Torah teaches Israel’s freedom advances only when oppressive regimes fall and evil power is dismantled.
Parashat Bo opens with G-d commanding Moshe to confront Pharaoh once more, announcing the final sequence of judgment: Locusts, Darkness, and the Slaying of the Firstborn. These are not random punishments; they are systematic blows to Egypt’s economy, cognition, and future—until tyranny collapses entirely.
The Parashah closes in triumph. Israel departs Egypt not as escaped slaves, but as a free nation that empties the slave-house of its power. The Sages describe Egypt as left “like a bird-trap without grain” or “like ocean depths without fish”—a civilization stripped of substance once its oppression ends.
The Haftarah (Jeremiah 46:13–28) mirrors this message with prophetic precision. The prophet announces Egypt’s downfall across Migdol, Noph, and Tahpanhes—symbols of military defense, economic dominance, and political power. This is not merely historical forecasting; it is a theological principle: regimes built on coercion eventually implode.
Noph—ancient Memphis—was Egypt’s spiritual and cultural heart, sacred to the god Ptah, whose temple name gave Egypt its very identity. When Jeremiah foretells Noph’s desolation, he is declaring the collapse of Egypt’s religion, ideology, and claim to permanence. The “beautiful calf” will fall.
Rabbi Ya’akov ben Asher (the Ba’al ha-Turim) deepens this insight, linking Jeremiah’s imagery to Pharaoh’s dream of the seven fat cows—symbols of Egypt’s nations and offshoots—destined to be consumed. Power that feeds on others ultimately devours itself.
Yet the prophecy does not end with destruction. It concludes with reassurance to Israel: exile is temporary, survival is guaranteed, and elimination will never be total. This promise appears twice in Jeremiah—once in a vision of redemption, and once in a prophecy of Egypt’s ruin. The message is unmistakable.
Israel’s redemption and the downfall of its oppressors are inseparable.
This was true in the Exodus. It is true in every chapter of Jewish history. And it is true in our era of return, where Israel’s restoration to its land proceeds alongside the dismantling of forces that seek its eradication.
As King Solomon taught:
“At the good fortune of the righteous the city rejoices—and at the destruction of the wicked is joyous song.”
Freedom is not negotiated with tyranny. It emerges when evil loses power.
