Bo 2018 - Shibud Mitzrayim

· Hashem made a covenant with Avraham, saying that the Jewish people would inherit Eretz Yisrael where they would be a holy people following the Rotzon of Hashem.

· At Har Sinai, Hashem said “You will be a Mamlechet Kohanim and a Holy People.”

· Hashem is our Melech and the Avodah that we do reflects our Avdus to Hashem.

· Question: How did Hashem arrange for this state of Avdus of the Jews in relation to Him?

· Let’s say there wasn’t a Shibud Mitzrayim, and that after several generations Avraham had thousands of descendants.

· What if  Hashem said to them, ‘You are my people, I am your King, you must follow my Rotzon, and do Avodah to me.”

· Probably many of those descendants would have said, “Great, we are on board.”

· But it is also likely that many would have said, “I’m not interested, I’m not signing up, I prefer my independence to do whatever I want.”

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· So how did Hashem orchestrate this state of Avdus of the Jewish People to Him?

· The third Mishnah in Kedushin says:

· There are several situations where someone can acquire an Eved.

o If an Eved is owned by someone, the ownership of the Eved can be transferred from the current owner to another owner.

o A person can ‘give himself over’ to avdus – saying, that he wants to be a slave.

· Hashem couldn’t count on the second method to work with all the Jews.

· So He chose method one.

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· The Jews went down to Mitzrayim, and became slaves to Pharaoh.

· After the plagues, Pharaoh said, “I’ve had enough, I don’t want to own the Jews anymore.”

· On Layl Pesach, the Avdus of the Jews were transferred from Pharaoh to Hashem.

· Which of the 3 methods did Hashem use to acquire the Jews? It wasn’t Kesef or Shtar – it was Hazakah, where you have the person do an act of service for you.

· Hashem said, offer a Korban Pesach to me.

· Also Yevomos 46a says that on Layl Pesach the men were circumcised, and the women went to the Mikvah.

· These acts – Korban Pesach, Bris Milah, and Mikvah – were the Hazakah that Hashem used to acquire the Jewish People.

· However  Yevomos 48b asks: what if someone acquires a slave, but the slave doesn’t want to mekabel the Mitzvos?

· It answers that the new owner waits up to 12 months to see if the slave is willing to do the Mitzvos. 

· If after 12 months the slave doesn’t want to do the Mitzvos, then the owner sells the slave to someone else.

· So after Hashem acquired the Jewish people, the deal wasn’t firm until the Jews agreed to do the Mitzvos.

· It’s good that the Jewish People agreed to do the Mitzos – Avoda Zara 3a says that if they had not agreed, that Hashem would have turned the world back into Tohu Ve Vohu.

· At Har Sinai the Jewish people said, ‘Naaseh VeNishma’.

· At that point the deal was final.