פָּרָשַׁת בֹּא

Parshat Bo tells of the last three plagues, (hint, the gematriya of Bo in Hebrew letters equals 3), the first mitzvot given to the nation, and the night the children of Yisrael left Mitzrayim. Moshe warns Pharaoh of locusts; they cover the land and eat everything the hail left, and Pharaoh's own servants beg him to let the people go. Then a darkness that can be felt lies on Mitzrayim for three days while Yisrael has light. Pharaoh banishes Moshe from his presence, and Moshe delivers the final warning: at midnight every firstborn in Mitzrayim will die.

Before the plague, Hashem gives Yisrael its first commandments as a people: this month, Nisan, is the first of months; each household takes a lamb on the tenth, slaughters it on the fourteenth, puts its blood on the doorposts, and eats it roasted with matzah and maror — the Korban Pesach — and keeps seven days of matzot for all generations. At midnight Hashem strikes every firstborn, from Pharaoh's to the captive's; Pharaoh rises in the night and sends the people out, and the Egyptians press them to leave and give them silver, gold and garments. Six hundred thousand men, with their families and a mixed multitude, leave Ramses for Sukkot after four hundred and thirty years, carrying dough that has no time to rise. The parsha closes with the laws of the Pesach offering, the sanctification of the firstborn, the redemption of a firstborn donkey and son, and the mitzvah of tefillin — a sign on the hand and between the eyes that Hashem brought us out of Mitzrayim with a strong hand. Pesukim 12:1–20 are Parshat HaChodesh; 12:21–51 is the reading for the first day of Pesach.