Bo-2016
· Shemos 12:3-7 – “On the 10th day of this month each man shall take a lamb for his family. …You should hold it in safekeeping until the 14th day of this month. The entire community of Yisrael should slaughter it in the afternoon (Bain Harbayim). They shall take of its blood and place it on the side of the doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they will eat the lamb. They should eat the meat with matzos and bitter herbs during this night. It should be roasted over fire with its head close to its knees.”
· TWO MITZVOT – KORBAN PESACH AND BRIS MILAH
· Rashi 12:6 – Hashem gave them two mitzvos, the blood of the korbon pesach and the blood of the milah
· The Mechilta on 12:6: At the time of Yitziat Mitzrayim the Bnei Yisroel lacked the merit of Mitzvos, so Hashem gave them two Mitzvos to perform - Milah and the Korban Pesach - to make them His chosen nation.
· Yecheskel 16:7 - 'By your bloods you shall live.... and you were naked and unclothed." Yalkut Shimoni, Shemos (page 195): Hashem "clothed" them, enabling them to earn the merit to live, through the performance of the two Mitzvot, the two ‘bloods’, the blood of Milah and the blood of the Korban Pesach. This enabled their redemption.
· The Rambam (Hilchos Isurei Bi'ah 13:2): Most of the Bnei Yisrael in Egypt had not done the Mitzvah of Milah, but the tribe of Levi always observed the Mitzvah of Milah.
· The Rashba suggests that the men of Levi performed "Hatafas Dam Bris" - they let some blood from the place of their Milah.
· Maskil L’David – The circumcision had to take place on the 10th of Nissan to allow 3 days for the healing process before the day of the Korban Pesach, and leaving Mitzrayim.
· THEY BECAME JEWISH CONVERTS WITH BRIS MILAH AND TEVILAH
· There is a second reason for Bris Milah – It not only served as a Mitzvah, but made them Jewish converts.
· Kerisas 9a – Our forefathers who left Egypt entered the covenant through Milah (circumcision) and Tevila (immersion)
·
Rashi,
Yevomos 46a – 
· Rashi - BeAvotanu SheMalu – In the days of Moshe, when they went out of Egypt, they left the Klal of Bnei Noach, to accept the Torah and to accept the Pnei Haschchina.
· Artscroll on Yevomos 46a: Beginning with the Exodus, the people went through a transformation, so that by the time they received the Torah they no longer were Bnei Noach, but rather “members of the Covenant”, or Jews.
· Yevomos 46a – R. Eliezer says the Bnei Yisroel who left Egypt circumcised themselves…So too the women who left Egypt Tavlu (immersed) themselves.
· 46b – How do we know that there was immersion in the case of the women? It’s a Svora, it’s logical. For if the women didn’t undergo immersion, with what did they enter under the Kanfey Hashchina? (wings of the Shechina)
· This refers to Ruth 2:12 - May your deeds be rewarded by Hashem, under Whose wings you have come to take shelter.
· From the way Bnei Yisrael became Jews when they left Egypt, we learn that a male convert becomes Jewish by doing Bris Milah and Tevila, and the female convert does Tevila, immersion in a mikvah.
· THERE ARE TWO ASAY’S, POSITIVE MITZVOT, THAT IF NOT DONE ARE CHAYIV KORASE
· The Korban Pesach and Bris Milah are connected in additional way.
· There are 36 Averos that are Chayiv Korase – extremely serious sins. Korase means cutting off – implying that it leads to being cut off from Hashem, and being cut off from the Jewish people.
· In Messechet Chulin, the word Korase refers to cutting the thin tube of a cow through which the male seed travels. This ‘korase’ makes the male infertile, the animal is ‘cut off’ from generating a future.
· Of these 36 Averos, 34 are Lavim, prohibited actions. Only 2 are Mitzvas Asey, where NOT doing them is Chayiv Korase.
· These two are: Not having a Bris Milah, and not bring a Korban Pesach – the two things that the Bnei Yisroel did before they left Egypt
· They’re actually linked – a man is not allowed to bring a Korban Pesach if he doesn’t have a Bris Milah.
· In fact, even if a Jew owns a non-Jewish slave who hasn’t had a Bris Milah, the owner is not allowed to bring a Korban Pesach.
· Percentage of Jews in Israel who always do:
o Bris Milah 92%
o Participate in Passover Seder 78%
o Mezzuzah on front door 98% (http://www.jcpa.org/dje/articles2/howrelisr.htm)
· Riddle: How long were the Jews slaves in Egypt? Answer: no time – they became Jews a week before they left, and by then they were no longer slaves.
· DRAMATIC NIGHT
· The night of the 15th of Nissan was dramatic, called Layl Shimurim, a night of watchfulness.
· They shechted the Korban Pesach and smeared the blood on their doorposts.
· This was a dangerous act of rebellion in Mitzrayim, because the Egyptians regarded the sheep as their god.
· Shemos Rabah says, “Take a sheep for yourselves and slaughter the god of Egypt.”
· They ate the Korban Pesach, while the Molech Hamavet raged outside, killing the firstborn in Egypt.
· We re-enact this every year at our Pesach Seder.
· Hirsch 12:8 – (The Korban Pesach was eaten in households) Hashem sought to build His people not from independent individuals, but from households. Only within the framework of the family can the individual find gratification in his own personality.
· 12:22 – Let no man go out – Rashi – this teachers that once dominion is given to the Malech Hamavet, he does not distinguish between a Tzadik and an Rasha.
· 12:30 – There was not a house where no one had died.
· In Hagaddah – Tell Rasha, if you had been there, you would not have been redeemed –because he would not have participated Milah or Korban Pesach.
· A Yisrael Mumar (Jewish rebel) is not allowed to eat from the Korban Pesach, he would not have been protected.
· DRAMATIC SYMBOLISM
· Look at the drama at the time that the Jewish people were being born:
o In an act of rebellion, they took the ‘god’ of the Egyptians, and slaughtered it,
o They announced their act of rebellion by smearing the blood on their doorposts
o As they ate it, the Molech Hamavet was raging outside, killing the firstborn.
o Men had bris milah, women had tevila, like converts to Judaism. They became the Jewish People.
o The Korban Pesach is roasted with its head touching its legs, looking just like a fetus in the fetal position, another symbol of gestation and birth.
o They were ‘clothed’ in the mitzvot of Bris Milah and Korban Pesach, to warrant redemption.
o At the Yam Suf the sea split and the Jewish people went through it. This is just like a Fetus - the water breaks and the baby goes through the birth canal to be born.
o The Jewish people got Maan like food for a baby, nurtured on Mother’s milk from Hashem
o A baby is not considered ‘viable’, that it definitely will survive, until 30 days. The Jewish people weren’t considered viable, that it definitely will survive, until 50 days later, Matan Torah at Har Sinai. The thing that has enabled us to survive has been the Torah. Aitz Chaim he le machazikim bo
· GREATEST MIRACLE IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD
· The greatest miracle in history is that the Jewish people – one family – has survived as a family.
· Not just a religion – it’s a family.
· In Israel, there are two things in the back of everyone’s mind – we are all members of one family, we are all part of a miracle (Kibitz Galiot, ingathering of the exiles).
· To be separate from the Klal means won’t survive on one’s own. A mumar is not allowed to eat from the Korban Pesach.
· Bris Habasirim – Breshis 15:13 – Know that your descendants will be strangers in a strange land. They will enslave them and oppress them for 400 years. But I will judge that nation whom they will serve (Rashi – with 10 plagues); afterwards they will leave with great wealth.
· While leaving Mitzrayim
o became the Jewish People
o to Mekabel the wings of the Shechina and the Pnei Hashechna
o to be redeemed as Hashem had promised
o to Mekabel the Torah.