D'var Torah

I only had to read to the second sentence of this week’s Torah portion to decide what I wanted to write about in this week’s eletter d’rash. The portion (Exodus 10:1-13:16) is called “Bo” meaning “Go (to Pharaoh)” and refers to God telling Moses to go to Pharaoh another time and to demand that he let the Israelites go from slavery. In last week’s portion, Moses already tried 7 times. After Pharaoh’s refusal for the 8^th, 9^th, and 10^th times, the plagues of locusts, then darkness and finally the killing of the firstborn of Egyptians are delivered. It is only then, as you know, that Pharaoh let’s the Hebrew slaves free, and you know the rest of the story. But in sentence 2 of this parasha, it says: “For I have hardened his (Pharaoh’s) heart and the hearts of his courtiers, in order that I may display these My (God’s) signs among them…”  

God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. In other words, God made Pharaoh – even more – unrepentant and unfeeling. Someone with a hardened heart can’t perceive events or ideas in a compassionate, understandable way. This person is arrogant and indifferent to others. According to biblical commentators, Pharaoh already had a “stiffened” heart (Ex. 7:13) that we read about during the first plague and then the text tells us it continues to harden. God’s action at the beginning of this portion, apparently was to make Pharoah even more stubborn so that both the Israelites and the Egyptians would see the essence of God’s power (through the plagues) over Pharaoh. Rashi even states that it was better for God to harden Pharaoh’s heart even more, so that you recognize God’s power. And the commentator Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said “When (God)..warns a man once, twice, three times and he doesn’t repent…” then God will add “impurity upon impurity.” In other words, God gave Pharaoh an opportunity to do the right thing, and when he continued not to, then God choose to just let everyone see how bad he is and let everyone suffer on his behalf.

So, what does this mean in our day. My interpretation is that there are people, especially leaders in business, politics, and government, who are not compassionate towards others, who refuse to see the good. These are people whose hearts are hardened.  They are the Pharaoh’s in our time. Some are purely evil. Some are misguided. Some are power-hungry and just don’t care what they upend. Perhaps you know these people. Our job is to be the Moses… to continue to confront those whose hearts are hardened and pursue compassion and understanding. We must be resilient and strong to face the Pharaohs and let them, and their followers, see the turmoil and destruction they are causing. We will always have Pharaohs. We need to always have Moses’ too.  

Be strong and hopeful that good will prevail.

Shabbat Shalom,
Cantor Michael Shochet