Seeking

and the acknowledgement that per-
haps even God must play to these
realities in order to forge a relation-
ship with us.
We often tend to listen more
intently ro negative versus positive
signs. A tew deaths at an intersection
lead a community to rally for a traf-
fic light..
We as a Jewish people are great at
bonding together over tragic events,
whether in. Israel or in our own back
yards. Maybe God felt that the only
way we in our starved, desperate,
enslaved state could be convinced to
forge a relationship with the divine
was to experience these plagues and
the wonder of why we were the ones
to escape their fury.
Perhaps God hardened Pharaoh's
heart to prove both Rashi's and
Sforno's points: Sometimes we need a
harsh wakeup call to remind us of
God's presence in our world and in
our lives, and that it is only through
the constant, honest work of teshu-
vah, of self-improvement and return
to God, that we can maintain our
relationship with the divine.
Perhaps God hardens Pharaoh's
heart to tell us that God hopes that
we will actively seek out the shechi-
nah God's spirit) in our lives, as
individuals and as a Jewish commu-
nity.
God desires a relationship with us.
Towards the beginning of the Torah
portion, God tells Moses to tell the
people that, "I will take you to Me as
a people and I will be to you a God"
(6:7). God is actively pursuing a rela-
tionship with us through the miracle
of bringing us out of Egypt.
The question is, are we actively
pursuing a relationship with God?
Do we again need some grand wake-
up call in order to be reminded that
God cares about us? We may not be
physically enslaved in an Egypt, yet
so many of us are spiritually enslaved
in the straits of emptiness and corn-
placenc,
At the time of the Exodus, we
demonstrated that we reciprocated
God's desire for a connection with us
by accepting the Torah at Sinai. Yet
that acceptance was not a self-con-
tained, finite act. The acceptance of
Torah is an ongoing process, one that
can enrich and inspire our lives if we
let it. As we relive the story of our
journey to Sinai during these next few
weeks, may we each find new strength
and passion to pursue our own jour-
neys towards Sinai, towards a closer
relationship with Adonai Eloheinu, the
Lord our God.

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