Come or Go? Parashat Bo
Very commonly we find that words carry a very different meaning than they used to. In many cases a commentator will give an incorrect meaning to a word based on their own understanding of the language used at their time. It is always important to look into the often used format for a word in a text, together with the over all meaning we find in the Bible. I saw an interesting anecdote about the name of this week's parasha Bo based on a very common Midrash used in Jewish circles.
The idea in this Midrash was that God said to Moshe to "come to Pharaoh" (the translation "go" is clearly incorrect) because God is telling Moshe that He (i.e God) will be there for him because he is already there. However this is based on a very specific understanding of the verb in Biblical Hebrew, and in our case one may argue that this verb, as in several cases, has to do with entering and not coming/going. Hence the correct translation should be "Enter before Pharaoh" in the sense of having and audience before Pharaoh.
Here are some examples of the root in this sense:
The entrance of a place is known as the בִּאָה
וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלַי--בֶּן-אָדָם, שָׂא-נָא עֵינֶיךָ דֶּרֶךְ צָפוֹנָה; וָאֶשָּׂא עֵינַי, דֶּרֶךְ צָפוֹנָה, וְהִנֵּה מִצָּפוֹן לְשַׁעַר הַמִּזְבֵּחַ, סֵמֶל הַקִּנְאָה הַזֶּה בַּבִּאָה
Then he said to me, “Son of man, look toward the north.” So I looked, and in the entrance north of the gate of the altar I saw this idol of jealousy (Ezekiel 8:5).
To Enter:
כִּי-תַשֶּׁה בְרֵעֲךָ, מַשַּׁאת מְאוּמָה--לֹא-תָבֹא אֶל-בֵּיתוֹ, לַעֲבֹט עֲבֹטו
When you make a loan of any kind to your neighbor, do not go into their house to get what is offered to you as a pledge (Deut 24:10).
וִירִיחוֹ סֹגֶרֶת וּמְסֻגֶּרֶת, מִפְּנֵי בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל: אֵין יוֹצֵא, וְאֵין בָּא
Now the gates of Jericho were securely barred because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in (Joshua 6:1)
וּמֵהֶם, עַל-כְּלֵי הָעֲבוֹדָה: כִּי-בְמִסְפָּר יְבִיאוּם, וּבְמִסְפָּר יוֹצִיאוּם
Some of them were in charge of the articles used in the temple service; they counted them when they were brought in and when they were taken out (1Chronicles 9:28).
We see that the root is used with the idea of entering, and we have other verses that connect "entering" for an action. It makes a lot of sense that God is telling Moshe to initiate an audience with Pharaoh to pass on His words, something Moshe did several times without asking Pharaoh.
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