A Thought For This Shabbat
* * * * * * * *  * January 8th*    2016    * * * * * * * *

                         
         In this week's Torah portion, Moses is told by   G-d prior to the start of the ten plagues: "I will harden Pharaoh's heart and multiply My signs and wonders in the land of Egypt "(Exodus 7:3). There are a lot of theological difficulties to this statement, not the least of which is if Pharaoh is forced by G-d to reject Moses' demand that the Children of Israel be freed, then how can Pharaoh be held accountable for his actions? How can he be punished for something he doesn't want to do? Where is his free will?

       There are various answers given by our tradition to help align the Torah narrative to the morally critical element of free will. What many notice is that despite what G-d says here, there is no hardening of Pharaoh heart by G-d until plague six. For the first five plagues, the Torah text simply reads: "Pharaoh hardened his heart." Pharaoh apparently did not need much help from G-d to be obstinate. This was an already hardened heart.

       Interesting.

       As a result, the 16th century Italian biblical scholar Obadiah Sforno teaches that G-d wasn't so much imposing his will on Pharaoh as removing any further hindrance to his already determined decision. With the sixth plague, G-d merely allowed him to live with the consequences of a hardened heart. For once a person becomes so sure of his position, he becomes a person trapped, unable to recognize reality any longer. With the inability to think a second time, a stubborn person will soon suffer the consequences of such an existence. 
  
       There may be a lesson in that for today.

       I suspect many of us have already well formed views of the world. We see a situation and, generally, decide how to react to it based on hardened positions and ideas. We hear a policy presented by a conservative and immediately react to it based on how we view most conservative thought. We are presented with a liberal proposal and filter it through our predetermined thinking about liberalism. Similarly, we see people, religions, cultures and already judge them based on a "hardened heart".

       It is not easy but it would nice if all of us would learn to see things with a more open heart and even wider eyes. Too often, we read something and we have decided whether we will agree with it or not before the last word of the headline. And even if our opinion does not change, wouldn't it be refreshing to be able to acknowledge that the last word is never spoken and be willing to think a second and third time about ideas, people and things?

        As the Torah is teaching, while G-d hardened Pharaoh's heart, it wasn't much of a challenge. His brain had already intellectually calcified.

       May G-d not say the same thing of us.

                           Shabbat shalom!

Rabbi Victor Urecki 

B'nai Jacob Synagogue
1599 Virginia St. East
Charleston, West Virginia 25311
304-346-4722
www.bnaijacob.com
"Traditional Judaism
For a Modern World"