Bo: What Does It Mean?

Moses then summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go, pick out lambs for your families, and slaughter the passover offering. Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and to the two doorposts. None of you shall go outside the door of your house until morning. For יהוה, when going through to smite the Egyptians, will see the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, and יהוה will pass over the door and not let the Destroyer enter and smite your home. “You shall observe this as an institution for all time, for you and for your descendants. And when you enter the land that יהוה will give you, as promised, you shall observe this rite. And when your children ask you, ‘What do you mean by this rite?’ you shall say, ‘It is the passover sacrifice to יהוה, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when smiting the Egyptians, but saved our houses.’ Those assembled then bowed low in homage. And the Israelites went and did so; just as יהוה had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

והיה כי תבאן אל הארץ AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS WHEN YE BE COME TO THE LAND — Scripture makes the observance of this service dependent upon their entrance into the land of Palestine (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 12:25), and they were not under any obligation, when in the wilderness, to keep more than the one Passover which they kept in the second year after the Exodus (cf. Numbers 9:1—5), and that, too, only in consequence of a special divine communication. (Cf. Rashi on Numbers 9:1 and כאשר דבר (תוס׳ קיד׳ ל"ז ע"ב ד"ה הואיל

מה העבודה הזאת לכם?, which is performed on a day that does not even bear the appellation מקרא קודש, “holy convocation? All the other mandatory communal offerings are offered on days designated as festivals. Not only that, but the whole day is available for slaughtering those offerings whereas the offering known as Passover is only accepted from noon until sunset [roughly, in fact even less time than that. Ed.] Besides, why does not a single communal offering serve as this memorial of the Exodus? Other public offerings serve each for the whole community. זבח פסח הוא, this offering commemorates the skipping over by G’d of each individual Jewish home, something that occurred at midnight. Accordingly, the offering should really have been brought after midnight when the Jewish firstborn had already experienced that G’d saved him. As a result it really would have been at night. However, since we have a rule that offerings must not be brought on the altar at night, it had to be brought at a time which is closely associated with the impending night, i.e. the period described here as בין הערבים.

It would appear that this verse contains an assurance that if the Israelites would conduct themselves meritoriously they would already observe the following year's Passover in their homeland. The delay occurred only because of the Israelites' disobedience and rebelliousness which commenced already before the completion of the Exodus at the Sea of Reeds (compare Psalms 106,7: "they rebelled at the sea, at the Sea of Reeds"). All these factors delayed the conquest of the Holy Land. When G'd saw that they were still in the desert He had to issue a command that they should observe the Passover even in the desert. Up to that point in the Book of Numbers they had only been commanded to observe the Passover once they arrived in the Holy Land. While it is true- as the prophet Isaiah has said- that G'd knows of all future developments in advance (Isaiah 41,4), He had held back with issuing instructions which would indicate that the trek through the desert would be beset with problems.

You shall keep this institution at its set time from year to year. “And when יהוה has brought you into the land of the Canaanites, as [God] swore to you and to your fathers, and has given it to you, you shall set apart for יהוה every first issue of the womb: every male firstling that your cattle drop shall be יהוה’s. But every firstling ass you shall redeem with a sheep; if you do not redeem it, you must break its neck. And you must redeem every male first-born among your children. And when, in time to come, a child of yours asks you, saying, ‘What does this mean?’ you shall reply, ‘It was with a mighty hand that יהוה brought us out from Egypt, the house of bondage. When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, יהוה slew every [male] first-born in the land of Egypt, the first-born of both human and beast. Therefore I sacrifice to יהוה every first male issue of the womb, but redeem every male first-born among my children.’ “And so it shall be as a sign upon your hand and as a symbol*symbol Others “frontlet.” on your forehead that with a mighty hand יהוה freed us from Egypt.”

כי ישאלך בנך מחר WHEN THY SON ASKETH THEE מחר — There is a usage of the word מחר that refers to “now” (i. e. to the period of time that is nearest to “now” viz., to-morrow), and there is another usage of מחר that refers to a day following after the lapse of some time, as, for example, this מחר here and as, for example, (Joshua 22:27) “That your children may not say to our children in time to come (מחר)” which occurs in the chapter about the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 13:14:1). מה זאת WHAT IS THIS? — This is the question of a dull child who has not sufficient understanding to question very profoundly and who therefore asks in an indefinite fashion, “What is this?” In another passage (Deuteronomy 6:20) it states, “[When thy son asketh thee…], What mean the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments … [which the Lord our God hath commanded you?]” This, however, is the question of a wise son. The Torah in mentioning four different explanations of the Passover sacrifice-rite to be given by a father to his children, is speaking in reference to four different types of son: the wicked son (12:25 and in the second half of 13:8), and one who has not sufficient understanding how to ask (in the first half of 13:8), and one who asks in an indefinite manner (13:14), and one who asks in a wise fashion (Deuteronomy 6:20) (cf. Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 13:14:1; Jerusalem Talmud Pesachim 10:4).

The question need not necessarily be exactly "what is this all about?" Any question whose upshot appears to be that the questioner wants to be told what our tradition is all about is to be answered forthwith. It is clear therefore that the Torah does not speak of the night of the Passover but of the commandment to sanctify the firstborn of the womb. When our sages (Mechilta) comment that the four occasions when the Torah cites the sons as asking refer to four different types of children this is all homiletics.