remain what banim to us and banim to hem So that's the first beautiful message that the hasser brings. Now, now skip down to this the next paragraph where the brackets pick up again and he says the words but to our great despair a great portion of the youth of the younger generation here in sorry when you ask them why don't you keep shabas according to our tradition the eternal eternal covenant that made between himself and his children, the Jewish people. Why don't you refrain from eating prohibited foods, [cough] non-coosher foods that bring impurity into hearts? Why have you turned away from the ways of holiness and modesty? The signs of our nation, what makes us unique amongst the nations of the world. So, if you ask any of the people, okay, the secularists around us, why they don't keep mitzvah anymore, he says they'll they'll they'll answer us flat out either with the exact same words or something do or something similar, what is this service to you? Okay? Meaning, they're saying what you what you do is what you do or we do is what we do. Oh, so we could react to that and be become angry with them and say they're they're kofim they're they're heretics they're rejecting everything but he says we ought to recognize what and see but they also have good characteristics many of them ch even though they may not be from they still have tremendous respect for their parents okay they have love for their fellow Jew think about this kufan Jewish history where where where refugees are sneaking into coming to and everyone there's limited housing available and come out every family is taking in a distant cousin or or or or a neighbor a neighbor of their grandparents that they never met like never before they're ready to risk their lives for the nation and for the land the all these good character traits Okay. Come to testify. He says, "What do we learn? That any impurities, okay, or any any dirt dirtiness or impurities that we see amongst them, uh, okay, amongst those who are not quote classically observant. This these are only temporary. These are things that what will dissipate when Mashiach comes and they all the words of the and when we see the fulfillment of the promise that Hashem made through the words of the and I will sprinkle upon them the purifying waters and they will become purified. We'll see. that there whatever impurities they have are not permanent that if most of them for most of them okay it's what because they experienced something in their lives where they felt what abandoned by Hashem now think about that kufan Jewish history okay and what people had experienced before they came to so many who lost families either in pugramim or in the shawah. Okay, so think about when he's writing these words. He says you can't blame so many of these people who seem to have questions, who seem to have gone away from tradition. You can't blame them. They've experienced they're in so much pain. Okay? And it feels to them that what? Hashem has disappeared from their lives. And when Hashem will once again reveal his wonders before us. Okay. Okay, like he did in Mitzim. Okay, meaning when he reveals brings the miracles that are going to bring lead to Mashiach and it becomes very very clear who's orchestrating all this just like it [clears throat] happened in all them will certainly return and do complete shuva. So says the rabbi, we could look at those around us, okay, the proverbial rash that we might see, okay, that that seem to reject Torah and we could write them off shalom. Or we could look at the language of the husk and the says what? Okay. When your children come and ask you, meaning that even those who are struggling to feel that same love and fidelity and relationship with that we have, they remain children. And therefore, says the Rabbi, we never ever ever write off another Jew. But rather we believe wholeheartedly that Hashem promises us what that ultimately not only will Hashem bring that but with that gula every single one of those wayward children will come home will do chuva because every single member of Israel remains remains a child my friends as we prepare to read para to give this coming Shabbat let's take to heart all these beautiful messages the messages inherent in the sukim Okay. Related to the carbon, what it means to reject outwardly the of what it means to embrace Hashem as the melik. What it means to recognize that even when our children are asking questions that seem challenging or difficult or even cynical that we'd never write them off, we believe wholeheartedly that Hashem will indeed allow them to come close once again. And we dive for that moment where not only our children will be able to come close again, but please God, we'll be able to experience the the great mitzvah of offering the carbon pess together this year. Uh,