Parshat Bo: Educational slavery In order for the satisfied to
really understand hunger, he must experience the sensation of
hunger. Only then can he actually relate to hunger correctly.
Torah scribe Photo: Courtesy Derech AMI We read in this week’s
parsha about the last stages of Am Yisrael’s exile in Egypt. At
first glance, this exile seems surprising and confounding. was
it that before God chose us as the nation that would receive the
Torah and fulfill the eternal role of being a light unto
nations, was Am Yisrael oppressed in Egypt, demeaned and
enslaved? Was it a coincidence that in the process of choosing
the nation we went through slavery and oppression, or was it
planned and part of the process? Did we benefit from it? In the
Torah, we read a clear answer to the question of whether or not
this was planned and a process. During the “brit ben habetarim”
– the Covenant of the Halves – God promised the patriarch
Abraham that a great nation would come of him that would carry
an eternal message for the entir