Parsha of the Week

On 15 Tevet 2448, God told Moses and Aaron to announce the eighth plague – locusts. On the last day of the warning period, GOD said to Moses, “Come to Pharaoh to warn him again to release the people. For even though I have made him and his courtiers obstinate, and it would therefore seem pointless to warn him, it is so that I may place (i.e., manifest) these miraculous signs of Mine in his midst,

and so that you may recount to your children and grandchildren how I made a mockery of the Egyptians and how I performed My miraculous signs among them. Although he and his courtiers will take this warning seriously, he will still not be able to bring himself to send the people forth. This will make the Egyptians look preposterous and demonstrate how, despite their power, they are Mine to do with as I wish. You will then realize that I am GOD. Also, by warning him, you will intimate to him that despite the fact that I have made him obstinate, if he truly wishes to he can still repent.”

So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, “This is what GOD, God of the Hebrews, has said: ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? Send forth My people, so they may serve Me!

For if you refuse to send forth My people, I will bring locusts into your territory tomorrow.

They will cover the surface of the land, so that no one will be able to see the ground. They will consume the surviving remnant of vegetation that was left for you after the hail, and they will eat away all your trees that grow in the field.

Your houses and all your courtiers’ houses and the houses of all the Egyptians will be filled with them – something that your fathers and your fathers’ fathers have never seen from the day they appeared on earth until this day.’” And with that they turned and left Pharaoh’s presence.

As God had said, the Egyptians – for the first time – took Moses’ warning seriously: Pharaoh’s courtiers said to him, “How long will this person continue to be a snare for us? Send the men forth and let them serve GOD, their God! Do you not yet realize that Egypt is ruined?”

So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh and he said to them, “Go and serve GOD, your God. Exactly who will be going?”

Moses replied, “We will go with our young people and with our elders; we will go with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and our cattle, for it is a festival of GOD for us.”

Pharaoh said to them sarcastically, “Yes, of course! May GOD be with you when I send you forth with your children, and your animals, as well!” Angrily, he continued, “I have no intention of sending forth your children, for you do not need them to perform your religious rites in the desert! By asking to take them, you are revealing your true intentions: You are not planning on a three-day holiday; you are planning to flee the country altogether! Therefore, watch out! Your evil intent will backfire and I will not send you forth at all! Furthermore, I am warning you: look, a bad omen, the star Ra’ah [‘evil’], which foretells bloodshed and slaughter, is rising against you in the desert. It would be perilous for you to journey now.

As I said, it is not at all as you say – that your children have to accompany you! You menfolk go and serve GOD, for that is what you are asking for! You are asking to sacrifice; children do not sacrifice!” And with that, Moses and Aaron were expelled from Pharaoh’s presence.

So, on 8 Shevat, GOD said to Moses, “Raise your arm over Egypt for the locusts, so that they will ascend over Egypt. They will eat all the vegetation in the land, whatever the hail left over.”

Moses raised his staff over Egypt, and all that day and night GOD directed an east wind over the land. When morning came, the east wind had carried the locusts into the country.

The locusts ascended all over Egypt and landed on all the territory of Egypt as a very severe plague; never before had there been such a plague of locusts, and never again will there be anything like it – that such complete devastation be caused by only one species of locust.

They covered the entire surface of the land so that the land became dark. They ate up all the vegetation of the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left over; no foliage was left on the trees or among the vegetation of the field all throughout Egypt.

Pharaoh hastily summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against GOD, your God, and against you.

So now, please forgive my offense just this once, and entreat GOD, your God, just to remove this death from me!”

Moses and Aaron left Pharaoh’s presence and Moses pleaded with GOD.

GOD thereupon reversed the wind direction, causing a very strong west wind to blow, and it carried away the locusts and plunged them into the eastern arm of the Sea of Reeds, the Gulf of Aqaba. Not a single locust remained within all Egypt’s borders – not even those that the Egyptians had killed and preserved by salting.

But once again GOD made Pharaoh stubborn, and he did not send forth the Israelites.

On 15 Shevat, God told Moses to announce the ninth plague – darkness. On 8 Adar, after the warning period was over, GOD said to Moses, “Raise your hand toward the sky so that there will be darkness by day upon Egypt, and the darkness at night will be darker still. Later, the darkness will become palpable.”

So Moses raised his hand toward the sky. This plague lasted for only six days rather than a full week: First, there was an opaque darkness in all Egypt for three days.

No Egyptian man could see his brother, even by firelight, but the darkness did not obstruct the Israelites’ vision. During these first three days, the Israelites who did not want to leave Egypt – four-fifths of the population – died. This happened specifically when the Egyptians could not see it so they should not be able to think that these Jews were dying of the same cause that the Egyptians died of during the plagues. For the next three days, the darkness became so palpable that no Egyptian who was sitting when it started could rise from his place, and no Egyptian who was standing when it started could sit down. The Israelites, however, canvassed the Egyptians’ dwellings freely during these three days, taking note of the Egyptians’ possessions and where they kept them. Furthermore, during these six days, there was light for all the Israelites in their dwellings; the darkness did not cover the district of Goshen.

On 13 Adar, the last day of darkness, Pharaoh called for Moses and said, “Go, serve GOD – only your flocks and cattle must remain behind to ensure your return. Even your children may go with you.”

Moses replied, “Not only will our flocks and cattle go with us, you will even provide us with some of your animals for feast-offerings and ascent-offerings so that we may offer them up to GOD, our God.

Certainly, then, all our livestock will also go along with us: not a hoof will remain. For we will take from them to serve GOD, our God, i.e., to sacrifice to Him, and we will not know with what we will serve GOD – i.e., how many sacrifices He will require – until we arrive there; perhaps He will require more than just our own animals.”

Yet GOD made Pharaoh stubborn, and he was not willing to send forth the people.

Pharaoh then said to Moses, “Leave my presence! Take care never to see my face again, for the day you see my face you will die!”

Moses replied, “You have spoken rightly, but only in that once I leave, I will never see your face again.”

Just at that moment, while Moses and Aaron were still standing in front of Pharaoh, GOD said to Moses, “I will send one more plague upon Pharaoh and Egypt: I will kill every firstborn at exactly midnight of 15 Nisan. After that, he will send you forth from this place. And when he sends you forth, he will drive you all out of here.

Please speak to the people and let them ask to borrow – each man from his friend and every woman from her friend – items of silver and gold. This way their forefather Abraham will not be able to accuse Me of only fulfilling My promise to enslave his descendants and not My promise to enrich them when they leave.”

Later, after he left Pharaoh’s court, Moses conveyed this instruction to the people, and they carried it out without delay. Since they had inspected the Egyptians’ homes during the plague of darkness, they knew where their utensils and valuables were kept. So if they asked for something and the Egyptians denied having it, they could reply that they know they have it and even where it is kept. Despite this, GOD made the Egyptians regard the people favorably. Moreover, by this time, Moses himself was highly esteemed in Egypt, both by Pharaoh’s courtiers and by the people.

But before all this, while Moses and Aaron were still standing before Pharaoh, Moses turned and said to Pharaoh, “This is what GOD has said: Whereas I smote you with the preceding nine plagues via emissaries, I am going to administer this final one Myself. The proof of this will be that it will occur exactly at midnight on 15 Nisan, next month, at which time I will go forth in the midst of Egypt.

Every firstborn in Egypt will die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh sitting on his throne to the firstborn of the maidservant behind the millstones, as well as every firstborn animal.

There will be a great outcry throughout all Egypt, such as never has been and never will be again.

As a result of this outcry, all the dogs in the vicinity of the Egyptians will get overexcited and start barking ferociously. This will exacerbate the Egyptians’ terror. But among the Israelites, they will only bark benignly as they do whenever the moon is out; no dog will whet its tongue ferociously against any Israelite person or even any beast belonging to an Israelite. None of their animals will be frightened and run away, so all their cattle will leave with them, as you have been told. This is in order that you may know that GOD is differentiating between the Egyptians and the Israelites.

All these courtiers of yours [i.e., ‘you’ – he spoke euphemistically out of respect for Pharaoh’s office – ] will then come down and prostrate themselves before me, and say, ‘Leave, you and all the people who follow your counsel!’ After that I will leave Egypt with all my people.” Having finished speaking, he left Pharaoh’s presence indignantly over Pharaoh’s warning never to see his face again.

GOD then said to Moses, “Pharaoh will not listen to you, in order that My marvels may be multiplied in Egypt. Besides the slaying of the firstborn, there are still more marvels that I will perform when you leave.”

Moses and Aaron had performed all these marvels before Pharaoh, but GOD made Pharaoh stubborn, so he therefore did not send forth the Israelites from his land. In recognition of the part Aaron faithfully played in these events, God addressed the following passage – the first official commandment given to the Israelites as a people – to him as well as to Moses.

On 1 Nisan, at sunset – when the moon became visible – GOD said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, outside the idol-filled city, after showing them the new moon:

“This stage of the moon’s monthly renewal will signal the beginning of every new month.” Moses was not sure how big the new moon must be in order to signal the beginning of a new month, so God told him to look at the moon as it was right then, and said, “Like this.” God continued, “This month, Nisan, must be for you the beginning of the months; it must be for you the first of the months of the year.

Speak together to the entire community of Israel today, on the first of the month, saying: On the 10th of this month, each man among them who heads an extended family-unit must take for himself a lamb or kid for his extended family, unless the extended family is so big that not everyone will be able to eat a kezayit [29 milliliter or 0.05 pint] of the lamb or kid. In such a case, they should take a lamb or kid for each nuclear family.

On the other hand, if the nuclear family is too small to require a lamb or kid, then the family-head and a neighbor who lives near his home must take one together, according to the number of people, for it is forbidden to leave any of the meat of the offering uneaten (or unburned) until morning. If, after forming a group to eat a specific lamb or kid together, someone wants to leave this group and join another, he may do so only before the animal is slaughtered. Tell them: ‘You must be counted for the lamb or kid according to what each individual eats. Thus, the sick or elderly, who cannot eat a kezayit of it, are not counted.

You must use a flawless young male animal in its first year for this offering; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats.

You must keep watch over it, making sure it does not develop any blemish, until the 14th day of this month, i.e., for a minimum of four days. The obligation to make sure it is not blemished does apply to all future Passover offerings; it is only the obligation to designate a specific lamb or kid as the Passover offering on the 10th that applies this time only.’ The entire assembled community of Israel must then slaughter their sacrifices in the afternoon of the 14th, in three shifts. Although only one person will slaughter each lamb or kid on behalf of the group, since a person’s designated substitute is his legal proxy, it will be as if they all slaughtered it.

When slaughtering the lamb or kid, they must collect the blood in a basin. They must take some of the blood that has been collected this way and place it on the two doorposts and on the lintel inside the houses in which they will eat the sacrifice. They do not need to place any blood on structures not used for dwelling.

They must eat all the meat on that night, but they only need to eat the meat – not the sinews or bones. They must eat it roasted over fire, with matzah, and together with bitter herbs, the latter to remind them of the bitterness of the exile from which I am redeeming them.

Tell them: ‘Do not eat any of it partially roasted or cooked in water or any other liquid, but only fully roasted over fire whole, together with its head, its legs, and its internal organs, after you have rinsed the latter.

You must not leave any of it over until morning. Any of it that is left over until morning, i.e., dawn, you must burn in fire. However, you should not burn this leftover meat on the morning of the holiday itself; you should wait until the morning of the next day.

And this is how you must eat it: with your waist belted, prepared to travel; your shoes on your feet; and your staff in your hand; and you must eat it in haste. This offering will be known as “the Passover offering to GOD,” because when I kill the firstborn of Egypt, I will pass over any Israelite firstborn that happens to be among the Egyptians, as will be explained presently. Furthermore, you are to perform the rites associated with this offering in an energetic, hasty manner, reminiscent of how I “jumped” from house to house to rescue you.

I will pass through Egypt on that night in order to begin redeeming you from exile, and the first act in this process is that I will instantaneously strike down every firstborn in Egypt, whether man or beast. Since the men sinned first, they will be killed first; since the beasts were only used to oppress the people, they will be killed second. I will also kill all the firstborn of other non-Jewish nations that happen to be in Egypt – since these nations also relished the Jewish people’s suffering – and all the Egyptian firstborn who happen not to be in Egypt at that time. Upon all the gods of Egypt I will mete out chastisements: wooden idols will rot; metal idols will melt. I, GOD, will mete out these chastisements Myself, and not through any emissary.

The blood will serve you as a sign on the houses in which you are: I will see that you did what I told you to do with the blood and in this merit I will mercifully pass over you, and there will be no destructive plague among you when I strike Egypt. But an Egyptian firstborn who happens to be in your home will nonetheless be killed.’” It was necessary to “pass over” the Israelites for two reasons: because there were Egyptian houses in the Jewish region of Goshen, and because – despite God’s commandment not to leave their own homes until morning – there were some Jews in Egyptian houses that night. 128:3 28:In order to affix the onyx stones to the upper ends of the Ephod’s shoulder straps, you must have the artisans make gold settings in which to encase the stones. These settings will then be attached to the shoulder straps.

“‘This day, 15 Nisan, will become a day of remembrance for you, and you must celebrate it as a festival to GOD; once you enter the Promised Land you must celebrate it as an everlasting statute throughout all your generations, as follows:

For seven days, from 15 to 21 Nisan, you must eat matzos whenever you would like to eat bread, but on the previous day, 14 Nisan, you must clear your houses of leavening agents, for the soul of anyone who eats leavened food intentionally from the first day until the seventh day will be cut off from Israel – he will die prematurely and childless.

You must celebrate the first day of these seven as a holy occasion and the seventh day as a holy occasion, on which you should wear fine clothes and eat special foods, and on which no work may be done, even by having non-Jews do it for you. The only exception to this is work that is required to be done to prepare any person or animal’s food – that alone may be done for you, even by yourselves or your fellow Jews. But this exception does not include any type of food preparation that you could have just as effectively done before the holy day.

You must be vigilant regarding the matzos, taking care when baking them that they not rise. Similarly, you should be vigilant regarding all the commandments I will give you, performing each one at the earliest opportunity and not letting it figuratively become “stale.” For on this very day I will have brought your hosts out of Egypt, and I did not leave you in Egypt one moment longer than necessary. And you must observe this day as a day of cessation from work not only this year but throughout all your generations as an everlasting rule.

As mentioned previously, throughout the seven days of the holiday, eating matzos is optional (as long as you do not eat leaven). But in the first month, Nisan, on the night following the 14th day of the month, it is obligatory: you must eat matzos. The prohibition against eating leaven applies not only to the seven days but to the nights before them, as well – from the night of the 15th until the beginning of the night of the 21st day of the month.

For seven days no leavening agents may be found in your homes, i.e., in any place under your authority, for – as will be seen in the next verse – the prohibition against eating leaven applies not only to leavened food but also to leavening agents: the soul of anyone who eats leavening agents will be cut off from the community of Israel – he will die prematurely and childless – whether he be a convert, whose ancestors did not participate in the miracle of the Exodus, or a native citizen, whose ancestors did.

You must not eat any leavening agent, even if it is mixed together with some other food. Regarding the matzos you must eat on the first night of Passover, you must eat matzos that can be eaten wherever you live. This will exclude matzos that have been set aside as the second tithe or matzos that are part of a thanksgiving offering, which you will be permitted to eat only in the city surrounding the Temple.’”

Moses summoned all the elders of Israel. Moses and Aaron relayed to them the details of the Passover sacrifice mentioned earlier, plus the following, which God had also told Moses: “Draw yourselves away from idolatry and replace your addiction to it with the performance of God’s commandments, as follows: In 10 days, on 10 Nisan, go get for your families lambs or kids from your own flocks, if you have, or acquire them for yourselves in the market. Then, on 14 Nisan, slaughter the Passover offering.

After you slaughter it, you must take a bundle of three stalks of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is collected in the basin, and use it to apply some of the blood in the basin to the lintel and the two doorposts. Dip the bundle in the blood before each application. Even though God has promised to spare you, none of you – even those who are not firstborn – may go out of the entrance of his house until morning, because at nighttime destructive angels have free reign and do not distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, and if any of you perishes, the Egyptians will claim that God’s assurance that none of you will be harmed was not fulfilled.

GOD will pass through Egypt to begin redeeming you; the first part of this act will be for Him to strike Egypt by killing all their firstborn. He will see that you have applied the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts. In this merit, GOD will mercifully pass over the entrance to your houses, and not allow the destructive plague to enter your houses to strike you.

You must observe the practices and sacrifice of Passover as a rule for you and your children forever.

You must maintain this service only once you have come into the land that GOD will give you, as He has spoken. As long as you will be in transit on the way to the Land of Israel, you are not required to observe this holiday unless God tells you to do so explicitly.

When your children ask you about the Passover offering, there might be among them rebellious children who phrase their question, ‘What is this service of yours?’ They will refer to the service as ‘yours’ in order to imply that they would rather not participate in it themselves.

You must answer, ‘It is the Passover offering to GOD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when He plagued the Egyptians, and spared our homes.’” When they heard what Moses told the elders, the people bowed down and prostrated themselves in thanksgiving for God’s promise of redemption, for His reiteration of His promise to give them the Land of Israel, and for blessing them with the promise of children.

The Israelites resolved immediately to fulfill these instructions at their proper time, and therefore God considered it as if they went and did so immediately. He credited them for their good intentions, for their praiseworthy actions, and even for the efforts they made in preparing to fulfill His will. When the time came, the Israelites did everything just as GOD had instructed Moses and Aaron, not omitting a single detail. And Moses and Aaron did so, as well.

It was exactly at midnight of 15 Nisan that GOD, in concurrence with the heavenly court, struck down every firstborn in Egypt, even those who were not Egyptian, from the firstborn of Pharaoh sitting on his throne to the firstborn of the prisoner in the dungeon, as well as every firstborn animal.

Pharaoh rose from his bed in the night: first he arose, and then he awoke all his courtiers in their homes. And all the Egyptians awoke, too, and there was a great outcry in Egypt, for there was no house where there was not someone dead.

Pharaoh searched all the entrances of the city and called out for Moses and Aaron in the night. When he found them, he said, “Get up and get out from among my people, you adults and the young children of Israel, too, and go and serve GOD as you said!

Take both your flocks and your cattle, just as you stipulated – and not as I did, first refusing to let you go altogether, then stipulating that only your adults leave, and finally demanding only that your flocks not leave – and go! And bless me too, that I not die, for I am also a firstborn!”

The Egyptians also urged the people on, hurrying them out of the land, for they said, “We are all dying!”

The people had eaten their matzah with the Passover offering as they had been commanded, in the first half of the night. Now, in the early morning, the people had started to bake bread for the new day. But the Egyptians hurried them on their way, so the people took their dough before it had leavened – so the bread they ate on this day was matzah, also – with their leftover food (the matzah and bitter herbs left over from the previous night’s meal) wrapped in their clothes on their shoulders. They could have had their animals carry these leftovers, but they preferred to carry them themselves because they cherished them since they had used them to fulfill God’s commandment.

In addition to having asked the Egyptians for utensils and clothing before the plague of the firstborn, the Israelites now did again as Moses had said, and requested silver and gold utensils and clothing – valuing the latter the most in light of their impending journey – from the Egyptians. Nonetheless, they did not carry these articles themselves, but loaded them onto their donkeys.

GOD granted them favor in the eyes of the Egyptians so that they loaned them these items, and even gave them more than they asked for. They thus drained Egypt of its wealth. In addition, the women were confident that God would perform miracles for them and brought along enough timbrels for all of them to celebrate with.

On the morning of 15 Nisan, they gathered together at Rameseis from all over Goshen in a miraculously short time. The Israelites then journeyed from Rameses to a place that would soon be named Sukot, on the western shore of the western arm of the Sea of Reeds (i.e., the Gulf of Suez). Moses counted them; they numbered about 600,000 men aged 20 and older on foot, besides women and male children under 20.

Moreover, a mixed multitude of people from other nations asked Moses if they could join the ranks of the Israelites. Moses did not consult with God, but accepted them on his own authority, reasoning that it would be good for them to be attached to God’s presence. This multitude went up with them, as well as flocks and cattle – a great deal of livestock. The people also cut down the acacia trees that Jacob had planted when he came to Egypt and that he had told his children to tell their progeny to take with them when they leave.

At Sukot, the Israelites baked the dough that they had brought out of their homes in Egypt into cakes of matzah, since it had not leavened, for they had been driven out of Egypt and could not delay, nor had they prepared any other provisions for themselves. Even though they were traveling into the desert, they relied on God to provide for them. God accounted this to their enduring merit. Miraculously, the bread they now baked sufficed for 61 meals, and was as tasty as the manna they would eventually receive from God.

The total length of time that the Israelites had lived in Egypt and other places as foreigners since God’s prophecy to Abraham “between the halves” (15 Nisan 2018) was exactly 430 years: 30 years from when God made the covenant until Isaac’s birth, 60 years from Isaac’s birth until Jacob’s birth, 130 years from Jacob’s birth until his arrival in Egypt, and 210 years in Egypt.

And at the end of 430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of GOD left Egypt. Once the appointed time came, God did not delay the Exodus even by an instant.

The night preceding this day was a night of expectation for GOD, which He had eagerly looked forward to all these years, to fulfill His promise to take them out of Egypt. This was the night that GOD referred to when He told Abraham, “On this night I will redeem your descendants.” This night remains an annual time of protection for all the Israelites against all forces of destruction throughout their generations.

Earlier, on the morning of 14 Nisan, GOD said to Moses and Aaron, “This is an additional part of the law of the Passover sacrifice: No person who, by his acts, has made himself a stranger to God may eat of it. This includes non-Jews who have not converted to Judaism and apostate Jews.

If there be a non-Jewish bondman whom a Jewish man buys for money, you must circumcise him, and then he may eat of it. Non-Jewish bondmen must be circumcised. Failure to circumcise the bondman disqualifies him – or, according to another opinion, his master – from eating the Passover sacrifice.

It will be presently stated that no uncircumcised male may eat the Passover sacrifice. In addition, neither a resident alien (i.e., a non-Jew who has undertaken not to serve idols and is therefore allowed to reside in the Land of Israel) nor a non-Jewish hired laborer may eat of it, even if they happen to be circumcised.

As was stated previously, it must be eaten by a single group. Once this group is formed, you may not split it into two groups, divide the offering, and eat it in these two groups. Furthermore, you must not take any of the meat out of the group to eat it separately, nor break any of its bones having a kezayit [approximately 29 ml or 0.05 pint] or more of flesh on them.

Although this time, I have required you to form family-groups to eat the Passover offering, I will not require the groups to be family-based in the future. Rather, anyone from the entire community of Israel will be able to join any group he or she wishes, to offer it up and eat it together.

When a convert living among you offers up the Passover sacrifice to GOD, all the males in his household must first be circumcised and only then may he draw near to offer it up together with the rest of the community. He should not offer it up immediately after he converts, but should wait until its proper time, and in this respect he will be just like a native citizen. Although there are those who are exempt from the requirement to be circumcised – as for example someone whose two older brothers died as a result of circumcision – nevertheless, no uncircumcised man may eat of the Passover offering, even such people.

A convert is subject to the same laws as a born Israelite not only with respect to the Passover offering; in all respects there must be one law for the native Israelite and for the convert who lives among you.”

With regard to these laws, too, all the Israelites resolved immediately to fulfill these instructions at their proper time, and therefore God considered it as if they did so immediately. He credited them for their good intentions. When the time came, the Israelites did everything just as GOD had instructed Moses and Aaron, not omitting a single detail. And Moses and Aaron did so, also.

By this time, some Egyptians had begun to have second thoughts about letting the Jews go and tried to prevent them from leaving. Nonetheless, they did not succeed in stopping them, and thus, it was on that very same day that the Egyptians tried to stop them that GOD took the Israelites out of Egypt with all their hosts.

At Sukot, GOD spoke to Moses, saying,

“Since I spared the firstborn of the Israelites in this most recent plague, they owe Me their lives. Therefore, consecrate to Me, from among the Israelites, every firstborn human or animal – the first issue of every womb; it is Mine.”

Now that the people were camped at Sukot and were no longer in such a rush, Moses felt it was time to deliver the communications from God that he had not yet had time to deliver. Thus, before conveying the laws God had just told him (regarding consecrating the firstborn), he conveyed the laws God had told him previously (about observing the holiday of Passover in the future), together with the following details: Moses said to the people, “Remember this day on which you went out of Egypt, the house of bondage, for with a mighty hand GOD brought you out of here. You must mention the Exodus every day. No leavened food may be eaten on Passover, the holiday that will commemorate the Exodus, as will be detailed presently.

See how kind God is to you: this day, on which you are going out, is in the month of the beginning of the grain-ripening. He is taking you out in the spring, when the weather is perfect for traveling.

When GOD will bring you to the land of the Canaanite peoples, including the Canaanites themselves, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, the Jebusites, and the Perizites, which He swore to your forefathers to give you, a land flowing with goats’ milk and date- and fig-honey, then you must perform this service, that of offering up the Passover sacrifice, every year on the 14th day of this month.

For seven days – from 15 through 21 Nisan – you must eat matzos whenever you would like to eat bread, and on the seventh day there must be a festival to GOD.

During the seven days, matzos must be eaten instead of leavened bread. Nothing leavened of yours nor any leavening agent of yours may be seen – i.e., found – throughout your domain, i.e., in any place under your control.

And if at some point in the future any of you should have a child who does not yet know how to ask about the observance of Passover, you must tell your child about the Exodus on your own on the anniversary of that day by recounting the miraculous story and thereby sparking the child’s interest. On the other hand, if you have a rebellious child, you should answer him by pointing to the Passover offering, the matzos, and the bitter herbs, and saying, ‘It is for the sake of fulfilling His commandments, like these, that GOD acted on my behalf when I came out of Egypt.’ Say ‘on my behalf’ and ‘when I came out’ rather than ‘on our behalf’ and ‘when we came out.’ Although he indeed would have been redeemed (together with the rest of the rebellious people – for only those who refused to leave perished beforehand), he would not have been worthy of it. This hint may influence him to mend his ways.

As an additional daily reminder of the Exodus, write these two passages of the Torah – this one and the following one, both of which describe the Exodus – twice: once on two separate parchments, and once together on the same parchment. Place them in specially made leather boxes (tefilin): the single parchment with both passages into a box with one compartment, and the two separate parchments into a box made with compartments for each passage. Attach leather straps to the boxes. The Exodus will then be a sign for you when you wear the single-compartment tefilin on your weaker arm (i.e., the left arm for right-handed men), and a reminder when you wear the multiple-compartment tefilin on your forehead above the point exactly between your eyes, so that GOD’s Torah will be on your lips, for with a mighty hand GOD brought you out of Egypt.

Finally, you must observe this ordinance – the Passover sacrifice and holiday – at its appointed time from year to year.”

Moses then related the instructions regarding the firstborn to the people: “The following commandment will apply only when GOD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as He swore that He would to you and your ancestors, and gives it to you – and, of course, whenever God commands you to observe it before this. In the merit of observing this commandment, you will enter the land; so whenever you perform it, thank God for giving you the land just as if He gave it to you that very day.

You must set apart for GOD every first issue of the womb. Even all male firstling miscarriages of your cattle and flocks must be considered GOD’s: although you are not required to give this animal to a priest, it exempts the first viable animal born after it from being treated as a firstborn.

In addition to setting apart the firstborn of your cattle and flocks, you must redeem every firstling donkey by giving a lamb or kid to a priest in its stead. If you do not redeem the donkey, you must kill it in a particularly cruel manner: you must break its neck-bone from behind with a hatchet. You must also, once you set up the Tabernacle, redeem every firstborn child among your sons, by giving five shekels of silver to a priest when the baby is a month old, as ‘payment’ for functioning in his stead.

It was previously pointed out that you must make efforts to educate your children about the Passover holiday, even if they are rebellious or too uneducated to know how to ask. The truth is that you must explain all of God’s commandments to all your children. Thus, if, in time to come, after the passing of the generation of the Exodus, you have a simple child, who does not delve deeply into things, and your simple child asks you about redeeming the firstborn by simply saying, ‘What is this? Why do we have to do all these things with firstborn men and animals?’ you must say to him, ‘GOD brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, with a mighty hand.

When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us leave, GOD slew every firstborn in Egypt, the firstborn of both man and beast. I therefore sacrifice to GOD every male animal that is the first issue of the womb, and redeem every firstborn among my sons.’

Place this passage, too, in your tefilin. Thus, the Exodus, which is described in this passage, will be a further sign on your arm and reminder between your eyes that GOD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Whoever sees the tefilin will thus be reminded of the miracles of the Exodus and speak about them. Even though I am only telling you now to write two passages, make the head-tefilin with four compartments, for in the future I will tell you to place another two parchments in them. The hand-tefilin should consist of only one compartment, since you are to place all the specified passages in it on one parchment.”