Speak to the all the
congregation of Israel, saying: On the tenth of this month every man shall take
a lamb, according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household… and you
shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; and the whole assembly
of the congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at dusk. And they shall take
the blood and put it on the door-posts and on the lintel of the houses in which
they shall eat it. Exodus 12:3, 6-7
My father noted that before
redeeming the Israelites physically, God wanted them to be redeemed
spiritually. God’s instructions to the Israelites to take a lamb, the god of
Egypt, on the tenth of Nissan, slaughter it on the fourteenth and put the blood
on the doorposts of their homes [12:3, 6-7] was a repudiation of the warped
philosophy of Egypt, which deified an animal while trampling on human beings.
The Israelites had to remove themselves, spiritually and physically, from such
an approach to be ready for their physical freedom. It was not enough to take
the Israelites out of Egypt, it was necessary as well to take Egypt out of the
Israelites. The contrast between the approach of Torah and that of Egypt is
evident (as it related to preparation for the Exodus, and as it continues today).
In addition to the
command to slaughter the lamb and place its blood on the door-posts and lintels
of their homes, the Israelites were instructed to circumcise themselves as
preparation for eating the Paschal lamb.
It is very easy to
destroy someone else’s gods and beliefs. People are willing to shed someone
else’s blood, therefore God instructed that the Israelites shed their own blood
as well. The additional lesson of the requirement of circumcision as a
prerequisite to eating the paschal lamb is that Jewish identification must be
positive. It is not sufficient to be against something, even if it represents
an evil, idolatrous philosophy, one must possess positive values.
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