For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of animals. Therefore I sacrifice to the LORD all the males that first open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’
The firstborn of clean beasts must be sacrificed, and the unclean redeemed with a lamb or destroyed; whatever is unclean by nature, unredeemed, will be destroyed. Your children are polluted too and must be redeemed by blood, that they may belong to the Church of the Firstborn, just as you were delivered by God's hand from the destroying angel.
AI summary
Commenting on Exodus 13:11-16
Pharaoh's stubborn refusal brought the Lord's judgment: He slew every firstborn in Egypt, man and beast alike, by a destroying angel. The law that follows binds Israel to remember: all firstborn beasts that open the womb are sacrificed to the Lord, but every firstborn son is redeemed by payment of five shekels to the priest, a practice the Jews observe to this day.
AI summary
The word means headbands, not amulets or stigmata. Phylacteries read the command literally, but the Caraites rightly understood it as figurative: these laws are to be memorials in constant view, kept in mind like signs upon hand and forehead. The text nowhere demands written scrolls, only that the commands remain before us as reminders.
AI summary
Commenting on Exodus 13:15-16