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Pharaoh's
bitterness
ultimately
destroys him.

0

ne of the most puzzling
and perhaps disturbing
incidents in the Torah is the
story of God hardening the heart of
Pharaoh.
We learn that God wants to take
the children of Israel out
of Egypt, but knows that
Pharaoh will not easily
agree. Instead of making
Pharaoh want to let them
go, he will make Pharaoh
even more resistant.
God will then bring
horrific plagues upon
the Egyptians, forcing
Pharaoh to release the
slaves. This hardly seems
fair. God prevents some-
one from doing something
and then punishes him for not doing
it.
If we look at the language, of
the Torah itself, we see that things
are a bit more complex. The end of
our Torah reading says, "Pharaoh's
heart was hardened, just as God said
would happen."
The Torah does not say that
God actually hardened his heart. I
believe that Pharaoh was so angry
that God would demand freedom for
the slaves, that the very thought of
God caused Pharaoh to harden his
own heart.
Pharaoh did not want to release
his slaves, and he especially did
not want to do so at the demand of

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another god. After all, he was the
god of Egypt.
Who was this new God of Israel to
tell him what to do?
His bitterness ultimately destroys
him. We all have responsibilities.
Some of those respon-
sibilities may make us
angry or bitter. We may
find all sorts of reasons to
not do them and place the
blame on others for our
situation.
We may find our hearts
hardening toward those
who need us. No one can
harden our hearts. Only
we can do that to our-
selves.
One of the greatest acts
of personal liberation is to look at
our responsibility to do the right
thing as a blessing, even, or maybe
especially, when things are difficult.
Being a fully engaged Jew and
raising a Jewish family requires a
great deal of sacrifice. We have to
give time and money and restrict
some of our own behaviors. We may
find ourselves looking for reasons to
turn away.
The Torah tells us to face the
world with an open and giving heart
and a sense of gratitude and joy for
all that God asks of us.

Aaron Bergman is a rabbi at Adat

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December 30 • 2010

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