In our Torah portion, God famously hardens Pharoah’s heart. It is a perplexing aspect of the Exodus story. How can Pharoah be held responsible for his actions when there is a compelling force acting upon him? Commentators have contemplated this repeatedly. Let’s look closely at the story for more insights. God begins hardening Pharoahs heart after the 6th plague, rather from the very beginning. This small observation allows us to view this hardening as the natural course of our decision making. Rabbi Alex Israel (Pardes) writes:
“Sometimes a person begins to act in a certain way, building his or her life around particular decisions, certain lifestyle choices. After a while, the cumulative effect of those decisions, the momentum of his current position, is too great for him to shift course; he loses the ability to choose. If that chosen path would include behavior that is bad, evil or immoral, then we might say that at first, he has chosen that direction, but after some time, he is trapped by his former decisions…”
We make one decision at a time and when we repeat them, they take hold with a strength that effects us more than we realize.
The Talmud quotes our sages: Rav Assi said: At first the evil impulse is as thin as a spider’s web, but in the end, it is as thick as the rope of a cart. Rav said: At first, the evil impulse is like a passing visitor, then it becomes a guest, and then finally it becomes the master of the house.” (Sukkah 52a-b)
In this aspect, Pharoah is every man. He is the example of our choices solidifying and running our lives without our consent. Exodus is the story of slavery and the story of freedom. We focus so much on the release and overlook the experience of being bound. The hardening of Pharoah’s heart is the state that most of us live in and the narrative reminds us that sometimes, with time, effort, protest, sometimes the force within us, the Moses, that goes out to learn and experience can come back and demand change.
Let’s search within. Let’s look closely at ourselves and see what has taken hold of us beyond our immediate observation and decide that we will allow a small part to go out and explore, and learn, and then come back to the every day and make small liberations.
Shabbat shalom, Rabbi Bernstein
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