blogs/rabbi-huberman

Parashat Bo

Today's 10 Plagues

We often sell Passover short.

When a visitor at our Pesach Seder asks what the story of Passover is all about, we frequently answer:

“We remember the liberation of the Jewish people from Egypt, and that we didn’t have enough time to let our bread rise in the desert, so we eat Matzah for eight days.”

No wonder the Seder of our early years often seemed boring.

Yes, the food was great. It was good to see family. We got to sing Dayenu or the Mah Nishtana.

But for many, the Seder was an exercise in listening to a few adults race through the service with barely a pause or an explanation.

We lovingly recall the Maxwell House Haggadah, which you can still get for free at many supermarkets.

But is there more?

Yes. In this week’s Torah portion, we are inspired to pursue a wider meaning of the holiday.

Today, we are just two months away from Pesach. But in this week’s Torah reading, as we continue our 54-portion journey from Adam and Eve through the darkness of Egypt to our arrival in the Promised Land, we pause to read the story of the Exodus, and the 10 plagues.

We know them: blood, frogs, lice, flies, pestilence, boils, hail, locust, darkness, and the death of the Egyptian firstborn.

According to modern scholars, while there were about 2,000 animal gods within Egyptian culture, the Passover plagues took aim at the top ten: frogs, crocodiles, ostriches, and geese—among others.

Fine. But what does this have to do with Passover today?

Perhaps just as God took aim at the Egypt’s false gods of 3,400 years ago, we need to do the same today.

While recovering from minor surgery this week, I took a bit of time to watch daytime television.

And if I didn’t know any better, I’d swear that the world was made up of cheap life insurance and a series of pills each with a “big story to tell.”

As I surfed from news channel to news channel, it occurred to me that perhaps too many have lost the ability to think independently.

Too many allow “trusted” camera-friendly personalities, who—through selective presentation of the facts—lead us into a dark world dominated by racism, intolerance, suspicion, arrogance, and inertia.

We see the results of this, in part, through the acceptability by too many of events occurring now on the streets of Minneapolis.

As I mentioned on Rosh Hashanah, there are currently more than 5 million podcasts, and 1.3 billion websites available online.

And each of us can find evidence to support any suspicion or grievance we can conjure. There exists the plague of creating our own self serving algarhythm.

There is also the plague of the cell phone. How many times --when purchasing an item—are we forced to wait until the salesperson and cashier gets off their phone. We are obsessed with pursuing our next internet rush.

There are so many more new plagues to consider, and each can become part of our Passover experience.

What are some other 2026 plagues?

Here are some easy ones: racism, hunger, homelessness, indifference, and the pursuit of false prophets.

Let us also use the Seder to think about some of the antidotes within our grasp.

Maybe, at minimum, we can agree to turn off our cell phones during the Seder.

Perhaps, rather than make the search for the afikoman an exercise in competitiveness, we can agree to make a family donation to feed the hungry or clothe the naked.

After all, one of the messages of Pesach reminds us, “Let all who are hungry come and eat.”

Also, rather than wait for a political argument to erupt, perhaps we can encourage those with differing views to share their concerns and opinions.

And let us undertake to truly listen, for there is so much to consider within the ideology of both left and right.

And when we leave the Seder table, let us resolve to be part of the solutions to these new plagues, rather than the articulators of the obvious.

Even with more than two months to go before Pesach, in a week when we read a preview of the Passover story in the Torah, let us consider how we can develop our own unique Haggadah to connect the storied events of 3,400 years ago with today’s world.

As our modern rabbis teach, the story of Passover is more than a regretful journey into Egypt’s darkness.

It is also an opportunity to address and defeat the hollow gods of 2026: technology, selfishness, materialism, indifference. I’m sure you can name many more.

Most importantly, how can we participate in the antidotes, which can bring us back to a more kind, caring, and compassionate world?

Passover is more than a one—or two-night journey. It is a daily battle against the false gods of our time.

The reading of this week’s Torah portion, previewing the Passover story, encourages us to consider the algorithm we wish to live by – and how we can break free of the bondage that restricts us.

Then, and perhaps only then, shall we truly enjoy the sweet taste of freedom, every day of the year.

Shabbat shalom, v’kol tuv.

Rabbi Irwin Huberman