Parasha Reflection – Bo

And when Miriam heard
That first screech, that sob, 
That uncontrolled keening,
Did she hear the voices of Egyptian 
Friends? Imagine some friend’s
First-born’s cooling body?

Did she keen herself, wondering If the Ancient One of Days’ Justice was fit to Pharaoh’s Crime? Were Miriam’s playmates From eighty years prior Guilty enough to suffer This divine grief?

Did the crying simmer down? Did the screams hunker Into heaving breaths as the angels Discharged the divine will?

We’re told some Who suffered and witnessed Joined: the mixed crew That walked between the water walls.

Our text leaves these queries Unanswered, but in the midst Of their own tears, let me Envisage, that this multitude Although mourning, On the one hand, Noted the miracle, On the other, and

After all that, sang Praise at water’s edge; Rejoiced as Miriam Danced with timbrels, “Sing to the Lord, For He has triumphed in glory, Horse and horseman He hurled into the sea.”

It happened at midnight: the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, presiding on his throne, to the firstborn of the prison captives, and all the firstborn cattle. Pharaoh arose that night, he and all his officials and all Egypt — for a great scream rang out across Egypt, for there was no house without its dead.. And a great variety of other people went up with them, as well as larges droves of livestock, flocks and cattle. Ex. 12:29-30, 38 (Koren Tanakh)

….And at midnight the Lord passed through Egypt, and he slew all the first born of the Egyptians, from the first born of man to the first born of beast; and Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians, and there was a great crying in Egypt; for there was not one house where there was not one dead; and even the likenesses of the first born, which were engraved upon the walls of their houses, fell broken to the ground, and the bones of their first born, which had died before and lay buried in their houses, were raked up by the dogs of Egypt in that night, and dragged about before the eyesight of the Egyptians. And when the Egyptians saw the great evil which had befallen them so suddenly, they cried with a loud voice, so that all the families of Egypt were weeping in that night, one for his son and one for his daughter, their first born, and the consternation and noise of Egypt resounded in the distance on that night….Sefer HaYashar 48 (also known as Toledot Adam) (from sefaria.org)