I write this weekly d’var torah message on an historic day. For the 46th time in our nation’s nearly 245-year history, we have inaugurated a new leader of our republic, one duly elected by our citizens through millions of sacred acts of democracy.
Many observations have been and will be made about this precious moment, so I will keep mine connected to the parashah—the portion of our sacred text, the Torah, that we read each week, connecting us to one another, to previous and future generations, and to the Holy.
This past week we read a troubling verse. In the face of the Israelites’ discouragement at the intractability of their plight, God reaffirms Moses’ mission and says to him as follows: “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, that I might multiply My signs and marvels throughout the land of Egypt” (Exodus 7:3).
“God hardening Pharaoh’s heart?” generations of readers and listeners have wondered. What sort of world is that, wherein God plays puppeteer? Where is the Free Will in a world where God is choosing the motivations of various actors? How are we to understand the mitzvot, our duties and obligations, our choosing between right and wrong, if God entrenches our hearts for good or for ill?
Commentators observe that the language used throughout the progression of the Exodus story is subtle but important. The concept of God hardening Pharaoh’s heart is introduced long after Pharaoh had already ruthlessly imposed hard labor upon the Israelites and ordered every baby boy killed. Then, during the onset of the plagues, for the initial five plagues when we read that Pharaoh’s heart hardens after each plague, the language does not invoke divine agency at work; the hardening is seen as self-willed by Pharaoh. Only after the fifth plague are we reintroduced to the idea of God hardening Pharaoh’s heart.
The explanation for this, according to commentators, is that we do have free will. But once we make bad choice after bad choice, that instinct towards the bad takes on a power of its own, a volition of its own, leading to the symbolic description “God hardened Pharaoh’s heart.” Pharaoh was too far gone at that point. As Rava, an ancient rabbi put it, “the instinct to evil begins as a tourist, then becomes a guest, and then becomes the innkeeper.”
Beautifully, the participants in our Torah discussion observed that the reverse is true: goodness begets goodness; bravery begets bravery. Each time we make a decision to do what is right, it paves the way for our doing so the next time. As Rabbi Winokur observed, Ben Azzai said mitzvot goreret mitzvot: mitzvahs (sacred actions) lead to mitzvahs.
In President Biden’s inaugural address he invited us to “open our souls instead of hardening our hearts.” It’s an invitation that not only echoes generations of sacred teachings; it cuts right to the challenging but essential work of what it means to be human. May we carry out this sacred task.
