The Transformation of Pharaoh, Moses, and God

Avivah Zornberg

April 10, 2014

https://onbeing.org/programs/avivah-zornberg-the-transformation-of-pharaoh-moses-and-god/ 

DR. ZORNBERG: Relationship, yes, yes. And Moses is very sensitive to the problem that he has and that he senses the people also have. So the whole situation as I understand it as the story begins is not a simple one of a cruel, persecuting Pharaoh and poor, helpless victims. It’s poor, helpless victims who will need in some way to arouse within themselves the capacity to be redeemed, that is to open themselves to relationship, to communication. I’d like to suggest that the whole story really is about the need for the people to be more than an object that has to be yanked out of Egypt. But for the people to become, to acquire the kind of life and openness and communicability that makes them want to emerge from that place of death which is Egypt.

MS. TIPPETT: Let's talk about the Pharaoh himself that, for such a long time, as you say, he hardens his own heart and God brings punishment, plagues, which Moses, sort of, I guess he announces doesn’t he, the frogs and lice and locusts and pestilence, but it’s only after a number of those and after the people get boils, the people of Egypt, that then suddenly the text says that “God hardened Pharaoh's heart,” and I don’t know, maybe you could tell me if the Hebrew gives more nuance to that. But what is that saying there about the nature of Pharaoh or the oppressor, if that's what he stands for, and also the nature of this God who is rescuing Israel? Talk to me about that part of the narrative.

DR. ZORNBERG: Well, it's really quite a theological problem, actually, which the midrash pays a lot of attention to. And that is that if God hardens Pharaoh's heart, then, obviously, Pharaoh's not responsible anymore for his intransigence. Why should he be punished? It’s God who is interfering with his vital organs. And the classic direction to answer it has to do with reaching a point of no return, that one can make oneself obdurate and closed to all appeal from the outside world to such a point that, in fact, it's as if human autonomy ceases to act altogether. One no longer has the power to backtrack. And, from that point onwards, I think it's a kind of figure of speech then to say that God hardens his 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).

https://www.ancient.eu/article/42/the-egyptian-afterlife--the-feather-of-truth/

In Egyptian mythology, the heart was the seat of the intellect and emotion.

THE HALL OF TRUTH

In the Egyptian Book of the Dead it is recorded that, after death, the soul would be met by the god Anubis who would lead it from its final resting place to the Hall of Truth. Images depict a queue of souls standing in the hall and one would join this line to await judgment. While waiting, one would be attended to by goddesses such as Qebhet, daughter of Anubis, the personification of cool, refreshing water. Qebhet would be joined by others such as Nephthys and Serket in comforting the souls and providing for them.

When it came one's turn, Anubis would lead the soul to stand before Osiris and the scribe of the gods, Thoth in front of the golden scales. The goddess Ma'at, personification of the cultural value of ma'at (harmony and balance) would also be present and these would be surrounded by the Forty-Two Judges who would consult with these gods on one's eternal fate.

The soul would then recite the Negative Confessions in which one needed to be able to claim, honestly, that one had not committed certain sins. These confessions sometimes began with the prayer, "I have not learnt the things which are not" meaning that the soul strove in life to devote itself to matters of lasting importance rather than the trivial matters of everyday life. There was no single set list of Negative Confessions, however, just as there was no set list of "sins" which would apply to everyone. A military commander would have a different list of sins than, say, a judge or a baker.

The negative declarations, always beginning with "I have not..." or "I did not...", following the opening prayer went to assure Osiris of the soul's purity and ended, in fact, with the statement, "I am pure" repeated a number of times. Each sin listed was thought to have disrupted one's harmony and balance while one lived and separated the person from their purpose on earth as ordained by the gods. In claiming purity of the soul, one was asserting that one's heart was not weighed down with sin. It was not the soul's claim to purity which would win over Osiris, however, but, instead, the weight of the soul's heart.

THE JUDGEMENT OF OSIRIS

The `heart' of the soul was handed over to Osiris who placed it on a great golden scale balanced against the white feather of Ma'at, the feather of truth on the other side. If the soul's heart was lighter than the feather then the gods conferred with the Forty-Two Judges and, if they agreed that the soul was justified, the person could pass on toward the bliss of the Field of Reeds.

According to some ancient texts, the soul would then embark on a dangerous journey through the afterlife to reach paradise and they would need a copy of the Egyptian Book of the Dead to guide them and assist them with spells to recite if they ran into trouble. According to others, however, after justification it was only a short journey from the Hall of Truth to paradise.

The soul would leave the hall of judgment, be rowed across Lily Lake, and enter the eternal paradise of the Field of Reeds in which one received back everything taken by death. For the soul with the heart lighter than a feather, those who had died earlier were waiting along with one's home, one's favorite objects and books, even one's long lost pets.

The Judgement of the Dead by Osiris

Should the heart prove heavier, however, it was thrown to the floor of the Hall of Truth where it was devoured by Amenti (also known as Amut), a god with the face of a crocodile, the front of a leopard and the back of a rhinoceros, known as "the gobbler". Once Amenti devoured the person's heart, the individual soul then ceased to exist. There was no `hell' for the ancient Egyptians; their `fate worse than death' was non-existence.

Significance of the Title Heart of Darkness

https://www.bachelorandmaster.com/britishandamericanfiction/significance-of-the-title-heart-of-darkness.html

"The etymological meaning of the phrase Heart of Darkness is the innermost region of the territory which is yet to be explored, where people led the nomadic and primitive way of living. The setting time of the novel Heart of Darkness dates back to those periods when the continent of Africa was not fully explored. So the continent was called the heart of darkness. The major and significant events of the novel take place in the Dark Continent, though the first and the end of the story takes place outside the continent. The central character, Kurtz, comes under the influence of the savages and becomes one of them in the same dark place called Congo. The savages and Kurtz, in fact, belong to the heart of darkness.

The description of the scenery by Marlow adds something vital meaning to the title of the novel. The wild scene, thick and impenetrable jungle, the pictures of the natives hiding in the dense jungle, the silence and the dangerous stillness of the river Congo, the thick fog, all these features are suggestive to the title Heart of Darkness. The outer physical setting intensifies the horror and the fear among the readers. The reading about the description of the natives and their way of appearing in the novel bring the terrific effect in the mind of the reader.

On one occasion, Marlow is attacked by the natives in his steamer. In that attack the helmsman is killed. The natives attack the steamer of Marlow not knowing why he is there, but in the ignorance. The ignorance and backwardness of the savages, the purposeless attack creates the feeling like being in the midst of the heart of darkness. The attack to the steamer is planned by Kurtz, who has become one savage living with the natives. He becomes more barbaric than the inhabitants. The essence of savagery, brutality and cruelty sums up in the existence of Kurtz. Kurtz's mission was to civilize the natives, to educate them, to improve their way of living and the important one is to bring the light into their lives and into that dark territory. But he ends in converting himself into the savages, and the most striking thing is that he has set himself like a god in that Dark Continent. He starts following their unspeakable rites. He does any brutal raids for the sake of collection of ivory. According to Marlow, Kurtz has become a devil being failure to control his moral restraint. He lets his inner self, the primitive self, dance freely in the lap of darkness and becomes the representatives of the darkness. His superstition and evil has become the embodiment of darkness. Psychologically, Kurtz is the symbol of everyman's darkness which is veiled under the curtain of civilization. Kurtz is the heart of darkness.

The term heart of darkness stands for another meaning too. The journey of Kurtz and Marlow to explore the interior of the Dark Continent called Congo is not only the physical search of some the territory, but it is an exploration of the innermost part of the human mind and the human heart. The geographical search is comparatively easier than the search of one's self, one's Dark Continent. Both Kurtz and Marlow are in an implied sense in the journey to find their dark region of mind and heart. In case of Kurtz, he cannot hold the mystical and attractive power of his savagery self, his suppressed primitive self and gives in. He fails to control his moral restraint. He submits to the dark side of his personality and becomes one savage. He reaches to the heart of darkness, but cannot resist its power upon him and he cannot come back from his subconscious state of mind. But in the case of Marlow, he too travels to the heart of darkness, the subconscious. He reaches there and witnesses the heavy influence of primitive self on Kurtz. He notices that he has become totally a devil, deviating from his main aim to civilize the savages. Marlow, despite the truth that Kurtz has been transformed into the barbaric self, praises him and is attracted towards him. He has fallen a near prey to the primitiveness. But, amazingly, he does not submit himself to the savagery self of his subconscious. He reaches to the heart of darkness, witnesses the transformation of Kurtz, and gets to know the irresistible power of barbaric hidden self, praises it and again comes back to the light of civilization. He is so able to control his morality and spirituality. His journey to Africa is, symbolically, exploration of the dark side of human life, either psychologically, or morally and or spiritually.

A critic commenting upon the title of the novel, Heart of Darkness, states that the darkness here is many things: it is the unknown, it is the subconscious, it is the moral darkness, it is the evil which swallows up Kurtz, and it is the spiritual emptiness, which he sees at the center of the existence, but above all it is a mystery itself, the mysteriousness of man's spiritual life.