Turning the Switch
When do we truly have control in our lives? A recurring word in this week’s parashah draws our attention to this question. In Exodus 12:2, the word lachem (“to you”) appears twice: “This month shall be to you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you.” Lachem essentially denotes the possessive form. What does the whole notion of “possessive” suggest? Independence, autonomy, sense of self, ownership, control. Do the Israelites have these things currently? No—they are enslaved. They lack the freedom that possession implies. What are they being given here, with the designation of “the beginning of months,” rosh chodesh? Is it a physical gift? No—rather, they are receiving something that exists in time. Why is this God’s first step towards granting freedom to the Israelites?
Sforno, a medieveal commentator, paraphrases God’s instruction: “From here forward, the months shall be yours, to do with them as you wish. But, in the days of enslavement, your days weren’t your own, but were for the service of others and their desire. Therefore—‘it is the first for you of the months of the year’—for in it, your ‘discretionary existence’ began.” Sforno is emphasizing the elements of choice, independence, and freedom. He understands that God is saying, “Your time is now your own.” Freedom begins with being able to order and define your own reality. Control of your calendar can have a profound effect on that sense of freedom. This is not just a technical change of using a new system of dates. God is offering the gift of a completely new orientation to time as something personal, intimate, free. “It’s your to do with as you wish.” You can now begin participating in the redemptive process, breaking free from the yoke of oppression. Your oppressor will no longer define you. Through your control of your sense of time, you will begin to construct your own freedom.
What comes immediately after this commandment? God shifts from speaking only to Moses and Aaron and now gives the two brothers instructions of what to actually tell the Israelites. What is the first thing the people will all hear regarding this month? “On the tenth of this month, they shall take for themselves (lahem)—each person—a lamb for his household, . . . a lamb for his house” (Ex. 12:3). When Moses and Aaron deliver these words to the Israelites, presumably they will change lahem (“for them”) into the second person plural, lachem (“for you”), reintroducing this same word that carries the message of freedom. The Israelites will begin to learn the importance of their taking possession of something for themselves. This process begins with the ownership of time, but the first piece of information the Israelites hear as a whole is much more practical, more tangible. You will take a thing into your possession, a lamb. Why not “time?” Although God had shared this concept with Moses and Aaron, this idea is still too abstract for a slave mentality. They are like children. They’ll need some “time” to absorb those more complex ideas—they need to start with more concrete actions. Note that the lahem in verse 3 is superfluous. God doesn’t need to say, “they shall take for themselves, each person, a lamb.” The text could just as easily have read, “They shall each take a lamb.” Why the addition? This is the first commandment being prescribed to the Israelite nation as a whole. This begins their relationship with God as a commander. This begins the end of their subjugation to human taskmasters and enslavers. They now have the opportunity to begin to act in service of God and holiness, rather than—as Sforno said—the whim of other human beings. And if we read Sforno’s interpretation closely, we can understand that God is giving the Israelites the opportunity to make this action personal. Presumably, God is allowing for them to decide even if they will do it or not. This is the beginning of freedom, and their relationship with God, even though based on commandment, will also be based on the recognition of free will, of human autonomy—something that the Israelites have not experienced under Egyptian rule. Lahem (“for themselves”) highlights this idea. We can compare it to the use of the possessive in some more famous Biblical passages, most notably when God says to Abraham, “Lech l’cha—go to a place that I will show you.” The l’cha is superfluous. God can just say Lech (“Go). But God says, “Get yourself to a place that I will show you,” or as some creative interpretations put it, “Go into yourself.” There is an experience of self-affirmation, followed by deeper self-discovery, when God frames commandments in this possessive way. The Israelites, like Abraham was, are about to begin a journey of self-actualization.
I suggested that Moses and Aaron would switch from God’s use of the third person to the direct second person when actually addressing the Israelites. It’s worth noting that God, too, switches the use of pronouns. God begins with “they should take...” (v.3) and by the end of v.4, God says, “According to everyone’s eating shall you make your count for the lamb.” Now God’s words are directly addressing the people themselves. Even though this is still technically part of God’s instructions to the divine intermediaries, Moses and Aaron, God’s language now reflects a more direct, more intimate relationship with Israel. Whereas God’s initial use of lahem will require Moses and Aaron to adapt God’s words accordingly when addressing the Israelites, God is now making the point from the start that these commands are being delivered in relationship to the entire nation.
Lachem appears again in v.13: “And the blood shall be to you for a sign upon the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. . .” Why is the lachem added in this case? First, let’s think practically. Why might it be necessary? To distinguish the blood as a sign for the Israelites, as opposed to others. Rashi says, “for you as a sign, and not for others as a sign.” In other words, God is emphasizing the way that the blood will have an impact on the Israelites themselves. This ritual of placing blood on the doorposts is more than just about the way the Israelites will be spared from God’s destructive power. Did God need to see the blood in order to spare the Israelites? Rashi adds that the fact that the blood is a sign for them teaches us that the blood was therefore painted on the inside of the houses. Another commentary explains that this provision was to prevent people from saying that God needed to see the sign. Why does this matter? God is all-powerful and doesn’t rely on signs. Who needs the sign? We needed it. It was the next step in our active participation in redemption. We took the lamb for oursevles, and now we are making the blood a sign for ourselves. I’m even taking it a step further by discussing this in the first person. We need to see ourselves as though we were slaves in Egypt and were part of the Exodus. When we read in the Torah lachem, we can really take it to heart. These commands and signs are for us. Perhaps this is why when we put m’zuzot on our doors, as a reminder of this initial “doorpost” event, the top of the casing that holds the parchment leans to the inside of the house. The sign is for us, in our dwelling spaces—much less, if at all, about protecting us from outside danger. It is an internal aid—something we have brought inside ourselves, lachem—to you.
Another commentator, Chizkuni, goes as far as to offer the following explanation: God says in the continuation of v.13, “I will see the blood and pass over you.” Chizkuni adds, “even though it is on the inside!” In other words, God sees everything. Nothing can be hidden from God. The ones who need to see it are the Israelites themselves. It is an internal sign. We can think of the house as representing our own sense of self. The sign needs to be within us—truly internal. We need not only to recognize that God’s power can penetrate to the deepest parts of our souls, but that the signs that exist there are partially of our own making. We have control of our souls, our lives, our destiny. We can be active partners with God in shaping our reality. Ultimately, we recognize that God is in control—there are infinite elements of our surroundings that are way beyond our power. But that power will not belong to human oppressors. We can take action to assert our independence over that kind of control. God gives us the power to affect it. That power is like a thermostat—setting up a mechanism for regulating the elements around us. We don’t directly change the temperature—that power is beyond our control. We have created machinery to affect the natural elements, to establish the conditions that will allow God’s power to work. But we need to set the temperature. We need to participate in the redemptive process, to turn the switch to activate redemption. We didn’t actually do anything to the Egyptians—the political liberation was God’s doing. But God’s point in these verses is that even though it could theoretically happen without our active role, it won’t. We need to see that power, to help activate the spiritual liberation. We need a sign to remind us that we have taken up an active role in establishing our identities and our freedom. We need to turn the switch.