Parshat Bo: Signs and Wonders By Rabbi Ari Kahn

so you we are in par Bo and the year was sponsored by Ruth Kingsburg and love M we of her mother toaa Yakov ysf Toby willly on her sixth year side so I'm sure a lot of us remember Toby yeah quite quite a quite a woman and uh it's really uh really honored to give the share in her memory may her and N have Aliyah so we are in parbo let's start in the beginning Moshe ELO it's not the only B by the way it's not the only Bo El Paro if you uh if you would have noticed there there were at least one previous bow I've hearted his heart and of his servants in order for me to plant we we'll translate Oto my my signs or wonders ERS problem with calling it signs or wonders is when we get to M soon in order for me to put these signs in his midst and in order to be able to tell in the ears of your children your children's children that which I abused Egypt and the signs which I put within them the signs which I put within them and then you'll know that I'm God so if you note the difference between the otai in the first pasok and the otai in the second PUK the first one is directed towards parro and the second one is directed towards future Generations one is part of the story of leaving Egypt and the other is part of telling the story of leaving Egypt so it's just interesting how the word or the idea even of the of the oat or the for the let's right now call them the the signs the wonders if you want I'm happy to call it the plagues the only hesitation I have with calling it the plagues is noting which plagues is called an oat and which plague is not called an oat and that once again looking for consistency is going to give you some homework to do in order to try to figure out so again it continues to lay out what's going to take place the plague which then comes up is going to be let's let's read it inside if not I will bring that's in Source that's in so then this this plague will come and not and at this point the Servants of par say to him now this is fascinating how long are these people going to be for us really like a pain in our side so note when we go when we go backwards a little bit what did it say at this point his so who's the is not the Jews this is parro's I don't want to say his inner circle because for a person like parro there's two inner circles one Inner Circle I would say would be close family and advisers the other Inner Circle would be the people that clean up after him the people that do all the work in the palace and it's possible that he has to put on a much more of a brave face in front of his advisers and those kinds of people of uh of significance but the others may actually see what's going on but it is absolutely astounding that these people have the gumption to be able to stand up to parro and to say to parro listen listen it's over it's over I mean if if I didn't say this strong enough I'll I'll read it a little bit more over here where they say know how long will these people be a pain in our side they just gave him an order that that is directive that they're giving parro who gives parro directives interesting they can't say in front of parro God in an objective sense their God don't you know already that Egypt is lost so I mean what a prognosis given by these individuals and what gives them the ability to speak to parro so you can argue that that's the first p and uh I I I put again God is manipulating the heart we we noted a couple years ago that all three plagues in parad BO surround Darkness so over here the sun god being eclipsed could be something which they also find completely devastating and therefore hearing that that there will now be darkness and they understand the message and therefore the telling parro if if this is what happens then it's over because you just have completely lost your uh your street cred okay I'll say that in English you you've lost your credibility at this point and H how could you know it's just bad if you to cut your losses and let them go rather than for you to be humiliated time and time again but as I said it's interesting the otai go to Paro and to his servants and he listens to them does he have advis he has it but these are not the advisers the the these are again that's the way it sounds to me we heard about the and we we've heard previously about advisers this sounds completely different really really it sounds much different but but he listens go and serve your your God and at this point it breaks down during the negotiations and parro again gets a little bit tougher and he also says something else you're never going to see my face again which if anything is something that he'll come to regret because there will be a time he's going to be running and looking for Moshe and Aaron but as I said this section which introduces the the final scene or scenes I want to focus on the OT the the otai which were used twice over there in those first two verses one towards parro and one towards the future so let's keep that in mind we go to the second chapter which is Source number two and over here I skipped p over here as we're moving toward the end so this A little unfinished business and God instructs to go and you're going to at some point now need to go and borrow and to take the and and God says says and then we have an editorial comment and Moshe also was held in great esteem by who so again pay attention so we're going back to those same they also again remarkably or maybe not remarkably if if you want to say this is all logical so then they see his Charisma and they see his humility and they see his ability his capability and they uh and they're entranced by mosha if you want to say that this is also part of God's manipulation and therefore the hardening of the heart working in this particular direction I'm fine with that as well I'm just making the observation that this is not necessarily what you would have expected because again we they've gone through a whole bunch of plagues at this point and one could say look at Moshe he's the one who's bringing the Egyptian economy to its knees he's the one who's calling a great deal of suffering you know how is he held in great esteem but nonetheless he is and that seems to be going together with boring the money and theay and clay zahav and therefore the Jews are respected and Moshe is respected and that's what helps create this kind of uh of a situation it's then the death of the firstborn is told right we skipped a little bit but still in source to so notice again it includes it includes the servants and it includes the animals and in distinction to all of the plagues that happened to this point where maybe we would have suspected that maybe somebody along the DI along the way suffered enough and died I don't believe that there's any evidence through the first number of plagues that anybody actually died right it's only that now that we get to the death of the first born it's not just a question of economy which is falling apart all the produce being destroyed it's at this point something which is which is much different qualitatively different and that's and that's death so this is something that we touched upon a little bit last week when did things take place to both and when did things take place only to the Egyptians this one is actually be the most interesting but we're told in the very beginning that there will be a distinction and the distinction is going to be clear by them it's going to be again as we saw a total a total plague of death and over here it won't be by the Jews it won't be by their animals and it won't be whatsoever and not only that their dogs are going to behave nicely so uh again that that that's interesting but what I want to note is now the way that it ends up first of all the end of and motion now leaves which means that when pyro says you're never going to see me again he gets another message and this is the message of the death of the of the first born and therefore the Egyptians should be absolutely terrified at this point because when someone has so far been 9 for9 then uh uh you know you're on a good role here in Vegas they would have kicked him out already they would not they would not let him they would not give him a seat at the table at this point he he would have been he would have been kicked out but what I want to note as well is PED and P oh by the way he's not going to listen to you so he says in order for the Wonders to be increased in the land of Egypt and Moshe and Aron did all of these MIM so now we do have a little bit of a problem what exactly is an O and what exactly is a m because we saw the whole section was introduced with the idea of the otot of these signs and again I'll call a m to wonder and I I'm going to save you a lot of time right now I don't know the answer I uh I I I know I have a suspicion what I need to do to get to the answer but don't think I'm doing it for you if you want for your homework to go through every single time in the Torah it says o and every single time it says mate and then try to draw a distinction then uh you can let me know how that works out I I think you should also be looking in terms of the navish I think that there are other places and I'm going to I'm going to get to something else but you know give me a little while but just note for the moment that it's more ACC cute in Source number three this is back in in per so this is way in the beginning of this whole process by the way that's eventually right mosha complains he can't really speak aon's going to speak for you and then power is going to let you out but of course he doesn't say at this at this moment but we just have a whole bunch of plagues but he gives him a hint yeah but by the way I'm going to be hardening his heart which means this is not going to go the way you think and therefore there will be an increase of both the O and of the m and I'll say it again so now I'd love to know what exactly is the difference between the oat and the mate and that is something which is not immediately clear and on this P I'm not again I don't want to give the impression that I worked too hard but on this P I looked at the various commentators to see if anyone's going to make a distinction between o and mate and most actually ignored it completely ignored o ignored mate didn't bother dealing with it the malim is the exception if you look in Source number four so he says I have a thesis I think that they have to be two different things now that's why this is a meaning I could have said that back in Source number one and Source number two one place it's O and the other place it's mate I can say no will I love da again I can work on various distinctions but I can say that they're really synonymous but once I get to Source number three which is actually before all of these and it says and it says both of them then I can't just say it's synonymous because then it becomes repetitive and why is it repetitive so now again the maum says and it seems to me there has to be difference Timo faith and of course there has to be a difference between Faith that's again what's exactly what I was looking for and it's not I'm surprised that the malum said this he had to say this and then he does what I told you some people like to do and then he tries to create a big Theory right this must be what it been all over and he writes the oat does not have to be something which is Supernatural or you want me to say that in English the oat could be something which is a natural process right but it's representative of something else andate is something which is itself is absolutely shocking which means it could be again I'm I'm a little afraid to read into this too much it could be just based on what we read so far that a sign could be something which is a natural thing but happens you you know the happens timing the timing right the most important thing of of the of a miracle is timing right it's like a joke you want to say the joke right before people laugh otherwise it doesn't work at all those of you don't understand I'll explain to you later no see the thing about the timing is I remember a number of years ago there was an article in the New York Times which is based upon an article in a journal of archaeology that says that scientists theorize that the walls of Jericho fell down because of an earthquake you know as if somehow that that goes against the biblical narrative but if you walk around the city seven times and you blow the chauffeur and then an earthquake hits that my friends is a miracle not because Earth by the way they're on a fault I don't want to tell you all this things are bad enough they they're on they're on a fault there are earthquakes there every now and again and to say that there's an earthquake is is yeah that's that's a natural thing but that doesn't mean it's not a sign because when you there and you pray the walls will come down and the earthquake hits and it comes down that makes it into a miracle which means the timing is the issue over there a mate would be something which is completely against the rules of Nature and then he goes in again trying to make this distinction and he says the so he goes go back and take a look and you'll see that the terminology is different by the Jews that was called an and by and by power was called now the truth is he just now it's not so easy what he said you do realize that because he said oh it's only when it's supernatural it's to fate oh for the Jews Supernatural is natural because we're so used to Miracles so now you realize that even though he's attempting to go and again make a broad Theory it's not as easy as he makes it sound like no that is a sign that m is and therefore he says any of the Mak that they were warned about therefore because they are a sign of something else because they become a sign of God's ability of God's involvement of the no by the way it doesn't necessarily say this by any of them I'm going to say it again that he's creating this big Theory things go in threes which we know about anyway but I'm just going to stop right now because as I told you I I I love big theories but I don't like big theories when you have to force them a little bit and uh when he's going going to tell tell me that oh yeah when you turn a staff into a reptile then that is either an outdoor mate depending on who's watching it it's not as glot as we would like it to be but we do appreciate the Mal him greatly because he asked the right question whether you like the answer or not is of no interest to me and if you don't like the answer then go and put together a better one but but I'm telling you this though is an issue and I'm just going to kind of make believe I know that I'm wrong I'm going to kind of make believe that there's no difference between the OT and the M because that's not really the that's really not my main interest over here but we do not is that God is saying that I I have some things up my sleeve up my anthropological sleeve to do still and uh it's going to be important both for pyro and important for you and this is still part of the story and therefore Let's uh let's move ahead there may be another element about when it is an o or when there is a m fade which we'll see if we can touch a little bit but I'm going to say it again I I'm I'm not going as detailed as the malum perhaps would like we get to chapter 12 and we're in the middle of it pericu B Source number five we're told to take the blood and to put it on the doorposts now that itself is really interesting the reason why it's interesting is for multiple reasons one reason is I mean come on does God really need a sign to know which homes are are the Jews or maybe or maybe we are quite undeserving and we need to do something in order to deserve being saved which is interesting in the context of bringing the Corban pesak it's also quite interesting because then the doorpost in a sense becomes the m just go back and review all ofra and you'll realize that the sprinking of the blood when bringing a corbon is actually something which is significant and therefore there's no mean what M do they have here what alar do they have over here how are they doing the Passover service again with the carbon in a proper way so it's really interesting of the door being put sorry the blood being put on the door frame then in a certain sense that door becomes the M as it were so I'm saying that that's that's interesting what to do with that again I leave that up to you to try to take you could take there any any place you want to take it but that itself is interesting I'm sure somebody had to say it of course somebody has to say it but the reason we're here is for a different reason and what's that the O we're following our signs right follow the signs but so aside from that this is going to allow us to be saved aside from perhaps it being like a no this will be I'll see the blood and then literally the word p I will pass over those homes again this is what's going to facilitate the Jews being saved when the plague comes and hits and you're not going to be hurt when the plague comes and I strike Egypt and this will be for you for a memory and you're going to celebrate this forever so again this dual aspect of its necessary for the events in the present tense but it's also necessary for the future to be able to go and look back at what is taking place is also over here very very clearly and that's part of what I want you to note and then it goes into details about the future not about right now that's about Passover in the future or if you're going to really get me on a technicality technicality that's about in the future the Torah is clear this intinction the first day you get rid of all of the agent which by the way if you start looking through the mishna was that a in Egypt itself apparently it wasn't apparently Egypt is still before mat Torah as you know we should note and in Egypt they may very well not have had any obligation they would not told beforehand get rid of all your bread they didn't the women didn't have to start cleaning from to bishvat even if there were two right it didn't it didn't it I mean it doesn't say that in any place all that they're told is that when they're going to leave so quickly and not have time for the bread to rise and or they left so quickly not have time for the bed bread to rise so who said anything but not eating at that point although they were told to eat matah that night should we skip over here a little bit and there's certainly what to contemplate was that just now said in the past tense when exactly was this said and even though this is part of uh of an instruction from God perhaps before they left so exactly how was mosha told to write this so this is certainly interesting again you know is very it's talking about living in Israel already it is talking about the future it's talking about celebrating Israel sorry celebrating Passover as we move forward then it comes back and then you see there's a pay and I should have put like a new paragraph right there and then it goes back to talk once again about PES as it will be performed in Egypt that year right so it goes very specifically how it is you put Blood on the doorposts and then a commandment which we should not ignore nor forget which also will help you understand the Jews did not leave leave leave sorry the Jews did not leave Egypt that night they did not leave until the morning which is something which you have to read a whole bunch of verses to understand this unless you pay attention to this one and they're given very strict instructions nobody leave the house until the morning comes and then God will pass over so again that was described in the beginning this is the sign right this is l zikaron and so on and this and the dam is the oat and we're still not completely clear about what's going on and I I'll explain momentarily and I'll say it again certain elements are going to be done because we don't do the thing with the blood on the doorposts subsequently and it goes in further when you go to the land so this is a whole again going back to going back to the future going to the future generation so you realize this whole section is being written in a very interesting manner but then again from the beginning there's certain Elements which are necessary to leave Egypt and there's certain Elements which are less necessary to tell over the story of how we Leed how we left Egypt and we've seen in the past already how the word oat could be used for both of those things and I I will note that over here oat is only used regarding the blood which is put in ordered to leave Egypt and the word o was not used regarding the the future practice which of course the simple understanding would be because in subsequent Generations you don't put Blood on the doorpost so there is no reason or there is nothing calling for that o but I will stress that's the simple explanation and since when do we ever choose simple if we'll read a little bit more this is again a new paragraph and God at midnight comes and Strikes all the firstborn all of them completely everyone dies and gets up gets up at night one of the things that were said there was this great scream there is not one house so without dead in it so again as opposed to the first nine plagues now death has gone throughout all of it Egypt that had not happened before which means as bad as any of the plagues may have been and none of them are Pleasant and a lot and they're very uncomfortable and maybe their lives had been made exceedingly comfortable because of the slaves that they had who did all the hard work for them so now they've gotten a lesson in discomfort along the way and now you can say that they're paying in a sense mided mid for all of what they've done now we just now went to a different place because discomfort economy is not the same thing as death and now there is total Destruction Egypt as it said every single household but continue because then something happens which could have been unexpected or shouldn't have been unexpected and he calls calling out for moson and that's what every Israeli kid learns and gun right par pajama running around in the middle of night looking for MOS and Aon but again they're told they can't leave the homes and he also said I'm not going to see you again so apparently MOS and Aon have no interest in going out but it's but it's and his henchmen who are running around go as you would asked and bless me as well of course surrounded by death now suddenly par yeah and and yeah now and now suddenly he wants blessings as well and the Egyptians wanted are doing all they can to get them out as soon as possible we're all going to die meaning now that death has come in this is this is again completely different and I'll stress again but the Jews didn't leave because they were told they can't leave until the morning WR and they take the dough and they put it on their shoulders and they went and they borrowed thing borrowed things now this is remarkable why is it remarkable because all of them are suffering from death and then still they find great favor in the Jews right by the way the last time that the that people found great favor in the je it's and they're suffering like this and nonetheless they say oh please and and there is this appreciation and you'll go back there this appreciation for mosha and it's the aadim ofro meaning they're watching Egypt completely fall apart and none and and suffering themselves dramatically and nonetheless we find this incredible statement over here that they want to let they want to get them out but they also there's this aspect of respect which is I think completely unpredictable right no no but it's not what it says it's not what it says what it's okay you could say anything else that you want but it actually indicates that there's this sense of affection at that point and I'm saying this is what meaning Ju Just to think for a second there's a dual aspect which is taking place on the one hand God is coming into history God is killing the firstborn and the firstborn in Egypt were quite important and at the same time I'm saying that itself is an oat right you want a second level of the oat well every house is being struck except for the house of the Jews or or least of the Jews that are putting the blood on their doorposts and now you want another level of oat the other level of oat is and the Egyptians right you have the distinction between Jews and Egyptians Egyptians being struck and the Egyptians fawning over the Jews or the there with this real sense and this real feel of uh of connection and love and appreciation I'm saying all this all this isn't all that I could tell you about this is that apparently this is also at least partially a prototype for the eventual Redemption and somehow non-jews are going to wake up one wake up one day loving Jews and they're going to be in great pain because of this again how how in the world are they going to deal with this that they suddenly feel that they are that they are suffering a punishment for what they've done and at the same time feeling this love and affection for Jews so when I say that God is micromanaging over here it is in it is in such an interesting way but there are layers to this which I think that sometimes we don't appreciate because you look some of us can just say oh you know God promised from the beginning from from the Brit right you're going to leave and he set it along the way you know back by the SN said it there and it's been it's come up over here yeah it was at the SN slightly after perid you're going to leave and over here he comes back and and and and he said it again he told them that and we see this great appreciation for mosha at the same time that they're coming to their knees and now we see this appreciation this for for the people so I'll say it again the levels over here are fascinating they're also contradictory you know what when I was looking at one of the things that came to my mind the the inner contradiction and right now as a metaphor I was thinking about in Source number nine when it talked about barad will you have this ice and fire at the same time mean mean yes the Egyptians are being struck and by the way by barad the Jews are not being struck so here you have this distinction and then you have this cold and this warmth at the same time and that doesn't work together so in retrospect you know you can say oh that's just a miracle that's God is showing off how God can control all of nature but I also see this as some foreshadowing which what takes place over here is that you have something devastating taking place and then you have this completely unexpected warmth which comes out and how in the world can understand this I said that came to my mind at least in a symbolic sense so the idea of the signs go back and I don't want to go through all of them I'm just pointing at from the very beginning and peric gimmel God said and this was this is the one which is unexpected and he talks about her when you come out you'll serve God on this mountain so I'm saying that that's the first oat or the first time that God uses the word oat within this whole narrative in perala there's a couple of more that that come up and again these are the ones that if I would have asked you to uh sign sign it also could mean a letter over here you have the various things which mosha is doing his hand becoming LEP is it says that take the staff and turn it into the Nash which as those two are happening there's no there's no description but then the end of source number 10 God says so now in retrospect that was called an they'll believe the second one then God heads doesn't believe those two right and then he talks about and then he talks about turning the B so what's interesting is that the word oat was used a number of times over here in this narrative if you go back now in 11 which is so this is part of what got the malim going oh look there in terms of par in terms of the Jews was called o and now in terms of PS called the m so tell Aon to take the m and throw it down it become aan and and by the way and then again you have a miracle within a miracle or a layered Miracle why because of the at the end of or we'll read the whole thing it turns into uh again you can let's say reptile and aon's sta swallowed there and the in it says why is it why is it a miracle it says it says now now go back if one serpent or reptile swallows another they'll say oh that's natural it's going to return back to his staff which means the staff swallowed their either staff or their reptiles and if you read the own it's which means the staff opened up its mouth and swallowed it so it's so again that's interesting just in terms of what we've seen so far of having various layers involved in uh in in in these Miracles which are taking place okay so now we're going to move to where I wanted to go to whether this is expected or not as we continue from pericu BET and pericu bed is the chapter that talked about taking the blood put in the door post that's talked about doing the Passover service that talked about the the future as well you're going to celebrate this you go to the land of Israel you're going to celebrate this and then we move from there to pericu gimmel part of pericu gim in we read as follows in Source 13 so here we have a really interesting halic Fallout from the Jewish animals not dying as opposed to the animals of the Egyptians that did die and we told that they need to become sanctified God says I spared them and therefore they belong to me and by the way this is moving forward in the future and now we get to this other remember so therefore apparently we're now facing I I'll call it a religious or an educational because I think there's a combination Challenge and that is how do we make sure that we remember this now on the one hand we're already told you're going to celebrate PES year after year so it adds another element which is not just during a couple of days in the spring with an outstretched hand God is saying that's again an interesting term so again the verse before spoke about the the animals the first born and now it goes back to remember I took you out from slavery and don't need and again very connected to the springtime and now again when you enter into the land you're going to celebrate p in the spring so Springtime celebration and once again telling us you're going to eat mat you're not going to eat and also it adds in that other element which we've noted from the beginning today and you're going to tell your children and that's where the word the comes from is based upon this word you're going to tell your children now you notice that's come again and again now with a strong hand and you're and you're G to keep this like forever again new chapter and it goes back to the first born again which now again that's part of the story it's part of the narrative it's part of the celebration not necessarily a spring P celebration but part of the celebration as well and it comes to the firstborn of people make sure that you that you pay the Coen and you liberate them then it goes back again it comes back in again use that's a third time by the way right here in a couple verses that it uses which again all of us now should be thinking okay so God took us out and God took out the strong hand and God used the displays and God did the oo and the MIM and so on but this repetition ofad is in of self really really interesting so let's read a little bit more and now finally we got back to the oat now this oat is not an oat which is done as part of leaving Egypt this is actually the first time now we're told about an oat which is future oriented because God and now another time for his strong hand so now if I didn't know any better and I'm reading this whole description about we what we call filling for lack of a of of a better term right now now one of the reasons that at least some would want to hesitate in terms of St H and we shouldn't hesitate right if again if you want to just we we'll come back in a second I'm I'm I'm skipping L Al for the moment sorry I'm skipping 14 for the moment so it's 15 you should recognize this so now why is thill again called and here it doesn't say in you should recognize this well which again is described again more I should read the rest of that also in the previous what's the O here because we're talking about fing that that it is a sign to remember leaving Egypt which mean and I I'll just go one step further because it should be obvious by now that somehow we're somehow we're commemorating that God is using his outstretched hand and we're putting Fillon on our hands even though obviously we are not God and God's hand is not our hand but somehow the same way actually if you just follow the narrative the same way that we are going to have a certain attitude and behavior and Mitzvah regarding the animals that we are going to redeem the first born animal and gen the first born who's born way after you know whatever happened in Egypt that night the same way is that we are somehow going to commemorate with at least the shya the put on the hand it is somehow commemorating the outstretched hand and I'll say it again it constantly uses the word o over here when describing the the theill and it should become again notice because in the later two places was described as the later two was described as to to is a word which is not that easy to understand that those the whole discussion gar whether that's a Hebrew word or whether it's a it is a foreign word which is being borrowed but just go back for a moment when it was actually described in the end of source 13 so again here it is so again what does the word to mean and that's that's not so simple so let's again look atash where is he he's in yeah look go go go back sorry I think we we may have skipped this before to translate it means that and and so again notice fing is introduced there then we have the discussion of redeeming the firstborn and then is is mentioned again but the way that Fain is is described the first time is which means that part of leaving Egypt is it's necessary to recog ize that God used an outstretched hand but also there needs to be a memory which is created so it sounds when we read over here that part of the putting on of the Fillin is the recognizing of God's hand it's about leaving Egypt the recognizing of God's hand and the me memory to create this memory which apparently is not meant to be done only on pesak I mean quite the opposite when it comes to holidays when it comes to shabbat we we we we don't necessar neily put Onin and there is by the way a whole discussion the gamar regarding if you're allowed to put on night you're allowed to put on shabat part of the scenario that it brings up is what if there's that are lost in him are you to wear like you wear clothing could I put thein on and wear them to take them to carry them in and becomes this whole discussion of whether one is permitted or not permitted and so on but the this itself is interesting because as I said from the beginning that this idea of the oat was on the one hand was how we're leaving Egypt but on the other hand was also to create a memory and then becomes the question how do you commemorate how do you celebrate so I I don't know how many of us really paid attention to what it says over here in perut G I mean let's be honest pericu bet is so much more dramatic than pericu gimmel and generally when we think about Fillin I think we're more likely to think about as it's mentioned in the sh Sha but if you read it over here in context you read about when it's introd uced then it becomes something which is really remarkable I I I do want to note and I'll I'll wrap up I do want to note that Rashi when he talks about F here he says so that this is going to be a sign mean the is a sign to remember or to somehow process the leaving of Egypt and therefore you tie them onto your and and these are two of the par fing right here see is troubled why is he troubled because in the go four and two of them of the which are in and we don't have them yet so if they were really commanded right now to do it by the way the solution would be in and wait till I explain to you completely what it is I I'll let you know still what we put inside so the look at 18 totally symbolic it's as if it's written on your hand why because there's nothing we don't have the par yet they don't exist yet so again he sees it much more symbolically talks about it again in terms of memory thez in 20 he says I have two interpretations have two possibilities and and he quotes a verse over here that you should tie he quotes something from it sounds like he's going much closer to the should be like a sign and then he goes again just meaning much more symbolic and then he writes yeah but it can also be second right not just something which is a symbol and therefore imagining it he says that makes a little more sense because that's how so my first imagination about what I think it means just a memory meaning totally symbolic okay I I'll just pause and explain this and then I'll try to wrap up what he just now did is when the ibra came to France and he traveled a lot and when he came to France that he was very influenced by the rashbam and he just now entertained the rash Bam's interpretation and he said yeah but I can't really say that cuz kazal don't say that so there's this whole discussion you know to what extent do the iban Ezra have Fidelity to kazal and to what extent will he just say things over here he rejected the rashbam who says something because he believes it to be imaginary but I understand where the rasham is coming from we don't have those other two pario yet and that's just assuming that you know God is saying this to mosha at that moment again we understand a principle of and God could have said this to him and say when you when you're going to be writing down the section about leaving Egypt put theill in as well why because that's the primary objective over here what did we really try to see today what we really Tred to see is to what extent then from the very beginning that there was an oat for that for them and there's an oat for us the oat for them for the Egyptians was part of leading and a lot of it was Nuance that happened on various levels and to see into and to see to what extent God was really controlling things and as I said there was a lot of texture to this and that was interesting what exactly is the distinction between an oat and a mate as I said you know you want that for homework go ahead go look at every place that it's mentioned and try to figure it out but when we talk about those two those two different directions of oat assign and then a sign for us a sign for parro and a sign for us a sign for his people and a sign for us something that we can tell in the future so then it becomes really interesting because I think it's almost inescapable and and I think that's what Rashi is saying I think it's almost inescapable to see the filling in terms of the memory we need to remember this and we need to know that God took us out with an outstretched hand and then the fill just simply becomes symbolic of that but it's not just symbolic again the rashbam and the izra played with this maybe it's just symbolic no it's that this particular Mitzvah again you can all the women can now ask me so why what so that case why don't the women do it for the from the very beginning of the week I was I was I knew where I was going with this and I was you know trying to process this but it's interesting that the Fillin over here is presented in context as an oat and now you realize in all the other times it's mentioned it's also as an oath and I think that that's just a reverberation of of the leaving Egypt and therefore and what is it symbolizing remember God used an outstretched hand to take you out and now you you hopefully you noticed in peric giml that terminology that phraseology was used multiple times to describe how we move further and create the memory and there other laws in terms of the firstborn and so on that are part of this memory so now you realize that the oat part of an oat is moving forward it's not a miracle in the sense no but it's a sign it's something which is symbolic also is a Mitzvah again don't choose one or the other like the rash b or the ibben tried no it's not one or the other it is a Mitzvah which is performed but the Mitzvah is not just mechanical the Mitzvah should be one of remembering what happened in Egypt now the place that I didn't go and there's much more here is wherever other places the word that's what I skipped wherever uh we have Shabbat is also called an O and for that reason it's explained why one does doesn't wear F on Shabbat because now you have a different o you have a different sign you have a different sign that you were slaves and now that you're taken out which means when I have this I'll call it a larger or more immersive oat and that is Shabbat so now I don't need this specific one especially when it you know when I could talk about this is strength and this is working and and so on that that I could push that aside because the Shabbat with has the Z and Sham which by the way now when you think about it may be very very close to the two aspects of as well and there right there sh one is action and one is more thought and now I see that Shabbat has those two elements so that becomes much more interesting that in a day that I have Z I don't really need the Fillin which represents the hand and which represents the memory but essentially that's going to help me remember that God took us out and therefore commanded us about the Shabbat yes I know that there's two aspects of the Shabbat creation as well creation is why God rested on the seventh day that's why the seventh day was chosen but when we were slaves and set free that's when God commands us to keep the Shabbat which means that becomes an oat that becomes a sign as well to this idea of being taken out of Egypt so in a sense we don't need and by the way just notice now all the times that we say by all the holidays meaning meaning every we yeah which means that there are elements to this but the oath of the Shabbat as I said is a bit more IM immersive and therefore it's not necessary to have the Fillin as a more quotequote limited aspect or of a sign that God indeed took us out