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85  fifteen The Ritual of Storytelling Parashat Bo (Exodus 10:1–13:16) Jason Gary Klein “When did you come out?” This is a common question among queer-identified people who are getting to know one another. For queer Jews, the answer may begin with Parashat Bo, which opens with the final three plagues and continues through the beginning of the physical exodus from Egypt. Parashat Bo not only tells of a one-time liberation in Jewish mythic history; it is also a tale of the future, setting the stage for a ritualized storytelling in every generation. This ritualized story has particular significance for queer Jews. Three times in this portion God commands the Israelites to tell their children the story of the Exodus. Although the physical preparation for leaving Egypt was a onetime Biblical event, telling the story as if we had been there—a telling concretized by symbolic foods and rituals—becomes the central part of the observance of Passover throughout time. Exodus 12:1–20 is a section of the text called Parashat HaChodesh (portion of the month). Not only is this section read during the regular cycle of Torah reading, but it is repeated on the immediate Shabbat before the month of Nissan, some two or three weeks before Passover. The text itself sets the calendar with which the Jewish people count time to this day: “The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: ‘This month shall mark for you the beginning of the months; it shall be the first of the months of the year for you’” (12:2). This is the proclamation of freedom par excellence : the Israelites will no longer be controlled by a Pharaoh but will instead have control over their own time. The paradox of the passage is that the Israelites are about to celebrate their first festival of freedom in the land in which they are still enslaved. Parashat HaChodesh continues as God instructs the Israelites how to prepare for the night of the tenth plague and the physical journey out of Egypt that will take place two weeks later. Paschal lambs, blood on doorposts, and girded loins usher in the first festival of freedom that shall be celebrated “as an institution for all time” (12:14), with unleavened bread as one of its central symbols. Although the special reading ends there, chapter 12 continues by explaining details of this first Passover ritual: And when your children ask you, “What do you mean by this rite?” You shall say, “It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord because He passed over the houses of the Israelites in 86 Jason Gary Klein Egypt when He smote the Egyptians but saved our houses.” The people then bowed low in homage. And the Israelites went and did so; just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did. (Ex. 12:26–28) Not only does the commandment include a specific ritual of preparation, but it also includes instructions for what to tell your children when they ask, “What do you mean by this rite?” The end of verse 28 reveals that the Israelites already “did so”; not only had they agreed to perform the ritual of the Paschal lamb to prepare for the Exodus, but the children were already beginning to ask questions, and the elders were already beginning to tell the story to their children. Rashi asks how the Israelites “did” so when it was only the beginning of the month: how could they have done so already? He answers his own question by stating that, from the moment the Israelites agreed to the ritual of the Paschal lamb to prepare for the Exodus, they were rewarded for their actions. Nachmanides, a 13th-century Torah scholar from Catalan, points out that “so they did” is an expression that occurs many times throughout the Torah and implies that the Israelites did not omit a single detail. Rashi’s commentary continues with an even more vibrant image than that of Nachmanides. He explains, “They did not drop a word from every command of Moses and Aaron,” as if the Israelites went back to their homes carefully bearing baskets filled with words and preventing any word from dropping. Twice in the sixteen verses at the conclusion of Parashat Bo (13:1–16) the text speaks of telling the story to our children. Verse 8 reads, “And you shall explain to your son on that day, ‘It is because of...

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