Last week, and this week, we recall that the two main themes are the plagues and Pharaoh’s hard heart. Last week while we looked at the plagues this week I want to look at the heart of Pharaoh, but why the heart? One of my teachers, Cantor Lee Greenberg writes,
“one might think that
the Torah would emphasize Pharaoh's ‘thoughts’ or ‘brain’ by saying something
to the effect of Pharaoh remaining steady in his convictions, decisions or
beliefs. Instead, the Torah focuses only on Pharaoh's heart.”
From last week God tells Moses, “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, that I may multiply My signs and marvels in the land of Egypt” (Ex. 7:3). There seems to be a glimmer of hope after the seventh plague (the hail) when Pharaoh says to Moses, “I and my people are in the wrong” (Ex. 9:27). Rabbi Moshe Feinstein actually wonders if this might show “sincere remorse” since prior pleas from Pharaoh emerged from his "fear of further plagues" more so than true repentance, yet the last verse of Va’eira seems to put the kabash on that hope, “So Pharaoh’s heart stiffened and he would not let the Israelites go, just as Adonai had foretold through Moses” (Ex. 9:35 and see Ex. 7:3 above). Parasha Bo unfortunately begins the same way; God tells Moses, "Go to Pharaoh. For I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his courtiers, in order that I may display these, My signs among them" (Ex. 10:1). We learn with the first five plagues that Pharaoh hardened his own heart whereas with the last five God did the hardening; how then to we understand God who said “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart?” This should not be read as God taking away Pharaoh’s fee-will but about God forecasting, and honoring, the fee-will of Pharaoh’s heart that become hardened in response to the wonders of the plagues that challenged his very sense of existence and identity. We all know people (even ourselves) who become more obstinate when challenged; Pharaoh is an extreme example of that then as Hitler was not too long ago.
The theme of a hard or wicked heart is found more than once in the Hebrew Bible. From the perspective of the Bible the core of a person is their heart, the resolves of the heart are tested (Jer. 12:3) to see if the heart is a place of goodness (Jer. 11:8), faithfulness (Jer. 9:25) and joy (Jer. 15:16), though at the same time the heart can be an incubator for evil (Jer. 11:8), deceit (Jer. 17:9 and lies (Jer. 23:26). We learn in Mishlei (Proverbs 23) to “Guard the heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." We also learn in Deuteronomy 10:16, “Cut away, therefore, the thickening about your hearts and stiffen your necks no more,” or circumcise the heart. Our Rabbis remind us this is a spiritual circumcision that has to do with connecting to our sense of the Divine as we aspire to be our better selves, further reading in an early Midrash (Sifra, Shemini) “And you shall circumcise the foreskin (i.e., the occlusion) of your hearts." Why? (Duet. 10:17): "For the Lord your God — He is the God of gods and the Lord of lords. If you do so, then: "There shall appear to you the glory of the Lord.” Torah teaches to open our eyes (minds) to the ways of God (cf. Duet. 11:26-27) only after it speaks of the circumcision of the heart. The thoughts and deeds of people for Torah, both good and bad, emerge out of the heart, the Talmud comparing the good works of our heart to the delight of fresh fruit (Shabbat 108a).
This was not the case for Pharaoh. In his heart he considered himself a god who thought he had the right to decide life and death, he was the judge, jury and executioner, forgetting that he too was a mire man with the limitations of the human condition. Pharaoh made a very human choice to be led by his yetzer harah (evil inclination) and as a result, learning from the Talmud (Sukkah 52a) “the evil inclination is like a strand of a spider’s web,” meaning that Pharaoh ended up entangled in its results that would have deadly consequences. For Rabbi Jonathan Sack’s that meant that Pharaoh was the true slave in the end. In this case R’Sacks says that “evil has two faces,” the first being “turned to the outside world – is what it does to its victims,” while the second is “turned within – is what it does to its perpetrator." Here the doer of evil loses their freedom and evil becomes the master. Pharaoh became enslaved to his evil inclination that brought destruction to his own family, people and country. With that R'Sacks goes on to say that human freedom is not black and while but is won and lost based on the choices made. These narratives (last week and this week) for Sack’s “portray the subtlety of Pharaoh’s slow descent into a self-destructive madness.”
In this case Pharaoh becomes more than a tyrant but a symbol of consequence for the Hebrews but also for the generations to follow. A hard heart can manifest in hate, unforgiveness, jealousy, revenge, judgement, selfishness and disregard of others, not to mention cheating, manipulation and lies, traits that can imprison a person in their own mind or spirit, meaning that they must be eliminated, managed or rethought with regard to our middot (soul characteristics). This is why Torah says to spiritually circumcise the heart; the love of heart is the first stop on the road to Jewish belief and improved humanity (Dt. 6:5). It is good to remember that the divine image within can be corrupted when left to its own devises or goes unchecked, even in some cases unnoticed, which is why we have Torah as a reminder and guide. For Judaism, and therefore God, the condition of the heart is a big deal, a lesson that Pharaoh failed to comprehend.
Rabbi Adam
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