With some serious white stuff on the way here in the Northeast, Bo provides the perfect parsha portal to the snow and ice we will soon experience. The centerpiece of Bo is the sheep, the animal set aside for Korban Pesach, an offering that symbolized our freedom on that fateful night. And so it is no coincidence that the famous nursery rhyme about a lost sheep features a shepherdess named Bo:

Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep
And doesn't know where to find them.

Hint: I'd check out the Schwartz's freezer case if I were you, Bo. 

Bo's literary counterpart, Mary, also had a little lamb whose fleece was white as snow. Mary Sawyer, a girl from Sterling, MA, kept a pet lamb, and on May 23, 1830, she really did bring it to school one day at the suggestion of her brother; a commotion naturally ensued. A visitor to that one-room schoolhouse, John Roulstone, who was studying to be a minister and was well-versed in Tanach, composed a poem about the incident. But it was cartoonist Gary Larson who granted young Mary cultural immortality by depicting her clandestine seudah on Pesach Sheni that year:

The chametz and kitniyos Mary consumed "that evening/בלילה ההוא" alongside her sheep clearly would not have been appropriate on Pesach Rishon.

But even before Gary's portrayal, John Roulstone achieved timelessness by lifting the words of David Hamelech the shepherd in Tehillim 147:

הַשֹּׁלֵ֣חַ אִמְרָת֣וֹ אָ֑רֶץ עַד־מְ֝הֵרָ֗ה יָר֥וּץ דְּבָרֽוֹ׃

[God] sends forth words to the earth with swift commands.

הַנֹּתֵ֣ן שֶׁ֣לֶג כַּצָּ֑מֶר כְּ֝פ֗וֹר כָּאֵ֥פֶר יְפַזֵּֽר׃

[God] lays down snow like fleece, scatters frost like ashes.

מַשְׁלִ֣יךְ קַֽרְח֣וֹ כְפִתִּ֑ים לִפְנֵ֥י קָ֝רָת֗וֹ מִ֣י יַעֲמֹֽד׃

[God] tosses down hail like crumbs - who can endure such icy cold?

Fleece as white as snow? That’s David’s analogy which found its way into the nursery rhyme. What is David’s didactic purpose for invoking these frozen blasts?

יִשְׁלַח דְּבָרוֹ וְיַמְסֵם יַשֵּׁב רוּחוֹ יִזְּלוּ־מָיִם׃

[God] issues a command—it melts them; breathes, and the waters flow.

Weather conditions, as hard as we strive to predict them, represent God's control over the world. The wintery freeze we will soon endure serves as Exhibit A in divine engineering. Mother Nature has a Father, and wherever we live, meteorological conditions deeply influence our lives and lifestyles. No one can escape them, along with something else:

מַגִּיד דְּבָרָו לְיַעֲקֹב חֻקָּיו וּמִשְׁפָּטָיו לְיִשְׂרָאֵל׃

Divine commands were issued to Yaakov, God’s statutes and rules to Israel.

Hashem ordains weather and law; our lives are shaped by both. We exist within the framework of the mitzvos which govern us.  

לֹא־עָשָׂה כֵן  לְכׇל־גּוֹי וּמִשְׁפָּטִים בַּל־יְדָעוּם הַלְלוּיָהּ׃

This was not done for any other nation; of such rules they know nothing. Hallelujah.

The connection between fleece and snow was passed down to Shlomo Hamelech. In the final chapter of Mishlei, he invokes snow to praise the Woman of Valor:

לֹא־תִירָא לְבֵיתָהּ מִשָּׁלֶג כִּי כׇל־בֵּיתָהּ לָבֻשׁ שָׁנִים׃

She is not worried for her household because of snow, for her whole household is dressed in crimson.

Wool indeed protects from the bite of snow, despite the admonition that לִפְנֵי קָרָתוֹ מִי יַעֲמֹד. The Aishes Chayil does not fear snow because she is prepared. She looks at the forecasts and prepares for the storm by taking that fleece and fashioning warm garments for her family. Wool is as soft as snow and white as snow. It insulates the body from cold, just as snow insulates the ground from frost. The extreme cold of winter forces plants to discontinue their growth and allows the soil to rejuvenate itself for the coming year. At the same time, the extreme cold of winter forces us indoors, and invites us to experience indoor pursuits, intellectual pursuits, Talmud Torah. So what’s to fear?

Mishlei's insistence on red wool (לָבֻשׁ שָׁנִים) instead of white initially vexes Rashi, but he proceeds with two explanations for that expression. First:

לָבֻשׁ שָׁנִים. בְּרִית דַּם מִילָה

Dressed in crimson. The covenant of the blood of circumcision.

The Aishes Chayil's family is sanctified by their commitment to bris milah, and they are so fiercely attached to bris milah that no threats or fears will ever succeed in removing this mitzvah from our priority lists. The covenantal act of circumcision, performed en masse in Mitzrayim in order to eat the sheep of Pesach, is an indelible part of our identity. 

But Rashi adds a second interpretation, this one from the Midrash Tanchuma, which reads the word "shanim" (red) as "shnayim" (2):

דָּבָר אַחֵר: מְלֻבָּשִׁים בְּכֶפֶל ״נָתֹן תִּתֵּן״ (דברים טו:י), ״פָּתֹחַ תִּפְתַּח״ (דברים טו:ח), ״הַעֲנֵיק תַּעֲנִיק״ (דברים טו:יד). כָּל אֵלּוּ מַצִּילִין אוֹתָן מִשֶּׁלֶג גֵּיהִנֹּם. כָּךְ הוּא נִדְרָשׁ בַּתַּנְחוּמָה:

Another explanation: They are dressed with the commandments expressed in double language. (Deut. 15:10): “You shall surely give (נתון תתן),” (ibid. verse 8): “you shall surely open (פתוח תפתח),” (ibid. verse 14): “you shall surely furnish him liberally (הענק תעניק).” All these save them from the snow of Gehinnom. So it is expounded in Tanhuma.

Our fearlessness in the face of snow stems from the Torah's insistence that we shower compassion upon the most needy and vulnerable. The Torah employs double language very strategically in order to emphasize how sensitively we must act. The Aishes Chayil leads through her extreme generosity, her wide open palms. And we must follow her lead by looking out for those who need our help during the storm: Do they have the warmth, the food, the companionship that are basic human needs, and can sometimes be compromised when one can't leave the house? When God lays down snow like fleece, won't you ensure the wellbeing of others, and perhaps bring them a little lamb?