Parashat Bo – 5786

Softening the Heart

A D’var Torah for Parashat Bo

By Rabba Kaya Stern-Kaufman (AJR ’11)

This week’s Torah portion, Bo, begins in the midst of the plagues against Egypt but with a clear distinction from the previous seven plagues. In last week’s parashah (Torah portion) we learn that despite the experience of each plague upon the land, animals and people of Egypt, Pharoah responds by hardening his heart to the plight of the Israelites and to Moses’ demands for them to leave Egypt. This week’s parashah begins with God’s declaration: והכבדתי את לבו – and I will harden his (Pharoah’s) heart. It appears as if God is tampering with Pharoah’s free will. This poses theological difficulties for most readers. I would like to suggest a different interpretation of these events that suggests the unfolding of a natural process.

We discover much about Pharoah’s heart in the previous parashah – vaeira. Six times we read the refrain that Pharoah either “strengthened” or “hardened his heart” after each plague. At times the phrase “ולא שמע אליהם – and he did not listen to them” is added to the ‘stiffening of the heart’ phrase. Pharoah is described repeatedly as one with an iron will, or as the Bible infers, an iron heart. He is an expert at shutting himself off from the suffering of others and to the word of God. He appears to cultivate this hardening process to exquisite proportions despite the plagues, the suffering of his own people and the destruction of his land.

Eventually, in Ex. 9:12 after the sixth plague of boils, we read that God strengthens Pharoah’s heart. Yet even after this intervention, and after the 7th plague of fiery hail, we read again that Pharoah hardened AND strengthened his heart.

It appears that after relentlessly hardening his own heart, Pharoah becomes trapped in a self-generating process, at times of his own making, and at times out of his own control. He appears to have lost control over his own will. The text seems to vacillate between expressions of Pharoah’s own resistance and expressions of God hardening his heart. One might say that Pharoah becomes trapped in a karmic prison of his own design. It is Pharoah’s unlimited arrogance that traps him.

In Ex. 10:3 God delivers this message to Pharoah, “How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me?” Pharoah’s ego is so strong that even in the face of total destruction, he cannot humble himself. Pharoah has built such a stubborn superstructure of ego and arrogance that he literally becomes too dense, too kaved, too hard to soften and untangle himself from his own prison, even if some part of himself wants to.

The final three plagues reported in this parashah also allude to this process. These last three plagues all refer to darkness. About the locusts we read, “they hid all the land from view, and the land was darkened.” (Ex. 10:15) This plague is followed by three days of darkness. The text reads: “People could not see one another and for three days no one could get up from where he was; but all the Israelites enjoyed light in their dwellings.” (Ex. 10:23). And finally, the tenth plague arrives,”ויהי בחצי הלילה – in the middle of the night,” under cover of darkness. There is a process unfolding here. First, the land is covered in darkness so that the people lose connection with the land. Next, the people are enveloped in darkness. They cannot see one another and are unable to move. They become paralyzed. Finally, the darkness swallows up the very future for the people, through the death of all the Egyptian firstborns.

Like Pharoah, all of Egypt becomes trapped in an enveloping darkness; a walling-in that allows no light. All are blinded, unable to see or act on the need for change. It is simply too late. Egypt represents a society based on the oppression of people, based on a blindness to the suffering of others. The narrative tells us that such a system must eventually implode for the darkness that it promotes will paralyze and envelop all. It will become self-destructive and destroy any possibility for a future.

In our text the Exodus becomes a symbol of the triumph of light over darkness, of freedom over oppression as the Israelites walk out of the darkness of Egypt into the light of a new day, with a vision expressed through Torah, of a sustainable future.

The beauty of our sacred text lies in its mythic power. It speaks to us not only on the macro level of societal structures but also on the micro level of personal relevance. Pharoah can be viewed as an archetype, an inner figure or potentiality that exists within all human beings. Though he may view himself as a God, he is painfully recognizable to us as characteristically human. He represents the capacity in each of us to shut down our hearts if the ego is threatened; to stubbornly hold on to our own position, even if we know on some level that we are incorrect; to close ourselves off from the pain of others; and to act from pride rather than humility. These egoic qualities create a damaging darkness that leads to the destruction of both the land and our relationships with one another, as well as the destruction of ourselves and all future possibilities. It is tempting and somewhat easy to recognize these qualities in others, especially in our leaders, but the soul work I want to call attention to here, lies within ourselves.

Like Pharoah, we have surely at times, hardened our hearts to the needs and perspectives of others. The great danger of this attitude lies in the potential for paralysis. As our text demonstrates, after a certain point, even if we want to create a change, it may become impossible to act effectively or to create healing in a relationship. Like Pharoah, we can become hardened beyond our own desire, beyond our own will. Yet, our tradition offers us many tools to open the gates. One such key comes from the wisdom of our psalms, a collection of poetry and prayer that provides a path for reaching out of ourselves toward a higher force for help.

” מִן-הַמֵּצַר, קָרָאתִי יָּהּ, עָנָנִי בַמֶּרְחָב יָהּ. – From the narrow place of constriction, I called out to Yah, and I was answered with Yah’s open wide space.” (Ps. 118:5-6) When caught between a rock and a hard place; when we feel the need to move but cannot find a way; we can turn to Divine Source for help. For simply in the asking, we begin the softening process and open to new possibilities.  Our text teaches that while God resides in the process of hardening Pharoah’s heart, so too is the Divine Source available to begin the process of softening the heart, if we but call out for that help when we recognize the need.

Below is a musical version of this quote from Psalm 118.

May it help to soften and open up all the hardened places.