Parshat Bo

No one saw his fellow

 and no one rose from where he was three days,

But all the israelites had light in their dwelling places.

(Shemot 10:23)

 

You find darkness mentioned three times in the parasha: "That there be darkness", "a darkness one can feel" "and there was pitch dark", -thus alluding to three types of darkness; alata, afela, and arafel.

Alata [thick gloom] (Translations of the Hebrew terms for darkness are by Robert Alter.) is the darkness of the "Covenant of the Pieces", as is written: '…there was a thick gloom".

Afela [pitch dark] is the darkness of Egypt, as is written, "and there was pitch dark".

Arafel is the darkness at the giving of the Torah, as is written (Shemot 20) "And Mosheapproached the darkness".

Rabeinu Behayey, Shemot 10:21)

           

Therefore the pure and righteous do not complain about the darkness, but they increase light; they do not complain about evil, but they increase justice; they do not complain about heresy, but increase faith; they do not complain about ignorance but increase wisdom.

(From "Arpilei Tohar", Rabbi A. Y. HaCohen Kook zt"l 27-28)

 

My grandfather, of blessed memory, said regarding the passage, "No one saw his fellow and no one rose from where he was for three days" - He who cannot see his fellow with a good eye [generously] cannot himself survive.

(Imrei Emet quoting the Hidushei HaRim, Pesach sermon)

 

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Hardening of the heart - as addiction

Gili Zivan

And the Lord said to Moses, "See, I have set you as a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother will be your prophet. You it is who will speak all that I charge you and Aaron your brother will speak to Pharaoh, and he will send off the Israelites from his land. And I on My part shall harden Pharaoh's heart, that I may multiply my signs and My portents in the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh will not heed you

…And Pharaoh's heart hardened and he did not heed them, just as the Lord had spoken. (Shemot 7:1-13)

Every year, Parashat "Bo" raises anew the problem of the hardening of Pharaoh's heart. Again and again it is difficult to accept the passages describing the toughening of Pharaoh's heart by the Holy One, Blessed Be He. Similar to the heretics mentioned by Rabbi Yochanan, we want to protest and say: "But he was unable to repent!?" (Midrash Rabba, Shemot 13, section 3).

How many nibs have been broken on the issue of freedom of choice vs. the hardening of Pharaoh's heart… and I confess: I really do not know Scripture's intentions, but, having already touched upon the subject, I would like to develop the Midrash's statement, further developed by the Ramban ( in his first answer) and intimated in the Rambam's writings.

Resh Lakish replies to the heretic's question:

At scoffers He scoffs". The Holy One cautions a person once, twice, thrice, and if still he does not repent - He locks his heart against penitence in order to repay him for his sins. And so with evil Pharaoh - since the Holy One had sent punishments five times and he paid no attention, the Holy One said to him: You stiffened your neck and hardened your heart - I will add more impurity to your impurity, thus: "For I have hardened his heart."

The Midrash noted that the Holy One hardened Pharaoh's heart only from the sixth plague on. During the first five plagues, Pharaoh hardened his heart of his own volition, and the punishment for his refusal was the preclusion of his repentance. The Ramban explains in similar fashion:

And they gave explanations to the question which all ask, if God hardened his heart, what was his sin? There are two explanations, both true. One - Because Pharaoh, in his wickedness, did greatly harm Israel for no reason, his sentence was to be denied paths to repentance, …and he was judged according to his earlier behavior.

Rambam, whose words in the "Laws of Repentance" repeatedly emphasize the centrality of free choice as a foundation stone of religious thought, relates to our question:

Many passages in the Torah and Prophets seem to contradict this principle, and most people misinterpret them, and some think that the Holy One decides whether one does wrong or right, and that man does not control his heart to determine his actions. I now explain a major principle from which you will know the meaning of all those passages - when an individual or members of a community sin and the sinner sins consciously and willingly, as we have shown, it is proper to punish him. And the Holy One knows how to punish - …In which circumstances is this true? When he does not repent. But if one has repented, repentance is a shield against divine punishment. Just as one sins consciously and willingly, so can he repent consciously and willingly. It is possible that one perform a terrible sin or many sins, until he stands in judgment before the truthful judge and the punishment for these sins committed willingly and consciously is that he will be denied repentance, and he is not permitted to repent from his wickedness in order that he die and perish in his sin which he committed… therefore is it written in the Torah "And I will harden Pharaoh's heart" because he had sinned earlier on his own and harmed Israel dwelling in his land, as is written: "Come let us be shrewd with them" - the sentence was given to prevent him from repenting until he be punished therefore the Holy One hardened his heart" (Laws of Repentance, 1:1-3 with omissions).

Woven like a silken thread from Midrash Rabba to the Rambam is the principle that Pharaoh chose of his own free will to exploit the minority dwelling in his land - chose to damage, chose to murder - and chose not to listen to the cry of the enslaved crying for freedom and pleading time and again "Let my people go". The hardening of his heart which, at this stage, denies him the possibility of repentance, is itself his punishment for his decision to exploit and abuse the helpless minority.

I should like to carry this a step further, and to argue that the hardening of the heart is not a punishment externally imposed upon the guilty by the punisher; it is part and parcel of the human personality. There is a point where that which began as a decision becomes a habit, and habit, with time, becomes man's "second nature." Smoking a cigarette which eventually becomes a pack of cigarettes, exaggerated eating from which a person cannot free himself, speech patterns which one has adopted, methods of reaction, etc. Certainly such is the case regarding all forms of addictions - drugs, alcohol, and others.

As in Barry Sacharov's song "Slaves", "…We are all slaves even / When we have something like this as if / We open our mouth wide / And wait for the next pleasure." In our media-worshipping society it is very difficult not to be influenced by social criteria of good and bad. We are all "addicted to something", we all find it hard to free ourselves of habits founded in social perversions. The punishment of hardening Pharaoh's heart, or, in other words, prevention of repentance (the change) from his sin is but that second when the person cannot stop. Perhaps he wants to change, but he has already missed the boat. His body cannot function without the drug, his personality cannot forgo the high which, with time, becomes his raison d'etre. The fix hardens his heart, and all the promises he made to himself evaporate into nothingness when he again feels the need.

How much help and support does the addict require in order to free himself of the dependence he has developed? And even then, testify the professionals, not always will he succeed. There is still hope for the young, but there comes an age when it is almost impossible to change.

Does not all of Israeli society suffer from the illness of "hardening of the heart", i.e., from increasing addictions, even in our protected religious community? [The misuse of psychoactive material and addiction to them and to similar behavior, such as addition to gambling, to sex or to eating, also exist among religious adults and adolescents, even they would seem to be "inoculated" against these phenomena", (Returno - Jewish Rehabilitative Community for Dealing with Addictions, p. 9] at "Retorno" (In Spanish: U-turn, or return, as a symbol of returning to life), a village for the rehabilitated, located in the hills of the Judea lowlands, which deals with male and female youngsters  - primarily from religious backgrounds-- who, having undergone some serious crisis in life, sought solutions in the wrong places. In the preface to their research volume on the rehab village, the authors (Ronel, Chen, Timor, and Elisha) analyze Retorno's system of treatment, comparing it to the well-known 12 step system of Alcoholics Anonymous, laying special emphasis on the spiritual dimension of treatment in "Retorno":

The sickness of addiction is characterized by a sense of inner emptiness on the spiritual level. This emptiness leads to a need for achieving external satisfaction though drugs. This inner void derives from the addicts' extreme concentration on 'myself', which is perceived to be the phenomenological root of the addiction and as an expression of spiritual disturbance… accordingly, recovery from the addiction is conceived as "a spiritual journey", and the twelve steps are the means to spiritual growth (Ibid, p. 12).

Do not these words draw us back to our parasha? Do not Pharaoh's defiant cry "Who is God that I should obey His all to send off Israel?!" (Shemot 5:2) and his refusal to see the suffering of those around him: "…for they are idlers. Therefore do they cry out, saying 'Let us go sacrifice to our god.' Let the work be heavy on the men…!" (Shemot 5:8,9) - do these not testify to extreme egotism and concentration upon the self?

The book's authors maintain that the cure for the sense of emptiness from which the addict suffers is a spiritual journey, the personal search for "the meaning of life". The meaning of life "is not the result of psychological-social factors, but rather the result of a personal decision based upon spiritual processes" (ibid.).

Is this not the exact claim of the commentators with whose words we began the discussion? Does not the loss of the ability to choose derive from the addict's selfish concern with himself? The spiritual journey back to life, then, is contingent upon the discovery that man is able to bequeath to others love, joy, optimism, support, etc.

The addict needs a helping hand in order to be able to return. Pharaoh, who does not recognize the Lord, but considers himself to be the lord, does not recognize 'the other", and has no need of him, and therefore he is denied repentance.

The repentance option ("Retorno" in Spanish) is denied only to one whose hardening of the heart is so great than he cannot open even a miniscule opening to one who is found outside himself.

Dr. Gili Zivan is a co-director of the Yaakov Herzog Center and a member of Kibbutz Sa'ad.

 

"They shall ask, each man of his neighbor, each woman of her neighbor." - help for the suffering recognizes no boundaries

When it developed that redemption was delayed for the twelve months of Egypt's trial, and that from the pestilence on they deepened their association… and yet more, during the affliction of darkness, when no one was able to go out for three days, and everyone suffered for three days, but the Children of Israel, who had light in their settlements, supplied them with food and all necessities, did not rejoice in their adversity and did not take revenge. Thereby they found great favor in their eyes.

(Haamek Davar, Shmot 11:2)

 

Between holiness and national historical ties

The foundations of sanctified sites are not delineated in the divine teachings, but derive from the nation and its roots. Har Hamoriah, for example - there was the point of man's creation, there Avraham sacrificed Yitzhak; later it was chosen by the word of a prophet. The Torah states only "the place which God will choose". The site of the Torah is Mount Sinai. Once the Divine Presence departed, -- let sheep and cattle go up!... Forbid that sentiments mislead us any visualization of the religion. But Yerushalayim, all Eretz Yisrael, and Har Hamoriah are constructions of their relation to our fathers. They, the fathers, are the roots of the nation; the nation must be one with its roots. All sentiments should be directed toward the unification of the nation.

(Meshekh Hokhma, Shmot 12:21,22)

 

The blood on the lintel: on the inside? On the outside? What for?

"And they should put it on the doorposts and on the lintel': on the inside. But perhaps it really means on the outside? This is what the verse means by 'and the blood should be as a sign for you' - a sign for you, and not for others.

(Mechilta Bo Masehet Depascha Parasha 6)

 

Many have said that putting the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts was to show that they could publicly slaughter what was abhorrent to the Egyptians, because the fear of them had already fallen on the Egyptians, and they were not afraid that they would stone them. But if that were the case, it would have been on the gate to the courtyard. But in fact, the blood was only daubed in secret, with the courtyard gate shut, and they did the slaughtering in the afternoon so no-one would see since it was close to nightfall, and no one left their house until morning, for they went on their way and each person closed his/her courtyard gate, because the Egyptians thought they would return. Only the reason for the blood on the lintel was to be a ransom for everyone who ate in the house and a sign to the destroying angel when he saw it, as though it were a label.

(Ibn Ezra Exodus XII, 7)

 

We were commanded to slaughter the Paschal lamb and sprinkle its blood on the doorway in Egypt on the outside (Leviticus I,2) to cleanse ourselves of those notions and publicly declare their opposite, and inculcate the opinion that the deed you think is a cause of destruction is what saves from destruction.

 (Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed, III, 46)

 

'And it shall be as a sign on your arm': tefillin should be put on the weak arm.

And so it is with the two arms of a man, for the left arm is weak and is next to the heart, the seat of wisdom, for the intelligent part of the heart causes the arm to be weak, for the arm is busy with material concerns, but the right arm is next to the liver, seat of desire, which is not opposed to the arm, because there lies its main strength, but where the intelligence resides, there the arm is weak. And when it says here 'And it shall be for a sign on your arm', it is as though it said it should be for a sign on your heart, for the heart is the case of the arm's weakness, for the point of the tefillin is to be a reminder for a man where the intelligence resides in the brain and the heart. And concerning the tefillin for the head it said it should be 'between you eyes', for the eye and the heart are two pimps for sin (Talmud Yerushalmi Berachot 81 halacha 5), therefore these two places need something to remind them of the existence of the Almighty, may He be blessed, and his power, and they will thereby recoil from evil.

(Kli Yakar Exodus XIII, 16)

 

 

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