Bo: Half baked

I am impressed with the lack of preparation for the Exodus experience.  When Pharaoh offers to let the people go, but leave their herds behind, Moshe answers that is unacceptable because they do not know what  they will need for the service to Gd that awaits them.  They leave at the most unexpected hour: midnight  The very symbol of the Exodus, matzoh  is the product of haste and lack of adequate preparation,  half baked. 

Every year, we celebrate  Pesach in the spring, the season of  surprise.  We celebrate that the death of winter has limped past our houses, new adventures await us, who have survived.  The dead have only the predictable ahead of them. 

Bo, the Exodus, do not specify a destination, only a door, streaked with lamb's blood, by which to leave the  oppression. 

I returned from Poland this week, a relatively easy set of airplane flights that lead to a home where everything is familiar.  How different from my parents' journey, out of  a hole in the woods of  Masovia, liberated by the Red Army of Stalin.  All that was familiar was robbed, and would not be returned.  They were released into a  very different, unfamiliar and unfriendly world.  But, at least, they were released. 

Preparation helps, but it is best to be ready for the unexpected.