Bloodied Doorposts

Rabbi Moshe Ben-Chaim

For that night I will go through the land of Egypt and strike down every [male] first-born in the land of Egypt, both human and beast; and I will mete out judgment to all the gods of Egypt, I am God” (Exod. 12:12). 

[God said] Consecrate to Me every male firstborn; human and beast, the first [male] issue of every womb among the Israelites is Mine. And Moses said to the people,“Remember this day, on which you went free from Egypt, the house of bondage, how God freed you from it with a mighty hand: no leavened bread shall be eaten. (Exod. 13:2,3).

These 2 verses reveal that it was with firstborn deaths—not other plagues—God emerges victorious with a “mighty hand; Yad Chazaka.” For it is in this plague that God unveils all Egyptian gods as false, as Rashi says, “metal gods melted and wooden gods rotted” (Ibid.).  Thereby God “judged” all other gods as false. The relationship between firstborn deaths and destroying idols is that all Egyptian leadership is eliminated: their ultimate leaders were their idols, and their firstborns were the ones who transmitted their culture. With the destruction of both, God emerges as the sole universal power, the meaning of “mighty hand.” Might belongs to the defeater. 

 During firstborn deaths, the Jews were commanded to paint their doorposts with the Paschal Lamb’s blood. It would appear that the essential act that earned the Jews salvation was rejecting the Egyptian God (the paschal lamb) by killing and eating it. So what was the additional need to put blood on the doorposts, and why is that which God “looks at” to save the Jewish homes, instead of looking at the slaughtered Egyptian lamb-god? 

They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they are to eat it (Exod. 12:7).

And the blood on the houses where you are staying shall be a sign for you: when I see the blood I will pass over you, so that no plague will destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt (Exod. 12:13).

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 your house until morning.  For when going through to smite the Egyptians, God will see the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, and God will pass over the door and not let the destroyer enter and smite your home (Exod. 12:22,23).

God passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when smiting the Egyptians, but saved our houses (Exod. 12:27).

What is significant about blood? 

What is significant about doorposts? 

What is significant about “house”?

Egypt’s—and Israel’s— sensual orientation in that depraved ancient culture, accepted only tangible and sensually-perceived gods (explaining why the Jews created the Gold Calf when they imagined Moses died). How then will the sensual-oriented Jews in Egypt transition to accepting the metaphysical God? Circumcision was commanded in Egypt, but addresses only the rejection of the body’s sensual pleasure. But Egypt’s sensuality also blinded their minds. The Jews required a method to transition into accepting an intangible God. 

2 Steps: Rejecting Idolatry & Accepting God

Killing and eating the Paschal lamb rejected idolatry. But to transition to accept God, God deemed it crucial that the Jews engage in some act expressing (on their sensual level) a conviction that the true intangible God, is truly real. Painting blood on their doorpost as the Egyptian firstborns were killed expressed this belief: 

“Outside my home’s doorway God is killing Egyptian’s firstborns; outside my doorway is death (blood). I admit to God’s existence. He can destroy or save those in my home too. His fatal effects outside my door are real, so He is real.” 

The word “home” is mentioned 6 times above as one’s home provides deep security. But now God asks the Jews to align their security with His reality through painting their homes with blood. God wished to raise the level of His reality, to be on par with the Jews’ same sense of security in their homes.

Mere acceptance without physical expression is too abstract, so God commanded the Jews in painting their doorposts, thereby expressing their firm belief in Moses’ and Israel’s God reality and might: “Outside my doorposts, God is killing (blood). God is real.” The Jew could not leave his home that night as a further affirmation of God’s real powers at work. 

When I see the blood I will pass over you, so that no plague will destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt (Exod. 12:13).

Instead of looking at the slaughtered Egyptian lamb-god, God looks the Jewish homes painted with blood as the cause of their salvation. For it is not rejecting idolatry alone that earns life, but it must be replaced with a recognition of the intangible God miraculously controlling everything including human life operating outside the bloodied doorposts separating life from death. Similarly, freedom alone was not God’s intent, so He retarded the dough so the Jews should not enjoy identification with free, bread-eating Egyptians. Such an identification misses God’s goal of freedom to accept Torah. Therefore chametz was not prohibited in the Egyptian Passover, but only afterwards when the Jews all grabbed the dough and paraded it, “rolled up in their clothes on their shoulders” (Exod. 12:34).