Bo

Philip Kuperhause January 11th 2003, 8 Shevat 5763

In my parsha, Bo, God tells Moses the last three plagues will be sent upon Egypt. God also instructs Moses to tell all Israelites to borrow objects of silver and gold from the Egyptians. The torah tells us that the Egyptians right away gave up their possessions. I had never heard about this aspect of the Exodus, and I found this story a bit hard to believe.

Why would the Egyptians give up their silver and gold? I don't think every Egyptian would be so scared as to give away all those objects of great value. It also makes the Israelites seem less heroic. It makes it seem like the Israelites rubbed it in the Egyptians face that they were free.

Rambam said that the gold and silver the Egyptians gave were a symbol of apology to the Israelites. It was a way of confessing to the Israelites that they were the wicked ones and that they had done wrong for enslaving them. The gold and silver were a way of asking for forgiveness.

Modern commentator Nohum Sarna explains that the silver and gold were acknowledgments of the justified Jewish victory over the Egyptians. For years the Egyptians had treated the Israelites cruelly, insulting their dignity and intelligence as human beings. The gifts from the Egyptians were a way of restoring Jewish pride.

My theory of the gold and silver is that the Israelites took it, as a way of making the Egyptians and the Israelites seem equal. The Egyptians had to start all over again because they had no silver and gold, which made them a very poor country. The Israelites were starting all over again too. They had left their homes and were on their way to the Promised Land.

Centuries later, at the time of Alexander the Great (332-323B.C.E) a conflict arose about whether the Egyptians should get their gold and silver back. The Egyptians wanted it back and the proof that it belonged to them came from this passage of the Torah. Gaviha ben Pasisa, a well-known Jewish leader called for a debate. Gaviha argued: "I will also use a proof from the Torah. We are told that the Israelites lived in slavery for four hundred and thirty six years in Egypt. Do you Egyptians not owe the Israelites payment for all their years of slavery?" The Egyptians could never come up with an answer.

In 1951 after World war two, a similar issue arose. The government of Israel debated the question of whether or not they should seek money from the Germans to repair what they had done. The Nazis had killed Six million Jews. Jewish-owned businesses and properties worth millions of dollars had been confiscated or destroyed. The Jews were seeking 1.5 billion dollars. This money was to be spent on helping the families of the victims and rehabilitating the survivors. But many Jews were against seeking the money from the Germans. They thought if they got the money it would seem like the money made up for all the people that had died, but nothing could make up for the millions of lives lost. It would also make it seem like the Germans were forgiven for killing all the people they had murdered. Finally the government of Israel decided to accept the money. They knew nothing could make up for the lives lost, but this money could go toward helping the survivors.

From these situations it raises the question, does money make up for a wrong doing? It depends what the situation is. For example, if someone goes into a store and by accident and they drop a vase. Should they pay for it? I think they should pay money for the vase. Because they have broken something that can't be repaired and it is worth money. Now let's say someone walks into the store and criticizes how bad the value of the vase is, but actually the vase is a good value. Because of what he said nobody wants to buy the vase. Would money make up for what he did? No I don't think so because people will still think badly of the vase. He should go to the store and apologize publicly and take back what he said. I think the situation of the Israelites in Egypt relates more to the situation of the broken vase. The Israelites lost many good years to Egyptian slavery. They suffered a great deal of pain and their lives were broken. In my opinion, they deserved something back from the Egyptians and so the taking of the gold and silver was justified. Therefore to me the Israelites still seem heroic even thou they took the gold and silver after victory over the Egyptians.

This parsha has helped me to think about issues of justice more deeply. I've learned that there are different ways to fix different situations. Now that I am Bar-Mitzvah I will think carefully about what needs to be done during a conflict to make things right. Whether it is a situation in which I've hurt someone, or it's a situation where someone's hurt me.