This week we read Parashat Bo, the third portion of the Book of Shemot (Exodus). The text places us at the final stage of Israel’s enslavement in Egypt: the last three plagues—locusts, darkness, and the death of the firstborn—and the immediate preparations for the people’s departure toward freedom, Yetziat Mitzrayim.   Yet to reduce Bo to a chronicle of punishments and miracles would be to miss its deepest message. Bo is not only the story of liberation; it is, above all, a p