Shabbat Parashat Bo - 5785

Shabbat Parashat Bo - 5785

Rabbi Hal Miller

  God said to Moshe, come to Pharaoh for I have made his heart and the heart of

  his servants stubborn so that I shall place these signs of Mine in his midst. [Shemot 10:1]

Why did God tell Moshe, "come to Pharaoh", when it would seem more relevant to have

said, go to Pharaoh? The Torah uses the Hebrew word bo, which is normally translated as

come, even though on occasion applied as go. But most of the times when the Torah wants

to tell someone to go someplace, it uses the word lech, such as lech lecha to Avraham.

What is the reason for the word choice here? We see the identical word pattern in verses

7:26 and 9:1, "God said to Moshe, come to Pharaoh", so we can look at all together.

Perhaps we could understand lech as 'go and do not return', but bo as 'go and return'.

Rav Hirsch seems to support this with "visit him in his palace". Others also tie it to Moshe

speaking to Pharaoh in his palace as opposed to somewhere else. Rashi says it was

because Moshe was to warn Pharaoh. Or HaChayim connects it to the issue of guards

at the palace, that Moshe was able to go to Pharaoh at the Nile because there were

no guards with him, and that in the palace Moshe should enter as if he was invited so he

could bypass the guards. Malbim suggests that bo means Moshe should appear at the

palace in the middle of the day when Pharaoh and his ministers were available for a

meeting.

Rav Soloveitchik notes that when Moshe was first appointed to lead the Jews out of

Egypt, he complained that he was not capable of the job. God in these verses is saying

come with Me, that He will accompany Moshe to the audience with Pharaoh.

Some of the commentators observe that the command given to Moshe varies during the

process. Malbim writes that the second of each set of plagues uses 'come', such as

verse 7:26, but that in 7:15 which was the first of a set, the command was "go to Pharaoh

in the morning" using lech. Rav Soloveitchik explains that the choice of lech or bo refers

to the message meant for Pharaoh, where lech means Moshe should confront Pharaoh

and bo means to place himself before Pharaoh in a less confrontational manner.

Talelei Oros suggests that the word bo "is used when speaking to a person who is

undecided about what to do and where to go. In such a case, his friend coaxes him

gently along by saying come." Moshe knew that Pharaoh was not going to listen, in fact

God just said that He would harden Pharaoh's heart, so Moshe thought it pointless to

bother. God is here telling Moshe not to worry about such things, just to do what He

commands with the knowledge that God will take care of things.