Dear Friends,
Most of us know and are troubled by this week’s Torah text, which states, Then GOD said to 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.” (Exodus 10:1)
I have been bothered by this verse for decades.
Aside from some philological elements which disturb scholars, there clearly are theological difficulties which upset us all.
Why did God harden the already ossified hearts of Pharaoh and his courtiers? They were mean-spirited from the outset, and God only made it more untenable. Isn’t that ethically vile and heinous, and doesn’t it undermine God’s lofty position as the arbiter of justice? Doesn’t it further weaken Moses’ position as he stood before a more-hostile Pharaoh who was a puppet of God?
It seems patently wrong that God would harden Pharaoh’s heart.
Scholars have suggested that it had to be that way. Some posited that if God is responsible for all matters, then even Pharaoh’s attitudes and decisions were subject to God’s determination. To the sages, the idea that Pharaoh could operate outside the parameters of God’s control was unthinkable. Hence, if Pharaoh already was inclined to ruthlessness, then God would double down on that trait.
Philosophically, that argument is acceptable, but morally, it is not.
Hence, we read the conclusion of the verse: “in order that I may display these My signs among them.”
Our sages stressed this aspect of the verse. God’s hardening Pharaoh’s heart was both teleological and performative. It was to demonstrate not how evil Pharaoh was, nor how powerful God was in over-trumping the Egyptian ruler, but something else. It was to justify God’s demonstrating God’s wonders in eventually defeating Pharaoh and Egypt, and doing so in a way which would make a perpetual narrative: Passover and the story of our People.
According to Ramban, our 13th century Spanish commentator, God’s message was, “The reason I hardened their hearts is that I might set in their midst these signs that I wish to do among them so that the Egyptians will know My power, but not in order that I can punish them more on account of this hardening of heart, and also that you and all Israel should recount during the coming generations the power of My deeds, and you shall know that I am the Eternal, and whatsoever I please, I do in heaven and in earth.”
Hence, God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Or so…
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
Most of us know and are troubled by this week’s Torah text, which states, Then GOD said to 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.” (Exodus 10:1)
I have been bothered by this verse for decades.
Aside from some philological elements which disturb scholars, there clearly are theological difficulties which upset us all.
Why did God harden the already ossified hearts of Pharaoh and his courtiers? They were mean-spirited from the outset, and God only made it more untenable. Isn’t that ethically vile and heinous, and doesn’t it undermine God’s lofty position as the arbiter of justice? Doesn’t it further weaken Moses’ position as he stood before a more-hostile Pharaoh who was a puppet of God?
It seems patently wrong that God would harden Pharaoh’s heart.
Scholars have suggested that it had to be that way. Some posited that if God is responsible for all matters, then even Pharaoh’s attitudes and decisions were subject to God’s determination. To the sages, the idea that Pharaoh could operate outside the parameters of God’s control was unthinkable. Hence, if Pharaoh already was inclined to ruthlessness, then God would double down on that trait.
Philosophically, that argument is acceptable, but morally, it is not.
Hence, we read the conclusion of the verse: “in order that I may display these My signs among them.”
Our sages stressed this aspect of the verse. God’s hardening Pharaoh’s heart was both teleological and performative. It was to demonstrate not how evil Pharaoh was, nor how powerful God was in over-trumping the Egyptian ruler, but something else. It was to justify God’s demonstrating God’s wonders in eventually defeating Pharaoh and Egypt, and doing so in a way which would make a perpetual narrative: Passover and the story of our People.
According to Ramban, our 13th century Spanish commentator, God’s message was, “The reason I hardened their hearts is that I might set in their midst these signs that I wish to do among them so that the Egyptians will know My power, but not in order that I can punish them more on account of this hardening of heart, and also that you and all Israel should recount during the coming generations the power of My deeds, and you shall know that I am the Eternal, and whatsoever I please, I do in heaven and in earth.”
Hence, God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Or so…
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
