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Why does the Torah (תורה) emphasize telling our children and grandchildren about the plagues before saying "you will know I am Hashem (ה׳)"? The shiur develops a fundamental yesod: the final plagues were not about justice but about Hashem "toying" with Egypt—revealing that He acts as our Father, not merely as Judge. This transforms our sense of security and our responsibility to reflect His honor.
The shiur opens with a child's question: Why does the Torah (תורה) tell the Jewish people, poised to enter Canaan after forty years, to remember Egypt rather than their recent miraculous victory over Sichon and Og just weeks earlier? Those two kings were the mightiest powers in the world, protectors of Canaan, yet Israel defeated them in what seemed like a walkthrough. Why reach back forty years to Egypt, which most of the generation hadn't even witnessed firsthand? The answer emerges from a close reading of Parshas Bo. The Torah introduces the final three plagues with a puzzling statement: Hashem (ה׳) will harden Pharaoh's heart so that He can bring more plagues, and the purpose is "so that you may tell your children and grandchildren that which I toyed with Egypt." The language is striking—"toyed" (hissalalti), not "punished" or "judged." Moreover, the sequence is reversed: first comes telling your children, then "you will know I am Hashem." Logic would suggest the opposite: first you know, then you teach.
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Parshas Bo (Shemos 10:1-2)
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