This week’s Torah portion, Bo, covers Exodus 10:1 to 13:16. The narrative intensity hits its peak here. The last three of the ten plagues descend on Egypt: locusts devour the crops, impenetrable darkness shrouds the land, and finally, the firstborns of every Egyptian family are killed during the night.
The portion begins with a command from God to Moses: “Go to Pharaoh; for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his officials, so that I may show these signs of mine among them” (10:1).
There is a fascinating linguistic twist here. The word translated as “Go” is actually Bo in Hebrew, which means “Come.” So a more accurate translation is “Come to Pharaoh” and not “Go to Pharaoh. God was telling Moses, “Come with me to Pharaoh.” The Pharaoh’s palace was the heart of the beast, the center of Egyptian idolatry. But by saying “come with me to Pharaoh,” God was reassuring Moses that he would not be walking into that throne room alone. God was already there, waiting.
