Bo: What Did the Egyptians Get Out of the Exodus?

Parshat Bo tells the story of the last three plagues. The 10th plague, the death of the firstborn, ultimately compels Pharaoh and the Egyptians to free the Israelites from slavery, but was that really the purpose of the plagues? Were they just meant to punish the Egyptians? Or were the Egyptians meant to get something else out of these destructive plagues? Join Tikva Hecht and Beth Lesch as they challenge a classic answer to these questions on the 10 plagues and develop a new understanding of what it means to “know God.”Check out Rabbi Fohrman’s course “Why Did God Choose Israel As His Chosen People?” to explore these questions further. Subscribe to Aleph Beta to unlock the full season of A Book Like No Other and get access to a private RSS feed for seamless listening on your favorite podcast app!For past episodes of Into the Verse, go to our website, alephbeta.org, where a premium subscription gets you access to all of our past episodes and our full library of over 1,000 videos and podcasts on the parsha, holidays, and so much more.