By Emily Mayer

The parasha of this week is Bo, in which God sends along the last three plagues to the people of Egypt - Locust, Darkness, and Death of the Firstborn. All of Egypt erupts in sorrow, and Pharoah orders the Jews to leave Egypt, which they do. Upon their departure, God commands the Jewish people to observe Pesach, and to observe a number of other mitzvot, such as wearing tefillin, sacrificing certain animals, etc.

When I was briefly scoping out the internet for commentary on this parasha, one of the first things that I found was some college kid's drash which brought up some pretty interesting things. The essay (David Basior is his name) mostly inquires into the divine commandment to sacrifice the Pascal lamb and then smear its blood on the Jewish doorposts so that the Angel of Death would pass over their houses, which is a pretty gory and intense commandment if you think about it. This moment, as David Basior points out, is the first that the Jews have had to take action to further their own redemption, rather than relying on God's will and strength to free them from slavery. In order to save themselves from God's destruction, and ultimately, to be free, they must prove ready and willing to take action on behalf of themselves as individuals and as a collective.

I think this is a pretty inspiring moment. It is easy, albeit important, to sit around with our friends, our chanichim, our selves, and talk about the multiplicity of ways in which we or others are oppressed in our modern world. You name it: capitalism, alienation, racism, sexism, cultural hegemony, environmental racism, anti-semitism, age-ism, classism, the prison system, and many other global and national forces are at work which detract from our (this is very, very broad and all-encompassing "we" by the way) ability to live meaningful and fulfilled lives. However, we can not expect someone else to liberate us and our world from these forces. We must, like the Jews in Egypt, take an active role in our own liberation, starting from the small and simple ways in

which we live our lives. As Bob Marley so wisely stated: "None but ourselves can free our minds." (shoutout to Winter Camp Hatzagah 2011)

However (sorry to bring everyone down from that inspirational high), something troubled me about this message in the parasha. Before God delivers the final plague, he orders the Jews to borrow all of their Egyptian neighbors' treasures. Upon their quick departure from Egypt, the Jews take all the gold, jewels, and silver they have borrowed from their neighbors with them, effectively stealing a whole bunch of wealth from the Egyptians.

The reason I take issue with this, rather than with the killing of the first born (another semi-messed up thing in this parasha), is that I think there is something to be said for the drastic measures needed to be taken to persuade Pharoah to let the Jews go. Although I wouldn't go so far as to say that killing the relatively innocent children of Egypt was the "right" move, I can see some desperation and need in it (also, one could argue that these children are in some ways complicit in the Jews' oppression, and so perhaps not as innocent as they seem). However, stealing Egyptian possessions seems like a rather unnecessary and greedy act. Perhaps, as slaves, they in some ways had a right to Egyptian goods which they labored over and were denied access to, yet the act of asking to "borrow" and then in fact taking their neighbors' possessions seems manipulative despite possible justifications. To build their new emancipated peoplehood on a foundation of manipulation and stealing is dangerous. As Martin Buber said in his

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