Marin-Rosenzweig D'Var Torah: Pharaoh's Stiff Heart

Let’s just say, when it comes to the Exodus story, God’s catchphrase (right after “Let My People Go”) could be: “Go Big, or Go Home.”

As we were reading our Parasha about the period after “Pharoah let the people go,” it was striking to us that the story, right after its huge dramatic climax – plagues, death of the First Born, and freedom from slavery –  does not wind down into denouement and final credits, but oddly ramps up again.  Instead of allowing the Israelites to swiftly escape and start life anew, God intentionally has Moses take them into the wilderness, and tarry long enough to give Pharoah time to have a change of heart and pursue them. Isn’t this kind of an unnecessary complication?

Why, we wondered, did God once again “Stiffen Pharoah’s heart?”

And maybe God, the original and ultimate cinematic director, knew that in order for His story to really have an impact,  to be worthy of telling year after year, there had to be a Chase Scene.  And one with a Big Finish. 

Commentary explains his motivation, addressing Moses:

“Of course Pharaoh will not be easily swayed, but not on account of your

inadequacy. Rather, it is because I use his stubbornness to demonstrate My active Presence.” (From Etz Hayim, JPS)

God did not want the Israelites to come to The Promised Land before they had developed a deep visceral understanding of His Greatness.  And to do that, he had to set the stage for a heartstopping, showstopping Major Display of Awesomeness that would be etched permanently into the Israelites’ consciousness.   

In Exodus, it is written:  “And I will stiffen the hearts of the Egyptians so they go in after them, and I will gain glory through Pharaoh, and all his warriors, his chariots and his horseman.” He had to stiffen Pharaoh’s heart so the Israelites would be trapped, facing certain death, No Way Out suspense, just so he could bust the Big Superhero Move – splitting the seas --  he needed to Prove to the Israelites that he was not just a God, but The God.  He had to Go Big.  

Okay, so once we get that He had to make Pharaoh a jerk in order to create the drama he needed to teach the Israelites there is Only One God, and He is Awesome, we  still ask ourselves, why this expression, “stiffen the heart?” It’s mentioned 20 times in the Shemot. It must have significance.

We wonder if God, in addition to teaching Israelites to exalt Him, also needed a succinct way to express the essence of holiness and religion: the ability to feel compassion.  Not that the Exodus story includes a great hero lionized for his compassion, Moses isn’t there demonstrating wonders to help the suffering -- that is more a New Testament image.   In Exodus, God, with his brilliant instinct for dramaturgy, is not so On The Nose.  Instead, Exodus teaches us the value of compassion by creating a Super Villain – Pharaoh -- who proves himself utterly lacking it -- over and over again, incapable of feeling for someone else’s suffering.  And is punished for it.  

This is illuminating to our family, when thinking about the part of the seder where we stick our finger in the wine and remove a drop for each plague.  Always an odd moment, a) weirdly messy and b) a bit hard to swallow the logic that we should not celebrate the punishment of our enemy. Compassion, it seems, is a key element in this saga.  Maybe we remove wine from our cups to distinguish us as different from Pharoah, whose own self-interest  and ego clog the arteries and harden his “Heart.”  In contrast, we lessen our portion as a symbol of feeling the pain of another – regardless of whether their suffering is in our self interest.

The fact that in the parasha it says that, “The Lord stiffened Pharoah’s heart” makes it complicated.  If it was not Pharoah’s free will, but the Lord using him as a pawn to exemplify values to teach the Israelites, that is hardly compassionate.  Maybe even unfair, or abusive.   To be kind, we’ll leave it at ironic.

So maybe God had to Stiffen Pharoah’s Heart so he could create a Big Story, one that would help the Israelites Get It (God) and be worthy of revisiting every year and not get bored (His “The Godfather”).  And maybe we tell the story every year of How We were Slaves, and how Pharoah’s heart was hardened, not just to remember our own history of suffering and persecution in the context of faith and redemption; but as an annual call to connect with our own empathy and compassion – the cornerstones of what is holy humanity.