Bo (parashah)

Bo (בֹּא‎—in Hebrew, the command form of "go," or "come," and the first significant word in the parashah, in Exodus 10:1) is the fifteenth weekly Torah portion (פָּרָשָׁה‎, parashah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the third in the book of Exodus. The parashah constitutes Exodus 10:1–13:16. The parashah tells of the last three plagues on Egypt and the first Passover.

The parashah is made up of 6,149 Hebrew letters, 1,655 Hebrew words, 106 verses, and 207 lines in a Torah Scroll.^[1] Jews read it the fifteenth Sabbath after Simchat Torah, generally in January or early February.^[2] As the parashah describes the first Passover, Jews also read part of the parashah, Exodus 12:21–51, as the initial Torah reading for the first day of Passover, and another part, Exodus 13:1–16, as the initial Torah reading for the first intermediate day (Chol HaMoed) of Passover. Jews also read another part of the parashah, Exodus 12:1–20, which describes the laws of Passover, as the maftir Torah reading for the Special Sabbath Shabbat HaChodesh, which falls on the first day (Rosh Chodesh) of Nisan, the month in which Jews celebrate Passover.