The Courage To Change Your Life – Parsha BO 5782

 It’s an incredible phenomena; the universal law of cause and effect. “For every action, there is a reaction or a consequence”. This is because the universe is all matter, energy. The smallest matter, to our thoughts, our speech and actions create a wave of energy that moves and impacts other matter. Positive actions create desirable results. Negative actions will have undesirable results. A string of negative actions will keep sinking you further in the hole until it’s so bad, you’ve had enough. Oftentimes Intervention is needed. Some call it rock bottom. The string of negative consequences of our actions is necessary to get us to this phase, where change is a must to live. Once this happens, we get the courage to change our life. Then, help comes to us. 

The law of cause and effect is seen vividly in Parshas Bo. The text speaks of the last 3 plagues to the Egyptians as a consequence for not letting the Hebrews go. Besides the consequence of the actions of the Egyptians, this is the Torah portion leading us into the Exodus, liberation. Freedom. 

Change Life To Freedom Is an Effect Of Our Efforts

It is significant to point out what in this parsha brings us to freedom. Everything in the bible is a code word for our own lives and reality. It’s not an event that happened in history. It’s relevant today for each one of us. 

Egypt and Pharaoh represent a place, a state and part of us. Recognizing what it is and how to defeat this negative part of us, is life changing. Egypt represents a state of limitation, scarce, thinking small, contraction. We pray and remember that we left Egypt everyday because to an extent we are all still there. We all have an area to improve on, to expand our horizon, and take actions bigger than we think possible. 

Pharaoh parallels the animal soul in us that is that, an animal. It is driven by selfish desires. It behaves in a way that is repugnant to our divine self. In the last 2 parshas we learn Pharaoh’s heart has hardened, the same way our heart hardens and we experience numbness or look for ways to numb. It’s a feeling of dullness, an indifference. It might also be a fervent love for negative desires. Our heart hardens to having our way. No matter the consequence. 

Cause and effect go hand in hand with Liberation. Freedom is tied to parshat Bo because through the plagues(consequences) the Egyptians undergo we learn G-d gives humans many changes to change the course of their choices. Negative choices lead us to an ill fate, punishments. These consequences, fallings are warnings to get us to divert our hearts to better choices.  The plagues in Egypt, 10 in total, are not only punishments but they act as purifications of their negative actions. Yet, Pharaoh failed to act on the warnings. 

Other People Show Us The Way

The Egyptians received signals to let the Jews go. They didn’t listen initially. Then, it was Pharaoh whose heart desires did not let him see beyond himself. It was clear for  everyone(the Egyptians) what needed to be done, but pharaoh didn’t want to take action. This is so real in our lives, we see other people’s wrongdoings  but fail to see our own. The only way we can see the wrong in us is if we see it in other people. The mirror concept. 

The fact we see other people’s negative actions, is a way G-d speaks to us to let us know where our flaws are. We tend to be forgiving with ourselves, as a result we need to see the negativity in others to change it in us. 

Listen Is Key, Follow Examples

Caught up in our rituals, habits and undesirable actions, we keep the cycle going. To break it, our ear needs to attune to those around us that have our interest. Listen, follow instructions, and do the will they are advising on. To have the courage to change our life, starts with letting go. Is to have the consciousness that we don’t know it all, people are placed in front of us to serve as guidance, counselors, mentors, living examples. 

Pharaoh saw his life before him and decided to listen. Let the Jews go or die as a first born. His consequence for not listening would have been catastrophic, having to return. For us too, we get challenged with situations where we must listen to others, we must be attentive to good examples to change our lives for the better. From big to small events. 

The message of Parsha Bo is profound. To achieve the freedom we seek, to change our life, we need to pay attention to the events of our lives, are they leading us to where we want to be? Are people around us advising us to take different actions? It’s worth listening to, our future self depends on it. 

Just listen.