A Bloody Good Chag [with speakers' notes] [expanded]

(4) As for your birth, when you were born your navel cord was not cut, and you were not bathed in water to smooth you; you were not rubbed with salt, nor were you swaddled.

(5) No one pitied you enough to do any one of these things for you out of compassion for you; on the day you were born, you were left lying, rejected, in the open field.

(6) When I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you: “Live in spite of your blood.” Yea, I said to you: “Live in spite of your blood.”

(7) I let you grow like the plants of the field; and you continued to grow up until you attained to womanhood, until your breasts became firm and your hair sprouted. You were still naked and bare

(8) when I passed by you [again] and saw that your time for love had arrived. So I spread My robe over you and covered your nakedness, and I entered into a covenant with you by oath—declares the Lord GOD; thus you became Mine.

(9) I bathed you in water, and washed the blood off you, and anointed you with oil.

Go out and learn what what Lavan the Aramean sought to do to Ya'akov, our father; since Pharaoh only decreed [the death sentence] on the males but Lavan sought to uproot the whole [people]. As it is stated (Deuteronomy 26:5), "An Aramean was destroying my father and he went down to Egypt, and he resided there with a small number and he became there a nation, great, powerful and numerous."

"And numerous" - as it is stated (Ezekiel 16:7), "I have given you to be numerous as the vegetation of the field, and you increased and grew and became highly ornamented, your breasts were set and your hair grew, but you were naked and barren;" "And I passed over you and I saw you wallowing in your blood, and I said to you, you shall live in your blood, and I said to you, you shall live in your blood" (Ezekiel 16:6).

(1) והיה לכם למשמרת AND IT SHALL BE IN YOUR KEEPING (or watching) — This expresses the idea of examining, and the text therefore implies that it requires examination against any blemish during the four days before slaughter (Pesachim 96a). And why did He order that it should be taken from the flock four days before its slaughter, something which He did not command in respect to the paschal-lamb that was offered by succeeding generations? Rabbi Mathia, the son of Cheresh, said, in answer: Behold, it (Scripture) says, (Ezekiel 16:8) “And I passed over thee (an allusion to God’s passing over the Israelites in Egypt) and looked upon thee, and behold, thy time was the time of love” — there had arrived the time to fulfil the oath which I had sworn to Abraham to redeem his children. They, however, possessed no divine commands in which to engage in order that they should merit to be redeemed — as it is said (Ezekiel 16:7) “thou wast naked and bare” (i. e. bare of all merit earned through the fulfilment of God’s commands). He therefore gave them two commands, relating respectively to the blood of the paschal-lamb and the blood of the circumcision — for that night they circumcised themselves, as it is said (Ezekiel 16:6) “[When I passed over thee] I saw thee wallowing in thy bloods (בְּדָמַיִךְ is plural)” i. e. in two kinds of blood. Further it states, (Zechariah 9:11) “As for thee, also, because of the blood of the covenant I released thy prisoners out of the pit wherin there is no water”. [emphasis mine] And yet another reply to this question is, that because they were sunk in idolatry and had no merit gained by the practice of a divine command, He said unto them, (v. 21) משכו “Draw” — withdraw your hands from idols; וקחו לכם צאן “and take unto yourselves a lamb” to fulfil a divine command (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 12:2:1).

(22) Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and to the two doorposts. None of you shall go outside the door of his house until morning.

"Dip it in the blood that is in the basin": Why did Hashem choose to protect the Jewish people with blood? To remember for them the blood of the circumcision of Avraham. And they were saved by two bloods: the blood of the Pesach offering and the blood of circumcision, as it says (Ezekiel 16:6) "And I said to you, by your blood shall you live, by your blood shall you live."

"And apply some of the blood to the lintel": in the merit of Avraham. "And to the doorposts": in the merit of Yitzchak and Yaakov.

And they [the Israelites] took the blood of circumcision and the blood of the Paschal lamb, and they put it on the lintel of their homes. And when the Holy Blessed One passed over to plague the Egyptians and saw the covenant blood and the Paschal blood, They were filled with mercy for the Israelites, as it is said, "And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, and I said to you, in your bloods [plural] live" (Ezekiel 16:7)

(48) If a stranger who dwells with you would offer the passover to the LORD, all his males must be circumcised; then he shall be admitted to offer it; he shall then be as a citizen of the country. But no uncircumcised person may eat of it.

"And it will be a sign of the covenant between Me and you". A symbol and a sign that I am the Master and you are my servants, and the sign is sealed in a private place that will not be seen. The reason for this is so that the [non-Jewish] nations of the world won't say that the Jews are blemished ("ba'alei mumin"). And since the Holy One, Blessed be He, commanded men and not women, we learn that the place of manhood ("makom zachrut") was where the Holy One, Blessed be He, commanded to seal the covenant. And the blood of niddah [menstrual blood] that women guard, and tell their openings to their husbands, this is to them the blood of the covenant ("dam brit").

The Holy One Blessed Be He said: If you are not circumcised, you cannot eat [the passover sacrifice], as it says "And God said to Moshe and to Aaron 'This is the law of the passover sacrifice...' " They immediately circumcised themselves, and the blood of the passover sacrifice mingled with the blood from the circumcision, and The Holy One Blessed Be He passed over and held each one and kissed it and blessed it, as it says, "And when I passed by thee, and saw thee wallowing in thy blood, I said unto thee: In thy blood, live; yea, I said unto thee: In thy blood, live;" (Isaiah 16:6)

... Why did the [plague of] blood come upon them? Because they saw that the Israelites would immerse [to cleanse themselves] from their impurities, and that the daughters of Israel would immerse [to cleanse themselves] from their menstrual [impurity], and they took the water from them that they should not immerse. Therefore God turned all their water to blood.