Ex.10:1-13:16
Précis: God sends additional plagues (locusts and darkness) and alerts Moses that the 10th and final plague will follow. God instructs Moses on the institution of the Passover. Then, the final plague, the death of first born, is wrecked upon Egypt. The Israelites, accompanied by the “mixed multitudes,” leave Egypt, carrying with them the “spoils of Egypt” given to them by the Egyptians. The parasha ends with a repetition of the laws regarding Passover.
Ex. 12:29 “In the middle of the night the Lord struck down all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh who sat upon the thrown to the first-born of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the first-born of the cattle.”
The final, terrible plague is visited upon Egypt. This year, some of us (all too many!) can feel a certain connection with the Egyptians as we ourselves enter another year of the COVID-19 plague. It has reached all too many of us in America, in Israel, and around the world. I myself just this week tested positive, but fortunately, so far, it seems to be very mild, thanks to my vaxing and booster. In the past several weeks, members of my immediate family have become infected, despite following protocols and being vaccinated and even boostered.
I have also spent quite a bit of time via Zoom with members of my congregation, trying to figure out how we can return together in safety. I wish all we needed to do was to paint our door posts with lambs’ blood to ward away the plague, but that doesn't seem to be of much use.
And we as a country have the on-going plagues of hatred, anti-semitism, politicization of every common-sense way to lower the incidence of Covid, and a resulting tribalism which makes many of us fear for the future of our democracy. Having observed the first anniversary of the January 6, 2021 insurrection just yesterday, it is clear that we all continual to live under the cloud of darkness which plagued the Egyptians in our reading this week.
So 2022 has started with a plague of plagues, to which there are no easy or quick resolutions. Perhaps in this week’s reading, where the darkness of the final plagues in Egypt finally result in the freeing of the Israelites, we can imagine a cure to so many of our present-day plagues. We can pray and hope that there will be a light ahead, that we can live in a world where people respect other people, and take care of each other regardless of politics, and where we can again find trust in the institutions which have served us so well for centuries and millennia.
