Preparing to Leave Egypt Shemot PBL

(1) And יהוה said to Moses, “I will bring but one more plague upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt; after that he shall let you go from here; indeed, when he lets you go, he will drive you out of here one and all. (2) Tell the people to borrow, each man from his neighbor and each woman from hers, objects of silver and gold.”

וישאלו איש, “they each asked for, etc.” they complied with what G-d had asked them to do, so that God could fulfill God's promise to Avraham that after slavery in a foreign land, the Israelites would leave that country as free people with a great deal of wealth. (Genesis 15,14).

Moses then summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go, pick out lambs for your families, and slaughter the passover offering ... 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 your house until morning. For יהוה, when going through to smite the Egyptians, will see the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, and יהוה will pass over the door and not let the Destroyer enter and smite your home. “You shall observe this as an institution for all time, for you and for your descendants. ... And when your children ask you, ‘What do you mean by this rite?’ you shall say, ‘It is the passover sacrifice to יהוה, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when smiting the Egyptians, but saved our houses.’ Those assembled then bowed low in homage. And the Israelites went and did so; just as יהוה had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

The answer of the parent is that this was a reminder of the haste in which all this had to be done, and roasting is the quickest way to make raw meat edible. ויקוד העם וישתחוו, the people upon hearing this bowed low and prostrated themselves. This was a rite indicating that the party performing it accepted the instructions the Torah described in this chapter. It was an internationally accepted way of indicating acceptance of a command.

In the middle of the night יהוה struck down all the [male] first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh who sat on the throne to the first-born of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the first-born of the cattle. And Pharaoh arose in the night, with all his courtiers and all the Egyptians—because there was a loud cry in Egypt; for there was no house where there was not someone dead. He summoned Moses and Aaron in the night and said, “Up, depart from among my people, you and the Israelites with you! Go, worship יהוה as you said! Take also your flocks and your herds, as you said, and begone! And may you bring a blessing upon me also!”

ויקרא למשה ולאהרן לילה AND HE CALLED FOR MOSES AND AARON BY NIGHT — This tells us that he (Pharaoh) went round to the entrances leading into the city crying out, “Where does Moses reside? Where does Aaron reside?” (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 12:31).

The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand fighting men on foot, aside from noncombatants. Moreover, a mixed multitude went up with them, and very much livestock, both flocks and herds. And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough that they had taken out of Egypt, for it was not leavened, since they had been driven out of Egypt and could not delay; nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves. The length of time that the Israelites lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years;