Parashat Bo, 5762, Maggie Bond
Parashat Bo, 5762
January 19, 2002
Maggie Bond
My parshat, Exodus chapter 10 verses 22-23, says "Moses held out his arm toward the sky and thick darkness descended upon all the land of Egypt for 3 days. People couldn't see one another and for 3 days no one could get up from where he was but all the Israelites had light in their dwellings."
Darkness stands out against the other plagues. The first eight were more physical. Those didn't effect pharaoh too much so Gd tried a different approach. What made darkness so bad that it was the final warning before the big one? I have two theories:
First, it wasn't an ordinary darkness. There was something that made it scarier, Like when you're a kid just waiting, trying to go to sleep in the dark. Maybe you start thinking about something you read or heard that scared you a little. Getting a little nervous, your brain tries to change the subject. But you just can't stop thinking about it. You know it's there, lurking in a dark corner waiting to get you. You're seeing something that can't be seen, Which is scarier then something that can be seen. Exodus 10:23: "People couldn't see one another." You can't call out to your parents, Or it would KNOW you were there. You can't run to turn on a light. Exodus 10:22: "No one could get up from where he was." It'd get you for sure then. You're just stuck there and you're so scared that you're afraid it can tell you're breathing under the blanket. So your breathing becomes so shallow and slow that you almost stop. The Me am' Lo' ez says, "The darkness was such that it was virtually impossible to breathe."
But this is what happens to kids at night, not adults. Grownups already learned how to channel their imagination waves into thinking about stuff that must be done; what the plan for tomorrow is; boring things. Kids are still free to imagine whatever they can. So what was it that made the grownups this particular brand of scared during the plague of darkness? According to Midrash, "When G-d ordered the forces in charge of darkness to bring this plague on Egypt they added something of their own." The forces of darkness added the feeling of fear and that turned the Egyptians back to children. The Etz Chayim says that this darkness was the primordial darkness that existed before the creation, Before God created light. It's a darkness without possibility of light. What kind of darkness is that? This leads to my other theory.
My other theory starts with the observation, 'Must've been hell.'
Hell. The Hebrew name is Gehana. The Rabbis named it that after Gai B'nai Hinom. A cult on one side of Jerusalem in Topeth, the valley of the slaughter, burned their own children as sacrifices. How could people be as truly heartless as is needed to do that?. They did not see anyone. To the point where they would sacrifice someone as easy to see as their own child. By not seeing them, the cult dehumanized them. People are a lot easier to kill when not even seen as real people.
For While the Egyptians couldn't see each other in the darkness, Some of the Israelites couldn't see each other in the light. According to Midrash, during the darkness Gd killed the Israelites who were not willing to seek redemption. That way the Egyptians would not know that God made a plague against the Israelites or that not all of the Israelites went on the Exodus. The Israelites G-d killed were so wrapped up in themselves that they forgot to look at their neighbors.
It reminds me of middle school. By the time you get there you've almost forgotten how to see people. All you see are clothes, hair, and shoes; outerwear. You forget about what kind of personalities you like and instead focus on what brands you like. Even friends you've known before that, you start seeing slightly differently depending on what they're wearing. When you look across the school yard you see lots of groups of people all wearing the same thing, talking the same way, and sharing the same view on everything.
You don't see other people and you don't see yourself. You get categorized by other people and make it worse by trying to live up to their expectations. You're dehumanized then killed off. You are not seen as an individual by others. You kill off your true self by fitting into the category that others place you in.
What made darkness so bad that it was the final warning before the big one? It was the darkness that is in each of us. The darkness didn't just surround the Egyptians. It got pulled out of each one of them and they were wrapped in their own personal darkness. Same with middle school, you're afraid of being rejected and humiliated. In middle school that fear gets wrapped around you.
So how do we overcome that darkness? By looking at other people (and ourselves) for what they are, not just at the surface. So that we see the real the person underneath. That way we break out of the darkness and we can see each other in the light.