Today’s “parasha” {פרשה}(weekly Torah portion) is ‘Bo’ {בא} (Hebrew for ‘come’ or ‘go’) and this is the “parasha” that tells the story of the Exodus of the Children of Israel from Egypt. It is found in Exodus 10:1–13:16.
Just before the Exodus took place, the Bible tells us:
“The people of Israel had also done as Moses told them, for they had asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing. And the LORD had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.” (Exodus 12:35-37)
Numerous questions have been asked about this subject and many theories and answers abound as well in theological circles. I would like to explain what happened in Egypt from the perspective of understanding the original Hebrew;
The people of Israel did not ‘ask’ the Egyptians (for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing) but rather they DEMANDED! This is the meaning of the Hebrew verb “Va-yishalu” {וישאלו} which appears in the original text.
True, it could also be understood as ‘ask’ (both words written the same in Hebrew) but because of the specific preposition that goes along with this verb (‘Me’ {מ} ‘from’) the actual meaning is indeed “THEY DEMANDED” in this context.
*A good example for this phenomenon in English would be the difference between the meaning of the verbs ‘switch’ and ‘switch off’ where using different preposition changes the meaning of the verb.
Then it is written, “Thus they plundered the Egyptians,” and the original Hebrew word for “plundered” is “Va-yenatzlu” {וינצלו} which actually means “TO EXPLOIT” or “TO UTILIZE.”
In other words, they did not really “plunder the Egyptians.” So what exactly did the Children of Israel actually do and why?
The answer will be in tomorrow’s post…