We just finished ספר בראשית which has an intricate subplot dealing with the definition and technicalities of what it means to be a בכור. Yakov and Eisav grappled with this, then the שבטים and Yosef battled over it, all of which lead the family down to Mitzrayim. It’s no coincidence that this בכור problem that brought us down to Egypt begin to get redeemed this week at the same time that Hashem says בני בכורי ישראל. We were chosen to live by the very title that we had family rivalries over and fought about for so many years earlier. What is the secret to the true definition of בכור and how did we achieve that in Mitzrayim?
We said last week in פרשת ויחי (link here) that Yakov gave his definition to Yosef when he purposefully crossed his arms and called Ephraim the בכור instead of Menashe who was older. The definition seems to be the ability to bring the glory of Hashem into this world, and I think this פרשה follows in describing that definition to us and explaining how we got the title of being Hashem’s בכור.
When Moshe met Hashem at the סנה on הר סיני, Hashem said you will know that you were successful in taking the people out of Mitzrayim when you come back to this mountain to serve me (to accept the Torah). The Sforno says that אף על פי שאינם ראוים הם מוכנים לעבוד את האלהים על ההר הזה, even though they are not worthy of accepting the Torah they are מוכן-prepared for this. The mission of the Torah is not given to people that are necessarily worthy, it is given to those who have prepared themselves and are willing to take on the task of bringing God into the world. Parenthetically I think this helps explain the מדרש that Hashem approached all of the nations to see if they would accept the Torah. The nations didn’t need to have holy ancestors or be holy to accept the Torah they only needed to be prepared. The original sign that Moshe was given which would prove his success, was given with the message that to take the people out of the Mitzrayim – of the constraints that they were stuck – was to realize that they didn’t need to be righteous, only prepared.
The definition of being a בכור is to be able to bring Hashem’s glory into the world but to do this there is only one prerequisite. To want it, to be prepared to do it. That’s all. We all have individual “Mitzrayims” that we live within, and during these פרשיות when the Torah is speaking about the גאולה from the original Mitzrayim and how that made us born as Hashem’s בכור, there is the ability for all of us to prepare to serve Hashem, to be able to move beyond the fact that we may not be ראוי, since our ancestors were not either ראוי, they were only מוכן.