Parashat Bo: : Tommy, Pharaoh and The People of Iran

 It is probably one of the most famous creations in popular music history and is still being performed live by the man who wrote both the music and lyrics.

It is estimated that over 20 million copies (including numerous reissues) have been sold since its release in May 1969.  It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998 joining more than a thousand others including The Beatles’ Abbey Road, Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major (Leonard Bernstein with the Philharmonia Orchestra), Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Songbook, West Side Story (both the Original Broadway Cast recordings and the Film Soundtrack) and Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde.

I am referring to the Who’s rock opera, Tommy which stems from the furtive imagination and prodigious talent of Pete Townshend.

It tells the fictional story of four-year-old Tommy whose father Captain Walker has been reported missing during the Second World War only to turn up and find Tommy’s mother with her lover.  In a pique of rage, he kills the man whereupon the couple coerce Tommy into believing that he didn’t see or hear anything regarding the act.  As a result, the boy enters a psychosomatic state which leaves him ‘deaf, dumb and blind’ to the world around him.  He only interacts with his surroundings through his imagination and sense of touch.  As he grows older, he feels the vibrations emanating from playing pinball machines and this leads to his becoming a ‘Pinball Wizard’ (from ‘Soho down to Brighton’) before eventually being healed and becoming a Messianic leader (the music is more memorable than the story!)

The dark world that Tommy inhabits is very relatable to this week’s Parasha of Bo, particularly when it comes to the ninth plague.  The Torah tells us:

Then the Lord said to Moshe, “Reach out your hand towards the sky to bring darkness down to Egypt – darkness so deep that it can be felt” (Shemot 10.21)

Rashi adds that this was no ordinary darkness.  It was one in which the Egyptians could not see for three days.  It was so thick that they were frozen in their places, unable to reach one another.  Anyone who was standing could not sit down and vice versa.  It was as if they were rendered ‘deaf, dumb and blind’.  Cut off from the world, just like Tommy.

However, they were not alone.

Their leader, Pharaoh had already cast himself into this state.

Gd told Moshe that he had hardened Pharaoh’s heart (Shemot 10.1) to which Rashi adds that this was a result of the ruler hardening his own heart first.

He was deaf to the plight of the Israelites.  His tongue refused to speak the truth about how wrong he was and he suffered from, as Rabbi Sacks ztl put it, “The worst kind of blindness (which) is moral blindness.”

His heart was metaphorically blind to the injustice of what he had instituted.  Whilst his people may have been ‘blinded’ by the plague of darkness, Pharaoh chose not to investigate his heart to act favourably towards the Bnei Yisrael.

Let us contrast these senses with those experienced by our ancestors.

For three days, no one could see anyone else or move.  But in the Israelites’ homes, they had light.  (ibid)

Why was this?  Not necessarily because they had sunshine streaming through their windows but due to the light that emanates from faith, hope and moral clarity which is hardwired into our Jewish souls.

Whilst others around us may be deaf, dumb and blind to the evil machinations of those who bring darkness into the world, we introduce light to rebalance the equation.

A case in point revolves around the recent and ongoing brutal massacres being perpetrated on the Iranian people (not ‘allegedly’ but actually).

For nearly a month, tens of thousands of young men, women and children have been risking, and losing, their lives to stand up for dignity and freedom from the nihilistic and barbaric regime that currently rules the proud and ancient country of Iran (which used to be known as Persia).  The Mullahs have been deaf, dumb and blind to the cries and anguish of the people they lead.  They have tried to extinguish any semblance of light to recreate the ninth plague of darkness across the country where people are too frightened to reach out to their loved ones for fear of imprisonment or execution.

The nations of the world, who are all too eager to criticize Israel at the drop of a hat whenever they can, have also been deaf, dumb and blind to the plight of the Iranian people.

Where was the United Nations at the end of December?  (It issued a ‘Joint Statement on 16^th January, nearly three weeks later).  I don’t recall Amnesty International putting out a press release criticizing the Iranian Regime until 14^th January.  How about a word from those so called ‘celebrities’ who think nothing of falsely accusing Israel of ‘genocide’?  Have they too lost their voices or are they ‘out at sea’ on a flotilla in the Gulf along with Greta Thunberg.  Why are the university students silent too?

Finally, why was the media deaf, dumb and blind when it came to Iran on New Year’s Eve?  Whilst the Iranians are being hanged in public places, they are more concerned with whether Greenland is American or Danish and why Brooklyn Beckham can’t get along with his parents!

When it came to standing up for Iran, one of the only other flags seen at the rallies outside the Iranian Embassies was that of Israel, the only true democracy in the Middle East.

Returning to Tommy, if you recall, the turning point in the album takes place when he awakens.  He can hear, speak and see his reflection in the mirror.  His world of darkness is now flooded by light.

In Parashat Bo, when Egypt has been brought to its knees following the nine plagues, Gd tells the Israelites:

And when your children say to you, “What does this ceremony (i.e.  the bringing of the Korban Pesach/Pascal lamb) mean to you?”  You shall say, “It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt…” (12.27)

In other words, we are publicly stating that we, the people, believe in Gd who saved us and we are no longer deafened, silenced or blinded by the Egyptians who enslaved us (in a metaphorical way).  We can hear, speak and see the redemption that we are about to encounter when we leave Egypt.

Parashat Bo shows us that during the plague of darkness, our abiding faith and moral compass enabled us to overcome the blindness that had struck Egypt.

The leaders of the world’s nations deliberately ignored the pleas of those who were, and still are, suffering to promote their own agendas when it came to the Iranian leadership.  Where they could have stood up for the people, they chose to remind silent.  Finally, where they claimed that they couldn’t ‘see’ what was transpiring, it was visible in plain sight to those who chose to look at the evidence.  Deaf, dumb and blind.

It takes a single candle to light up an entire room and, in the process, banish the darkness.

Parashat Bo teaches us how important it is to provide light, metaphorically and physically.

When Egypt was plunged into darkness, our people had light in their homes.

We could have followed the example of Pharaoh whose egotism and arrogance knew no bounds.  We chose a different path and that is why today Israel, even with its faults, is a beacon of light to the rest of the world.

When the Iranian regime eventually crumbles, we pray that the people will remember the one country that stood up for them and refused to be deaf, dumb or blind in their hour of need.

May we continue to be that lone candle lighting the darkness always hearing the pleas of the strangers, widows and orphans, speaking up for them and illuminating the rest of the world in the process.  Perhaps one day, the other nations will join us and, as John Lennon put it beautifully in Imagine, the world will live as one.

Shavuah Tov.