The entire social structure of Egypt was built on lies. What the plagues did was to strip away all the lies. Egypt was destroyed. The Jews were building on the truth of the Torah.
A Sign on the Doorpost
This week we reach the final plague: the death of the firstborn. To understand its power, you have to understand the ancient world. Like today, society depended on continuity—the next generation. When the firstborn die, continuity itself collapses. Egypt is not just punished; its future is erased.
And it wasn’t only “firstborn sons” in the simple sense. It was the firstborn of any coupling. If someone was living a lie—if a child was secretly not who he claimed to be—the truth was exposed in the most devastating way. Someone who falsely claimed the status and honor of the firstborn paid the price for that deception. A society built on false narratives eventually collapses under their weight.
The Jews were spared—but only after placing blood on their doorposts. This raises the obvious question:
Did God really need a sign to know who was Jewish?
Of course not.
The blood wasn’t for God.
It was for us.
It was a declaration: I identify with the Jewish people. Redemption required courage, visibility, and public commitment. Freedom begins when you stop hiding.
We saw a modern echo of this after October 7. In places where Jews were attacked or threatened, some Jews considered removing their mezuzot. But something unexpected happened: non-Jews began placing mezuzah cases on their doors—not the parchment, just the case—so they would be mistaken for Jews, to show solidarity. That, in turn, strengthened Jews to leave their mezuzot up. Identity became an act of courage again.
We saw it too in Congress. During hearings on antisemitism, Congressman Randy Fine chose to wear a kippah publicly—not because he suddenly became religious, but because he understood the moment demanded identification. Later he said something striking: If I’m publicly identifying as Jewish, I’d better start living it too. And he began keeping kosher.
That’s the message of the blood on the doorposts.
God doesn’t ask us to hide in order to survive.
He asks us to stand visibly as Jews.
And the Torah reminds us of one more truth: evil societies can survive only as long as their narrative holds. Once it collapses, the society collapses with it—just as Egypt did.
Something to think about.
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