Minyan Replay with Rabbi Steven — Parashat Bo

We've all wondered why G-d hardened Pharaoh's heart. But have you ever wonder why G-d didn't harden Pharaoh's courtiers' hearts after saying G-d would? And what does "harden" really mean? We got into it in today's Morning Minyan held on January 18th.

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Produced by Mishkan Chicago. Music composed, produced, and performed by Kalman Strauss.

Transcript

Transcript

Hello, and welcome to this half hour dose of weekly Jewish spirituality brought to you by Mishcon Thursday morning minion. Jews have a tradition of praying three times a day and it Mishcon, we have a daily virtual minion at 8am Central to get your day started. folks join us from across the country and across the world as we begin each day with words and songs of gratitude, inspiration, healing and Torah. If you miss us in the morning, join us here every week for the replay of our Thursday minion hosted by me, Rabbi Lizzi Heitmann during my sabbatical. I know you'll enjoy hearing from the voices of Rabbi Steven and guests leaders. Without further ado, I invite you to breathe a little deeper. Connect a little more with yourself with God with Torah, with this community and with the world around you, wherever you are, whatever your timezone we're going to turn toward Torah reading this week, which is powershot Bo, we are in the 10th chapter of the Book of Exodus. We are in the midst of the story of our People's Liberation from slavery in Egypt. This is the Passover story. Bow opens with yet another plague befalling the Egyptian people brought about Well, here's the question that I'm having. Why was this plague brought about? We have the story of Pharaoh's heart being hardened, but it seems like it's being hardened by God. Pharaoh seems to want to capitulate, and his people certainly want him to let the Israelites go. But there seems to be an interesting interplay here, between Pharaohs on opposite ends, and also God's purposeful hardening of Pharaoh's heart. And so the question I'm sitting with is, why? Why is God hardening Pharaoh's heart? hasn't enough suffering already happened? Haven't the Egyptian people and the Israelite people seen enough signs and wonders how terrifying those might be to
bring about what God wants which is the liberation of the Jewish people? Or is there something else? Is there another purpose for this hardening of Pharaoh's heart? You're gonna say the blessing over reading Torah together, which is last look at Bray Torah. Baroque a TA I deny Eloheinu Melech Ha olam a share crescendo a mitzvah to have Bitsy Vanu Allah so committee re Torah. Blessed are you who brings holiness into our lives through our actions, asking us to busy ourselves with words of Torah, read a few verses in Hebrew. Read them in English and then we'll open it up to discussion.
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Good words in there.
So here we go. Then God says to Moses, go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart, the hearts of his courtiers, literally servants of the Hebrew, in order that I might display these my signs among them, and that you may recount in the hearing of your children and your children's children, how I made a mockery of the Egyptians, and how I displayed my signs among them, in order that you may know that I am Adonai your God. So Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh and said to him that says Adonai the God of the Hebrews, how long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go they may worship Me, for if you refuse to let my people go tomorrow I'll bring Lucas on your territory. If we continue in English, it says they shall cover the surface of the land so that no one will be able to see the land that
shall devour the surviving remnant that was left to you after the hail. It shall eat away all your trees that grow the field. It will fill your palaces, the houses of your courtiers and of all Egyptians, something that neither your father's and your father's father's have seen from the day they appeared on Earth to this day, that he turned and left Pharaoh's presence in fields quarters said to him, how long should this wouldn't be a snare test, let a delegation go to worship their god? Are you not yet aware that Egypt is lost?
So here's my question for you, there seems to be some rationale given to have carting Pharaoh's heart.
And one, one kind of moment of tension I see here that's so fascinating is we see at the beginning here, that God says, I've heard in Pharaoh's heart, but then Moses, Nero go to Pharaoh and say,
How long will you refuse to humble yourself before God? When they know that there's a reason? It seems that Pharaohs refusing and it's because of this hardening of the heart, so I'm just curious want to open it up to conversation and what people think about, think about this
interaction here. So Suzanne, is in the chat disturbing bullying behavior. Is it a display for the Hebrews, I could do this due to like, stay in line. Like, be careful as you go into the future? Gil, like God was playing mind games, say more of exercising power. Today.
I can do this.
Yeah.
Yeah. It's, it's a little disturbing.
Nicole, so I think it's interesting. It says that God will harden the heart of the Pharaoh and the courtiers. But the courtiers are like, Dude, this is a, we're a lost, like, so their hearts aren't hard. So there's already a, you know, a disjuncture between the first portion and the experience of the second portion that, you know, God says he's going to harden, or God says God is going to harden both sets of hearts. But in fact, only one of them ends up being hard. Hmm, that's interesting. I didn't really notice that disparity, and then makes you wonder, actually, did God harden everybody's hearts? Only to a degree and that actually kind of pharaohs continued opposite and see is Pharaoh's own. Potentially. Sherry asked what does it truly mean to harden a heart? There was actually a debate about
what exactly this word means. amongst some of the rabbis, I believe it was even Ezra, right? To kind of either to set to set against
words.
Or that
or it's to to make to make a moveable, right, there's a there's a, there's a debate about what exactly this means. I think it's a Miriam and Leah, I point back to what Susanna said, I
actually thought that the signs and the symbols were more intended for the Israelites than the Egyptians that I mean, we see later that we go and worship the golden calf as soon as Moses is up for a couple of days. So it seems to me that
God is previewing his power for the Hebrews.
Not as much for the Egyptians.
And as Nicole pointed out in the chat, we are later described as a stiff neck people.
Right, so that this might actually be very much a lesson for you and isn't in the text, right, that God says right, this is really so that you will tell the story right? To your children, your children's children.
There's a purpose there. That's not just for the Egyptians, not just making a mockery of the Egyptians, but also
a lesson for the Israelites land.
Yeah, I'm, I'm going back to what Sherry said and then circling in what Miriam and Susanna have pointed out.
And in this series of episodes where God Pharaoh hardened Pharaoh's heart, and Moses and Aaron come and there are plagues, like we see two words in Hebrew, get you used to describe whatever is going on with Pharaoh's heart. When is lit Kazak? Which means like to strengthen, but here we see look of Edie, which like, I've always struggled with this translation choice that
we are using this to harden Pharaoh's heart because I think if we look at it rather as Pharaoh's heart has been made heavy, which is probably a to my mind, a more direct or obvious translation. I wonder if we're dealing with depression here. On
honestly
and I wonder if the ultimate goal is to okay so speaking for myself when I am in the depths of a depressive episode I get very stuck in my rigid pre programmed modes of thinking and being until I have some external
sign that something is not quite right and I need external help
and I'm candidly wondering if that doesn't sort of recontextualize this relationship this this accounts this this episode a little bit, because it makes it to me feel less punitive and more
like instructive.
You know, it's actually it's really beautiful and sing Ricky in the chat was pointing out right that Rashi chose choose a translated as heavy, a heavy heart as well.
Both because the story in so many ways is about really
transforming the world as people have kind of come to expect it to be an introducing a new possibility of world as it could be. And it's not just the Egyptians who have a hard time seeing a future right where the Israelites are not slaves. Israelites themselves have a very hard time seeing a future which they're not slaves. It takes a lot, right to move multiple peoples into a different way of being. And and sometimes these kinds of revolutions are very painful, right to move out of where we've been stuck for. So I'm 400 years according to the text where we've been stuck for so long right to both inspire the possibility of change within the Israelites, but also to show the Egyptians there might be a different way forward, as well. I really love this interpretation. It's actually I think it was wrong Baum, who points out that the continuation of the plagues is not a punishment for the hardening of the heart. It is it is both a display of God's power and retribution for 400 years of slavery. He's he's he's very carefully like the plagues are not coming because of the heart and heart. Right, the plagues are actually coming because of the status quo, right? This kind of continued slavery of the of the Israelites. I also wonder if the pre existing relationship between Pharaoh and Moses is a exacerbating factor of this whole mental fog? Because of course, yeah, you know, it's his stepbrother, foster brother adopted brother, who is now telling him that he needs to completely torpedo the entire economy of the country for which he is responsible for the 1000s and 1000s of people for whom he is responsible. Like that just must be so painful.
And that's where I love the contemporary Midrash of Prince of Egypt as a boy who's known me for a while those which I love that movie, but actually, you know, actually see as a contemporary Midrash, right contemporary expansion of the story. And one element that that movie I think introduces so beautifully right, is the place where Pharaoh feels caught right between wanting to give his stepbrother what stepbrother wands and also this deep responsibility he feels for the country that he's leading and an inability to see a future of a thriving country without the way things have been or he wants to build upon the past not rupture with it. So I think yeah, absolutely. Eric. Yeah, I just wanted to come back to
I forgot who was talking about how the except the courtiers hearts were hardened, but it seemed like maybe they weren't.
I'm just thinking about the whole concept of, you know, the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.
You know, maybe the extent to which the courtiers heart was hardened, meant that they, you know, just continued to, you know, give Pharaoh advice as though you know, they were just doing their jobs like normal rather than recognize that, you know, this was an extraordinary situation and maybe they needed to actually like not obey fair
huh?
That, right, they kind of come to him complaining, right, but
they themselves they're actually how shoot, I don't know if I want to know if I can find it. There was as reading through a bunch of the commentary. And there was one that was really emphasizing that the signs and wonders are also right to move again to move the Egyptians into a new way of being you