Facing Pharaoh January 20th, 2024

“Pharaoh constructs himself as a god, without needs. In the midrashic expression, he is eino machnis ve’eino motzi, he takes in nothing and evacuates nothing. He neither eats nor eliminates waste matter. That cycle, depending on a vital traffic through the orifices of the body, is denied by one who claims to be above change, beyond the cycles of in and out, hunger and fullness, the vicissitudes of time and bodily state . . . This is the moment of ‘neediness,’ that he must hide at all costs.”

Aviva Zornberg, The Particulars of Rapture: Reflections Exodus

"Perhaps this is where the hardening of the heart begins. In the denial of what makes us vulnerable, the denial of what makes us need, the denial of what makes us human. This is the truth that Pharaoh must hide, as much from himself as from others.

Why does God tell Moses to go speak to Pharaoh in this moment? There may be an element of humiliation—the Pharaoh who would be god is exposed as all-too-human. The emperor has no clothes.

But I think there is something deeper going on—an understanding that Pharaoh will not be able to open his heart until he can acknowledge his own embodied humanity. As long as he is attached to the fantasy of an impervious self, his heart will indeed remain impervious to the pleas of others, to the suffering of those whose shared humanity he has denied.

Pharaoh is not alone in his longing to deny his own vulnerability. He is not alone in his desire to be impenetrable and impervious. He is not alone in his fear of being exposed as a human being who is full of holes, who is limited and in need."

Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, from a drash on Vaera

כָּבַד (v) heb

1. • to be heavy, be weighty, be grievous, be hard, be rich, be honourable, be glorious, be burdensome, be honoured
     • (Qal)
       • to be heavy
       • to be heavy, be insensible, be dull
       • to be honoured
     • (Niphal)
       • to be made heavy, be honoured, enjoy honour, be made abundant
       • to get oneself glory or honour, gain glory
     • (Piel)
       • to make heavy, make dull, make insensible
       • to make honourable, honour, glorify
     • (Pual) to be made honourable, be honoured
     • (Hiphil)
       • to make heavy
       • to make heavy, make dull, make unresponsive
       • to cause to be honoured
     • (Hithpael)
       • to make oneself heavy, make oneself dense, make oneself numerous
       • to honour oneself

On the Hardening of Pharaoh's Heart

The Exodus You Almost Passed Over

Rabbi David Fohrman

page 255

שמות יד:יז) וַאֲנִ֗י הִנְנִ֤י מְחַזֵּק֙ אֶת־לֵ֣ב מִצְרַ֔יִם וְיָבֹ֖אוּ אַחֲרֵיהֶ֑ם וְאִכָּבְדָ֤ה בְּפַרְעֹה֙ וּבְכָל־חֵיל֔וֹ בְּרִכְבּ֖וֹ וּבְפָרָשָֽׁיו׃)

And as for Me, I shall hereby strengthen the heart of Egypt, so that they shall chase after you. For I shall be honored through Pharaoh and all his army; through his chariots and through his archers. (Exodus 14:17)

If Pharaoh wished to be stubborn and to deny the coming into being of Exodus Plan A, then God would take that very stubbornness, and turn it into honor. It is intriguing, chilling even, that the word for stubbornness evinced by Pharaoh, kaved (כבד), and the honor that God would take from Pharaoh's pursuing armies, ikavdah (וְאִכָּבְדָ֤ה), are simply different forms of one Hebrew root, כבד (k-b-d). One would quite literally be turned into the other: God would "strengthen" Pharaoh's heart, lending him the courage to pursue his stubborn denial of the deeper Father, all the way to the very end. And then, God would play with Egypt as if with a toy, using the pursuing armies for His own ends instead of Pharaoh's:

וְאִכָּבְדָ֤ה בְּפַרְעֹה֙ וּבְכָל־חֵיל֔וֹ בְּרִכְבּ֖וֹ וּבְפָרָשָֽׁיו׃

I shall be honored through Pharaoh and all his army; through his chariots and through his archers (Exodus 14:17).

Ezekiel (“Yechezkel”) is the seventh book of the Prophets. He flourished in the 6th century BCE. Speaking from Babylonian exile during the First Temple’s destruction, Ezekiel often symbolically performs prophecies, like binding himself with cord to emphasize Israel’s stubbornness and shaving his hair to symbolize impending doom. Among other topics, he focuses on religious life in the absence of a Temple and personal responsibility for actions. The book ends with a detailed description of a future Temple.

Perhaps he [Moses] recognizes in himself something of the impassive dignity of Pharaoh, whose apertures are sealed, who neither listens nor, increasingly, speaks, when Moses makes his demands. As the midrash evocatively puts it, “Pharaoh neither takes in nor gives out.” He is never seen either to eat or to excrete. Denying his human needs, his existence in the rhythms of human time, Pharaoh constructs himself as the emblem of an illusory self-possession, as immune to others as he is to his own needs and to the life and death within him. As Rashi says, “He makes a god of himself.” A perfect circle, like the mythic Uroborus, the snake with its tail in its mouth, he is impermeable. “I am my river, and I have made myself,” he declares in the words of the prophet Ezekiel (Ez. 29:3).

When Moses confronts Pharaoh, he recognizes his own impenetrable condition. To express a new ambivalence, he uses the repulsive imagery of a foreskin sealing his lips—an excess, a “too much” of total knowledge. “Less is more”: the foreskin is to be removed, a blockage cut away, so that Moses can gain access to his own vulnerable humanity. Only so will he gain access to his new brothers’ hearing. A desire is born—a desire to be born into language, with all its inherent losses.

Aviva Zornberg, "Moses a Human Life"

Accepting This

Mark Nepo

Yes, it is true. I confess,
I have thought great thoughts,
and sung great songs—all of it
rehearsal for the majesty
of being held.

The dream is awakened
when thinking I love you
and life begins
when saying I love you
and joy moves like blood
when embracing others with love.

My efforts now turn
from trying to outrun suffering
to accepting love wherever
I can find it.

Stripped of causes and plans
and things to strive for,
I have discovered everything
I could need or ask for
is right here—
in flawed abundance.

We cannot eliminate hunger,
but we can feed each other.
We cannot eliminate loneliness,
but we can hold each other.
We cannot eliminate pain,
but we can live a life
of compassion.

Ultimately,
we are small living things
awakened in the stream,
not gods who carve out rivers.

Like human fish,
we are asked to experience
meaning in the life that moves
through the gill of our heart.

There is nothing to do
and nowhere to go.
Accepting this,
we can do everything
and go anywhere.

https://marknepo.com/poems_accepting.php

Resources:

https://www.thetorah.com/article/pharaoh-is-a-monster-ezekiel-decries-judahs-ties-with-egypt

Parshat Bo: Come to Pharaoh, Nelly Altenburger https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/537557.15?lang=en&with=all&lang2=en