פרשת וארא תשל"א - "ואני אקשה את לב..."

Another explanation: For I have hardened his heart - Rabbi Yochanan said: Does this not provide heretics with an opportunity to open their mouths to say that he had no means of repenting, as it say "For I have hardened his heart". Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said to him: Let the mouths of the heretics be stopped up. Rather, (Mishlei 3:34) If it concerns the scorners, he scorns them. When the Holy One Blessed be He warns a man once, twice, thrice and he doesn't repent, and G-d will close his heart against repentance so that He should not exact vengeance from him for his sins. So to with the wicked Pharaoh, since Hashem sent five times to him and he took no notice, G-d then said: "You have stiffened your neck and hardened your heart; well, I will add impurity to your impurity". Hence, "For I have hardened his heart". What does "I have hardened" imply? That G-d made his heart like a liver (כבד) into which even if boiled a second time no juice enters; so also was the heart of Pharaoh made like a liver, and he did not receive the words of G-d. Hence, "For I have hardened his heart".

The Gemara asks: Let him enter through that opening, as the kuf is open on both sides at the bottom.The Gemara answers: This supports the statement of Reish Lakish, as Reish Lakish said: What is the meaning of that which is written: “If it concerns the scorners, He scorns them, and unto the humble He gives grace” (Proverbs 3:34)? One who comes in order to become impure, i.e., to sin, they, in Heaven, provide him with an opening to do so, and he is not prevented from sinning. However, if he comes in order to become purified, not only is he allowed to do so, but they, in Heaven, assist him.

The Gemara asks: Let him enter through that opening, as the kuf is open on both sides at the bottom.The Gemara answers: This supports the statement of Reish Lakish, as Reish Lakish said: What is the meaning of that which is written: “If it concerns the scorners, He scorns them, and unto the humble He gives grace” (Proverbs 3:34)? One who comes in order to become impure, i.e., to sin, they, in Heaven, provide him with an opening to do so, and he is not prevented from sinning. However, if he comes in order to become purified, not only is he allowed to do so, but they, in Heaven, assist him.

There are many verses in the Torah and in the texts of the prophets which appear to contradict this principle, and most people are stumbling thereby, and therefrom they suppose in their mind that the Holy One, blessed is He! predestines for man either to do evil or good, and that the heart of man is not his to bend it to his own will. Wherefor, behold, I am making clear a great principle, out which thou shalt know the explanation of all those verses. When an individual or a people of a state do sin, and the sinner transgressed consciously and of his own free will, as we have already made known in the preceding chapter, it is meet that retribution is visited upon him, and the Holy One, blessed is He! knoweth how to inflict the punishment. There is a category of sin for which justice demands that punishment should be visited upon the sinner in this world, on his body, or his property, or on his infant children, for the little children of man, who have not yet reached the age of intelligence nor attained the age when they are included among those who are obliged to observe the precepts, are considered man's own acquisition, even as it is written: "Every man shall be put to death for his own sin" (Deut. 24.16)—he suffers for his own sins when he reaches the age of man;¹The punishment herein spoken of is retribution by the Judge of the whole earth, and not by tribunal of man; no tribunal has the power under the laws of the Torah to inflict the punishment of death upon infant children for the crime of a parent. G. and there is a category of sin for which justice demands that punishment should be visited upon the transgressors only in the World to Come, and the sinner suffers no harm whatever in this world; and there is still another category of sin for which punishment is inflicted upon the sinner both in this world and the World to Come.¹

Even on this very subject do the righteous and the prophets supplicate and pray that the Lord may help them to discover the truth. As David said: "Teach me Thy way, O Lord, that I may walk in Thy truth" (Ps. 86.11), as if saying: "let not my sins withold the way of truth, by which I may discover Thy way, and the Oneness of thy Name". Likewise, this Verse: "Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation, and let a free spirit uphold me" (Ibid. 51.14), is as if saying: "Grant leave to my spirit to do Thy will, and let not my sins be a cause to withold repentance from me; but let the power be in my hand until I will turn, and understand and know the true way". And, in such way all other like verses are interpreted. But what is this that king David said: "Good and upright is the Lord; therefore doth he instruct sinners in the way. He guideth the humble in justice; and He teacheth the humble His way" (Ibid. 210.11)? This is a reference to the prophets who were sent to make the ways of God known, and to turn the people to repentance. Moreover, He endowed them with a power to study and understand, as it is the tendency of every man to pursue wisdom and righteousness as long as he is trained in the ways of wisdom. This is in harmony with what our Masters, of blessed memory! said: "He who comes to be cleansed receives aid"³Shabbat, 104a; Yoma, 38b. Minahot, 29a. G., as if saying: "He will find himself aided in the matter he strives after. Now, reverting back to the subject of predestination is it not written in the Torah: "Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them" (Gen. 113), lo, here is a decree against the Egyptians to do evil? And it, moreover, written: "And this people will rise up, and go astray after the foreign gods of the land" (Deut. 31.16), lo, here is a decree against Israel to worship idolatry, then why visit retribution upon them? Because He did not decree that that particularly known person shall be the one to go astray. Forsooth, every individual of those who did go astray to worship idolatry, had he not done so to worship of his own free will, he would not have worshiped. And God made known no more than custom of the world. This is like to one who says: "Among this people will be righteous and wicked". Not because of this will the wicked one say that it had long since been decreed that he should be an evildoer, seeing that God made known to Moses that there will be wicked people among Israel. Or, this is like the subject of poverty, of which it is said: "For the poor shall never cease out of the land" (Ibid. 15.11). Llikewise the Egyptians, if each and every one of those who vexed and wronged Israel had no desire so to wrong them, he had it in his power to refrain from doing it; for, He did not decree against a particular man, but made known to Abraham that in the end his seed will be enslaved in a land which is not theirs. But we have already stated that it is not within the power to comprehend the foreknowledge of the Holy One, blessed is He!

ואני אקשה, seeing that G’d is interested in the sinner’s repentance rather than his death (as we know from Ezekiel 33,11 חי אני, נאום ה', אם אחפוץ במות הרשע כי אם בשובו מדרכו וחיה, “by My life, I do not want the death of the wicked but that he return from his wicked path and live”), G’d told Moses that He would bring on numerous plagues, all in order to increase the chances that Pharaoh would finally see the light and become a genuine penitent. He hoped that by demonstrating His greatness and His power this would eventually cause the Egyptians to recognise all this. At the same time, G’d also spelled out a similar thought in 9,16 but aimed at the Israelites, when He said: “that the only reason He had not yet killed Pharaoh was so that in the course of more plagues you, the Jewish people, would come to recognise both G’d’s greatness and His patience.“ He also wanted the Jewish people to learn how to both love and revere Him when they witnessed and thought about the meaning of all these plagues. There can be no question that without G’d stiffening Pharaoh’s attitude from time to time, he would have collapsed much sooner and would have sent the Israelites on their desired journey. However, this would not have been the result of his repentance and humbling himself before the Lord, involving genuine regret about his previous errors, but the result of his impotence to withstand the pressure applied to him. He would have acted out of terror of what the next plague would do to him and to his country. If we needed confirmation of this, all we have to do is look at what his servants said to him when Moses threatened with the plague of locust. They said to him: “how long will you be obstinate, do you not see that Egypt will go down the drain?!” There was not a single word of regret of past errors, no word of recognition that G’d could have killed them all long before this and that He must therefore be very patient, and kind, but mere terror forced them to utter these words. (10,7) Keeping all this in mind, it is foolish to ask how G’d could punish Pharaoh after he Himself had interfered with his decision-making process by “stiffening his heart,” ואני אקשה את לב פרעה, I will stiffen the heart of Pharaoh, etc.” not in order to punish him but in order to finally trigger repentance in his heart. The operative clause is “in order that I can demonstrate all these miracles of Mine in his midst” (10,1), the purpose being to bring about his humbling himself in repentance and genuine contrition. If that wish of G’d would indeed materialise, the Jewish people also would tell of G’d’s greatness, (למען ספר את שמי, having observed at first hand how the mightiest secular power on earth turned into G’d fearing human beings.) They would tell their children and children’s children the lesson they had learned that G’d’s apparent cruelty is actually an act of loving kindness as it results in His creatures coming to love and to revere Him. [Noach, who had survived the destruction of mankind by a deliberate act of G’d’s kindness to him and his family, had not been able to relate to his children what G’d hoped that the Israelites would be able to relate to their children. Ed.] The basic lesson in ethics we derive from all this is that when suffering an affliction we must first and foremost examine our past actions to find out where we went wrong, and try to find out what these afflictions are intended to trigger in our memory so that we can improve our conduct both vis-à-vis G’d and our fellow man.