Bo is the culmination of the process of the plagues and its aftermath. In our triennial, we are reading the last plague, and the aftermath. What are the practices indicated to the children of Israel? How are they supposed to carry them out? How often?
בפרשה הזו נכתבו אלו הג' ענינים מצה מרור תפילין. מצה מורה על צמצום. מרור מורה שלא יבקש תענוגים, כדאיתא בגמ' (ברכות ה'.) ג' מתנות טובות נתן הקב"ה לישראל וכולן לא נתנן אלא ע"י יסורין, שצריך האדם ליגיעות ובירורים וספיקות. ואח"כ הוא תפילין, שמורה על דביקות, שישראל דבוקים בהשי"ת, כי תפילין מורה על תקופות אור הנמצא בכל פעולות ישראל.
In this portion are written three subjects: Matza, Maror and Tefilin. Matza teaches regarding the tzimtzum (contracting). Maror teaches that one should not ask for pleasures, as it is written in the Gemara (Brachot 5a): "three good gifts the Holy One of Blessing gave to Israel, and all of them were only given through sufferings" - that is, a person needs exertions, clarifications and doubts. And after that comes tefilin, that teaches regarding connecting [deeply with God], that Israel is connected to the Holy One of Blessing, because tefilin teaches about the seasons of light that is found in every action of Israel.
The three gifts are: Torah, Eretz Israel and the World to Come. How do those connect with exertions, clarifications and doubts?
How do those connect to matza, maror and tefilin?
How do those connect with tzimtzum, not depend on taanugim and connection?
Behold, in the first night of Passover the Holy One of Blessing instructed that a person clarifies her/his mouth. The forces of the mouth are eating, drinking and speaking. And the Holy One of Blessing commanded the eating of matzah, the drinking of the [four] cups and with that the eating and drinking of the entire year is clarified, since these mitzvot will defend a person the entire year, so that prohibited things won't come to one's mouth. And regarding the force of speaking the Holy One of Blessing instructed the telling of the exodus from Egypt, and with that there is defense from speaking prohibited things all the year. And this is so that "The Torah of Ad-nai will be in your mouth" - that all forces of the mouth will be very clarified and, and full of words of Torah.
For the Mei HaShiloach the ritual of Passover is much more than a ritual. When done in an aware consciousness, that practice illumites your ability to be aware of everything that touches your mouth and that comes from your mouth the entire year.
In a way, it is no surprise that tefillin will be mentioned so many times in the Torah, and why remembering the Exodus is one of the six remembrances a Jew is supposed to have every day. We are always getting out of Egypt. We are always liberating ourselves from the chains of small mindedness and bringing others with us in the question of personal, communal and national liberation.
The Exodus and its practices are what helps us to be aware of the larger picture of life.
Spirituality is not withdrawing from society and isolating oneself as a recluse, eating the bare minimum to remain alive and sleeping on the ground, spending the entire day in prayer and meditation. During the time of the Second Temple there was a sect of Essenes who separated themselves from society to devote themselves totally to prayer and study of Torah. They rejected anything that provided physical gratification, and they therefore abstained from eating meat, drinking wine, and getting married. This is not the type of spirituality the Torah advocates.
We are permitted to eat meat and drink wine judiciously, and we are required to marry and have families. We should work and engage in commerce. In short, we are to lead normal lives, but all the activities of normal living should be within the scope of spirituality.
The Torah states, "You shall be holy people unto Me" (Exodus 22:30), and the Hebrew lends itself to the interpretation of the great Chassidic master, Rabbi Mendel of Kotzk (d. 1859): "You shall be humanly holy." We are not expected to be angels. To the contrary, we are supposed to be human, but spiritually so.
A wealthy chassid once boasted to his Rebbe that he has a separate house where he resides only on Passover, and no leaven, forbidden on Passover, ever enters the house.
In this way he is absolutely certain that he is in complete compliance with the Torah requirement to be free of all leaven on Passover.
The Rebbe was not at all impressed. "What you are doing is actually contrary to the wishes of the Torah. The point is precisely to have leaven all year round, and to dispose of it on Passover. Not having the need to search after leaven and clean the house thoroughly defeats the purpose."
What the Rebbe was referring to is the symbolism of leaven as representing the yetzer hara, the drive to gratify our physical impulses. We know we have a yetzer hara, and we must work diligently to rid ourselves of it. Not to have leaven, i.e., a yetzer hara, is to be an angel. We are to be holy humans, not angels.
(Avraham Twerski, Not Fully Human, http://www.jewishworldreview.com/twerski/twerski_spirituality3.php3]
For you, personally: what are the practices you have? What do you have to remember? What are things we do every day that remind us from where we come from, and where we are going?