This week’s parashah, Bo, details the end of the plagues and the beginning of our Exodus from Mitzrayim. Pharaoh and his oppressive regime are finally going to let them go. As we remember each Pesach, and as is outlined in this week’s Torah reading, each family would offer a sacrifice to remember the liberation from Mitzrayim. As an added detail, the Torah teaches:
But if the household is too small for a lamb, let them share one with a neighbor who dwells nearby, in proportion to the number of people: you shall contribute for the lamb according to what each household will eat. -Shemot 12:4
While the original mitzvah was for each household, we now learn about a caveat that brings people together from multiple households. Looking more closely at this component of the mitzvah, 19th century commentator HaAmek Davar wrote, “Each person must have equal access to the sacrifice, and no one can pay more in order to receive more of the lamb. The obligation is upon everyone to eat of the sacrifice, even upon a poor person.”
The Israelites haven’t yet been liberated but they know freedom is close, and it’s in the midst of this low point, where the Israelites can almost taste redemption, when they are expected to make a sacrifice by offering a lamb to God. This ritual demands that if one household couldn’t consume a lamb on their own, they had to join with another; they had to enter into community to bring about their redemption. Freedom doesn’t mean every person for themselves. Redemption means making sure everyone gets to taste it. It’s through this partnership of people, both rich and poor, that liberation comes. When fighting to get out of narrow places, our instincts often tell us to forge ahead, to ensure that we come out of that place at any expense, to fight for only ourselves. The Pesach sacrifice demands that we push against that instinct: we must find our partners, create ritual together even though we might be different, and work to ensure that all of us get a stronger sense of redemption. The nourishing taste of freedom is meant to be shared.
