This week's Parsha, Parshat Bo, should have actually opened the Torah. Rashi, at the very beginning of Bereshit, famously asks why the Torah does not start with the first mitzvah given to Bnei Yisrael – Rosh Chodesh – which is found in our Parsha. The Maharal, based on the Zohar, says that the Torah is called תּוֹרָה from the word הוֹרָאָה – just as, l’havdil, a when person buys an electrical appliance there are instructions that teach the how to use the product. Similarly, Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world and gave us an instruction book that includes 613 commandments, through which we’ll know how to use it. And our instructions begin here in this Parsha: הַחֹדֶשׁ הַזֶּה לָכֶם רֹאשׁ חֳדָשִׁים. This is the first commandment that Moshe Rabbeinu was given in Egypt.
Among the mitzvot in our Parsha is that of the Korban Pesach – both in Mitzrayim and for generations following the Exodus. Additionally, we find the mitzvah of Milah – Chazal say that since the death of Yosef, the Bnei Yisrael in Egypt stopped circumcising themselves, except for Shevet Levi. Therefore, just before Yetziat Mitzrayim, Bnei Yisrael were commanded to circumcise themselves, because one who is uncircumcised may not partake in the Korban Pesach.
Regarding Korban Pesach, the Torah says וְהָיָה לָכֶם לְמִשְׁמֶרֶת – And you shall keep it. Rashi writes, there had arrived the time to fulfil the oath which Hakadosh Baruch Hu had sworn to Avraham Avinu, to redeem his children, but they had no commandments to engage in to be redeemed. They were
