Rabbi Jon’s Reflection on This Week’s Torah Portion
1.19.2024
Bo 2024: Departing Egypt
A short reflection on Bo (Exodus 10:1 - 13:16)
The Ten Plagues were over. It was time to depart Egypt and the Israelites took a couple things with them --
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Jewelry, gold and clothes from the Egyptians.
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Their herds and flocks.
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Matzah. Yuck.
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AND.... the erev rav.
The Torah states (Ex. 12:38), “And the erev rav went (up also) with them....” The phrase erev rav has a variety of translations -- The King James Bible translates it as mixed multitude, Robert Alter translates it as motley throng, and Umberto Cassuto translates it as riffraff. So, the Israelites departed Egypt with over 2 million Israelites and a mixed multitude, I mean riffraff, I mean a motley throng. Who was this mixed multitude? What does this mixed multitude teach us about the Israelites and, by extension, who we should attempt to be?
One Jewish commentator, Rashi, tells us that this mixed multitude was an ethnically mixed group of converts. Another, Rashbam, believed that “Mixed” implies intermingling, as in Ps. 106:35, where the Israelites “mingled with the nations.” A third, Ibn Ezra defined mixed multitude as Egyptians who mingled with them. The lack of clarity as to the definition of erev rav leads us to the conclusion that it is an inclusive term. Whether they were converts, Egyptians, natives from other nations or non-Jewish slaves, they came with us.
Even after 430 years in Egypt, the majority spent as slaves, we still had the ability to think of others. We did not leave behind the less fortunate to remain slaves to Pharaoh or to live an impoverished life. We took them with us, a multitude that was not part of the Hebrew nation but who were part of humanity. I can almost hear the Israelites speaking to the erev rav and saying to them, “Come with us, share our unleavened bread. God’s providence is not only for us, it is for you, too. Come, be free.”
The Israelites demonstrated compassion for those less powerful than themselves. They did not take advantage of the motley throng because they were weak. They did not do what the Egyptians had done to them. They treated the erev rav like human beings.
As Jews we are taught to be a light unto the nations of the world, a shining example of what is right. That responsibility did not end after the biblical period. The memory of the erev rav should remind us to reach out to those less fortunate and to search out human suffering wherever it might occur even in the most remote corner of the world. Let us find the erev rav of our generation and bring them on a journey to freedom.
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Bo SUMMARY FROM THE URJ
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God sends the plagues of locusts and darkness upon Egypt and forewarns Moses about the final plague, the death of every Egyptian firstborn. Pharaoh still does not let the Israelites leave Egypt. (10:1-11:10)
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God commands Moses and Aaron regarding the Passover festival. (12:1-27)
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God enacts the final plague, striking down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt except those of the House of Israel. Pharaoh now allows the Israelites to leave. (12:29-42)
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Speaking to Moses and Aaron, God repeats the commandments about Passover. (12:43-13:16)
For more on this Torah portion from the URJ go to:
https://reformjudaism.org/torah/portion/bo
