What hardens our hearts?

(28) And Pharaoh hardened. He hardened his heart like he did with the frogs, it is written there "and his heart hardened"

(20) Those that feared the word of the LORD among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses; (21) and those that regarded not the word of the LORD left his servants and his cattle in the field.

(21) ואני אחזק את לבו, for if he could not endure the plagues he would let the Israelites go, not because he was finally humbling himself before the Lord and do His will, but only in order to get relief from the plagues. This was not a good enough reason to grant him relief; therefore G’d reinforced his natural obstinacy.

(3) 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.

(3) But it is possible that a person would commit a grave sin or many sins so that judgment is rendered before the True Judge to punish this sinner on account of these sins committed through [the sinner’s] awareness and intention – such that teshuvah is prevented and we do not allow this person to return from their evil, so that they will die and be lost in the sins they committed. This is what the Holy Blessed One said through Isaiah: Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they, seeing with their eyes, and hearing with their ears, and understanding with their heart, do teshuvah, and receive healing (Isaiah 6:10). Similarly, They mocked the messengers of God, and despised God’s words, and scoffed at God’s prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against God’s people such that there was no remedy (2 Chronicles 36:16), meaning: they sinned intentionally and eagerly transgressed until they deserved to be denied teshuvah, which is the “remedy.” Therefore it is written in the Torah: I will harden Pharaoh’s heart (Ex. 14:4) – since he initially sinned of his own initiative and abused Israel, who were living in his land, as it says, Come, let us deal cleverly with them (Ex. 1:10), judgment was rendered to deny [Pharaoh] teshuvah until [God] punished him – therefore the Holy Blessed One hardened [Pharaoh’s] heart. So why did [God] send Moses with the message: “Release [the Israelites], and do teshuvah,” when the Holy Blessed One had already said [to Pharaoh], “You won’t release [the Israelites],” as it says, But as for you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear the LORD God (Ex. 9:30), ‪But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth (Ex. 9:16)? In order to inform humanity that when the Holy Blessed One denies teshuvah to a sinner, [the sinner] can not repent – [rather] the sinner will die in the wickedness that [the sinner] initially committed intentionally. So it was for Sihon – because of his sins he deserved to be denied teshuvah, as it says, the Lord your God hardened his spirit and strengthened his heart (Deut. 2:30); and so it was for the Canaanites – because of their abominations, they were denied teshuvah to the point where they waged war against Israel, as it says, For it was the Lord’s doing to harden their hearts, so they would come against Israel in battle and be utterly destroyed (Joshua 11:20); and so it was with Israel in the days of Elijah – because they eagerly transgressed, those who eagerly transgressed were denied teshuvah, as it says, [Answer me, Lord, answer me, so that this people will know that You, LORD, are God,] for You turned their heart backward (1 Kings 18:37), that is, You denied them teshuvah. So you must conclude: God did not decree for Pharaoh to abuse Israel, nor for Sihon to sin in his land, nor for the Canaanites to commit abominations, nor for Israel to commit idolatry – rather, all of them sinned of their own initiative and all of them deserved to be denied teshuvah.

(3) And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart – they said in the Midrash Rabbah (5:6) that [God] revealed to him that [God] would in the future harden [Pharaoh’s] heart so that judgment would be done on him for enslaving them with hard labor. And we read more there (13:4) because I made his heart heavy (Shemot 10:1) – from this verse, said Rabbi Yochanan, the minim say that he had no chance of doing teshuvah. Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish answered: ‘let the mouths of the minim be closed, rather He laughs at mockers (Mishlei 3:34), he was warned once, and twice and three times and he did not repent, and He closes the door of teshuvah so to extract [retribution] from him what he sinned. So with the evil Pharaoh, God sent [warnings] to him five times and he did not listen to [God’s] words, God said to him: ‘you stiffened your neck and you made your own heart heavy, behold I am going to add impurity to your impurity. (3) And here is the answer to the question that everyone asks: If God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, what then was his transgression [since he had no choice]? There are two answers, which both hold true: First, Pharaoh, in his wickedness, had unjustifiably treated the Jews terribly, so he was punished with the withdrawal of the path of repentance, and there are many verses regarding this in the Torah and the Writings, and he was punished by his original deeds. Secondly, only the second half of the [ten] plagues were brought upon Egypt due to Pharaoh’s transgressions, as the Torah states, And Pharaoh’s heart was strengthened, (Shemot 7:13, 26; 8:15), and Pharaoh hardened his heart (ibid. 8:28, 9:7). He did not want to send the Jews out of Egypt for the glory of God; rather, when the plagues increased and he was becoming too worn out to withstand them, his heart softened and he decided to send them out because of the severity of the plagues themselves, but not in order to do the will of his Creator. Therefore, God strengthened his spirit and gave courage to his heart so that His Name would be declared [throughout the world], as we read: Thus will I magnify Myself, and sanctify Myself, and I will make Myself known in the eyes of many nations; and they shall know that I am Adønαi. (Ez. 38:23) (4) And that that is written before the plagues (Shemot / Ex. 3:19) and I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go, this is the reason for and I will stiffen Pharaoh’s heart and multiply My wonders that is to say that I will stiffen his heart so as to increase my wonders in the land of Egypt, because in the last five plagues, and also in the drowning at the sea it is written and Adønαi strenghthened (14:8) because the heart of the king is in the hand of Adønαi He turns it how He wants.