JHI Dvar Torah on Parshat Bo

PARSHAT BO – THE PAIN OF MOCKERY


Although the Jews were in Egypt for 210 years, the period of their intense suffering lasted for ‘only’ 80 years. That suffering ended when the Ten Plagues began. Just before leaving Egypt, the Jews sacrificed the Korban Pesach (Paschal Lamb). That was on the 14th day of the Hebrew month of Nissan; on the 15th, they left Egypt. Since then, Jews celebrate the first day of Pesach (Passover) on the 15th of Nissan.

Parshat Bo (12, 21) relates that Moshe (Moses) instructed the Jews in Egypt to set aside the lamb for the Korban Pesach four days before it was due to be sacrificed.

The Midrash Rabah (16:4) explains the background behind this commandment:
One of the torments the Jews endured for 80 years is that the Egyptians would bring them to a desert and command them to capture animals and prepare them for eating. The Egyptians would then feast, while the Jews were made to watch but were not allowed to partake.

In his commentary on the Midrash, the Yefe Toar (unabridged edition) explains that the slaughtering of the lambs alone was enough to humble and delegitimize the Egyptian god. (The Egyptians worshipped sheep.) However, the four days of inability to protest served a different purpose. It punished the Egyptians, midah kineged midah (measure for measure) for their merciless torture of the Jews - withholding food while they themselves were eating. Just as the Jews suffered from being forced to watch as their masters ate, so too, the Egyptians were made to suffer by looking on helplessly as their former slaves first set aside, then killed and then devoured the lambs. The Egyptians, who had ruled all of the known world, looked on, powerless to thwart what was being done to their deity. This was considered a great miracle.

What the Egyptians did must have made the Jews suffer terribly. No doubt, their tortured bodies cried out for the adequate and tasty sustenance they had just prepared that was being cruelly withheld. For 80 years of this sadistic behavior, the Egyptians were being punished. How? By being made to watch powerlessly for four days while the lambs they worshipped were set aside for sacrifice, and then slaughtered and eaten.

One might ask, is this a repayment for that? Can it be said that justice was done? Seemingly, the Egyptian suffering during those four days was not even remotely the equal of what they inflicted upon the Jews for 80 years.

Evidently, showing the foolishness of a person’s deeply held belief and then mocking it is a devastating blow to the human spirit. Although it is not a physical suffering, in a sense, it is comparable, if not worse. Physical afflictions pain the body, at times terribly, but they leave a person’s inner sense of worthiness intact. However, mockingly exposing the folly of another person’s beliefs totally invalidates his or her very being. And that causes far greater suffering. It can therefore be said that on some level, the Egyptians were indeed being repaid in kind for what they had done to the Jews.

This demonstrates that mocking with the beliefs of others good reason inflicts terrible human suffering.

People are sometimes saddled with the responsibility to influence others to abandon foolish values and beliefs and to instead gravitate to something more worthwhile. In particular, teachers, parents and synagogue rabbis are often faced with this struggle.

Advice is often appropriate – especially when offered appropriately. There are also times when outright reproof is called for. However, this text indicates that sarcasm and mockery is almost never a good idea. This text equates it to physical abuse. Both accomplish little, and both can inflict long-term harm.

A more subtle and prevalent form of mockery occurs when people make remarks that are mildly sarcastic and biting. Very often, those making these remarks consider them humorous and good natured – offensive only to the excessively sensitive. Yet, the butt of the “good natured humor” frequently considers it more cruel than funny – especially when it contains a grain of truth.

One thing is certain: An overarching principle derived from this Midrash in Parshat Bo is that personal mockery is profoundly hurtful - altogether more so than one might have imagined.

Shabbat Shalom!