October 7 and Parshat Bo: When Leaders Sleep and Nations Fall
Torah is never just history. It is a mirror for today — and a warning for tomorrow.
October 7 shattered every illusion. In a single morning, thousands of terrorists crossed the border, communities were overrun, families were torn apart, and the State of Israel was caught unprepared. The nation awoke to a reality it had refused to believe was possible.
What makes the tragedy even more painful is that it did not come without warning. There were signs. There were alerts. There were voices that tried to warn. But leadership believed that Hamas was deterred, that the situation was calm, that the system was strong enough to protect the people. Senior figures at the highest levels of authority — the head of military intelligence, the Chief of Staff, and other top officers — clung to comfortable assumptions. They trusted their assessments. They trusted their defenses. They trusted their conceptions.
And they went to sleep.
This is not only a story of failure. It is a Torah story. It is the story of Parshat Bo.
Every day in Pesukei Dezimrah we say:
“למכה מצרים בבכוריהם” (For He strikes Egypt through its firstborn — Tehillim 136:10)
The wording is precise. Egypt was not destroyed only by an external blow. It was struck from within. Its collapse came from its own blindness, stubbornness, and refusal to face reality.
Chazal describe what happened in Egypt on the night of the final plague. When Moshe warned that every firstborn would die, the firstborn of Egypt tried to intervene. They pleaded with their parents and even with Pharaoh to release the Israelites. But Pharaoh refused to listen — and, according to Midrashic tradition, he even set upon the firstborn to kill them. Their society crushed the voices that tried to avert disaster. Egypt’s firstborn could not save their nation.
The Midrash Tehillim explains this on the verse “למכה מצרים בבכוריהם” (Tehillim 136:10):
“ומת כל בכור (שמות יא ה). נתכנסו כל הבכורות אצל אבותיהם… אם לאו הרי אנו מתים… פנו הבכורים אל אבותיהם ואל פרעה… בבקשה ממך הוצא העם הזה שבשבילם הרעה תבא…”
(“All the firstborn died” — Exodus 11:5. All the firstborn gathered with their parents… if not, we will die… The firstborn turned to their parents and to Pharaoh… asking of you, please release this people, for because of them, disaster will come.”)
(Midrash Tehillim on Tehillim 136:10)
This passage shows how the Egyptian firstborn saw the danger and tried to avert it. They pleaded for Israel’s release, warning Pharaoh and their parents that disaster would come if their demands were not met. But Pharaoh and society ignored them — and, as the Midrash emphasizes, Pharaoh even turned violently against them. Egypt destroyed itself through its refusal to heed the warning.
And Pharaoh?
Pharaoh went to sleep.
After nine plagues.
After every warning had come true.
After watching his empire unravel.
After seeing his land ruined and his power slipping away.
The Torah tells us that Pharaoh rose in the middle of the night — “וַיָּקָם פַּרְעֹה לַיְלָה” (And Pharaoh rose in the night — Exodus 12:30) — because until that moment, he had been asleep. Not standing watch. Not trembling in fear. Asleep. Trusting his illusions. Believing reality would bend to his will.
That is how nations fall.
Not because they are weak.
Not because they lack intelligence.
Not because they lack strength.
They fall because they refuse to see.
This is why Parshat Bo speaks directly to our generation. October 7 was not only a military failure. It was a failure of vision. A failure of imagination. A failure to believe that the enemy meant what it said. A failure to understand that evil does not disappear because we ignore it.
We trusted quiet.
We trusted deterrence.
We trusted technology.
We trusted assumptions.
And we went to sleep.
The Torah teaches that blindness is not innocent. Pharaoh hardened his heart again and again until he lost the ability to respond to truth. As the Rambam writes:
“אפשר שיחטא אדם חטא גדול… עד שמונעין ממנו התשובה… לפיכך כתוב בתורה: ‘ואני אחזק את לב פרעה’”
(“It is possible for a person to sin a grave sin… until repentance is withheld from him… Therefore it is written in the Torah: ‘And I will strengthen Pharaoh’s heart’ — Rambam, Hilchot Teshuvah 6:3)
It is not arbitrary punishment, but the natural result of persistent moral blindness.
Egypt did not collapse in one night. It collapsed over time, as truth was denied and warnings were dismissed.
The firstborn saw the danger. They tried to stop it. But a society that worships power could not hear the voice of conscience. A nation that believed in itself as a god could not bow to truth.
And so Egypt destroyed its own future.
Israel’s story is the opposite.
Israel had no power.
No army.
No weapons.
No strategy.
But Israel listened. Israel believed. “וַיֶּאֱמַן הָעָם” (And the people believed — Exodus 14:31) — and only then did redemption begin. Israel followed Hashem into the desert with nothing but trust.
Egypt believed in false gods and self-worship.
Israel believed in Hashem.
Egypt trusted power and self-deception.
Israel trusted truth.
Egypt slept and fell.
Israel saw, believed in Hashem, and was redeemed.
That is the eternal lesson of Parshat Bo. Nations are not judged by their weapons, but by their courage to see reality. Leaders are not judged by their titles, but by their willingness to listen to warning. A people survives not through arrogance, but through responsibility, vigilance, and faith.
October 7 is now part of Jewish history. It stands beside the story of Egypt as a warning written in fire. When self-denial reigns, truth waits patiently — and then strikes.
The Torah does not belong to the past. It belongs to now.
Egypt slept and fell.
Israel saw, believed in Hashem, and was redeemed.
And the Torah remains eternally true.
Rabbi Eliezer Simcha Weisz
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