Bo בוא

בא

As we catch up with B'nai Yisrael this week, we find ourselves embroiled in a life and death struggle with our arch nemesis, Pharaoh.

It is tempting to cast Pharaoh as just one more evil villain bent on destruction of the Jewish people. Our history is chocked full of these types - Nebuchannezzar, Titus, Haman, Antiochus, Hitler, - the list goes on and on, even to the present day.

We are so accustomed to violent anti-semitic leaders that to add one more to the category comes very easily. However, I want to take a closer look at the central villain in the Passover story, Pharaoh, and see if he truly fits the bill.

The story of Passover is the central narrative of our people. Thus, it is fitting that that we can access the story on many different layers, which provide us deeper and deeper understanding, or at least more and more confusion, every year.

In the study of Torah, we have four layers of understanding - Pshat, Remez, Drash and Sod. During the Passover seder, we read of four sons. Today, I will present to your four ways of understanding Pharaoh. There are many more, and of course I would love to hear how you understand him.

The first aspect of Pharaoh is the simple "Prince of Egypt" understanding that we tell our kids - Pharaoh was a bad and stubborn man who enslaved the Jews and ignored their suffering. Even when he finally let the people go, he changed his mind and sent his army to bring them back. God punished Pharaoh by destroying his army in the Sea of Reeds.

Simple, cut and dry, easy to digest. However, to anyone who has actually read the text, this representation of Pharaoh misses the most crucial aspect of the story - God is the one who makes Pharaoh so stubborn.

This is clear from the very beginning, when God first speaks to Moses at the burning bush, but is spelled out most clearly in our current parsha's first verse, when God says to Moses "Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, in order that I may place these signs of Mine in his midst.
(Exodus, Chapter 10, Verse 1).

From this perspective it is clear that the whole point of Moses going to Pharaoh is not to convince Pharaoh to let B'nai Yisrael go, rather Pharoah's refusal is the pretext for God bringing down God's miracles in order to wow the Israelites, and convince them to enter into covenant with God. From this second perspective, Pharaoh is merely a tool that God uses to prove his point, and not so inherently evil.

This brings us to our third perspective: What?!?! (a.k.a the Great Mystery at the Heart of Everything)

How could the same God who teaches that the sanctity of human life is the ultimate ideal, sacrifice innocent people, even the sons of imprisoned Egyptians, just to prove a point?

Were we not given free will? Is this not what makes us different from the animals? What happened to Pharoah's free will?

These kind of questions can keep one up all night - I'm not sure there are good, solid answers, although I have heard some great explanations.

Because I don't want to keep you folks here until dinner time, I won't even attempt to discuss all these theological dilemmas. However, there is a clue in the text that may help us to come to grips with our confusion, based on the midsrashic technique of looking at similar situations and comparing:

From our parsha, Pharaoh has had enough of Moses' antics.

. וַיֹּאמֶר לוֹ פַרְעֹה לֵךְ מֵעָלָי הִשָּׁמֶר לְךָ אַל תֹּסֶף רְאוֹת פָּנַי כִּי בְּיוֹם רְאֹתְךָ פָנַי תָּמוּת:

Pharaoh says "Go away from me! Beware! You shall no longer see my face, for on the day that you see my face, you shall die!"
Exodus Chapter 10, verse 28:

Sound familiar?!?!

When Moses is on top of Mt. Sinai, he asks to see God's face. God responds in Exodus Chapter 33, verse 18:

וַיֹּאמֶר לֹא תוּכַל לִרְאֹת אֶת פָּנָי כִּי לֹא יִרְאַנִי הָאָדָם וָחָי:

"You will not be able to see My face, for man shall not see Me and live."

When we try to understand what God did to Pharoah's free choice, why so many innocent had to die, or bigger questions like why bad things happen to good people, we come to a point where out human understanding simply is not enough. We are standing literally face to face with God - or if you prefer the mystery of the universe - and have no means whatsoever to understand it.

Perhaps this is what is truly meant by יראת שמיים, fearing Heaven. Not in the sense of the angry father punishing us, but our primal fear of the mystery of the heart of things, that we can never hope to understand.

Finally, we come to the fourth perspective. Pharaoh as teacher.

Even if the mechanisms of Pharoah's decision making is beyond our grasp, we can learn a very important lesson from this stubborn (and probably grouchy) old man.

Pharaoh clearly values his magicians. They are his priests, his connection to the divine. When Moses and Aaron enter into his chambers and perform their initial miracles, including turning water into blood and summoning frogs, the magicians respond in kind.

It is only when God brings the lice down, do the magicians feel like they are out of their league. As the signs go on, and the magicians themselves are struck with boils, they try to tell Pharaoh "enough - let these people go already, look what you are doing to your kingdom!"

Assuming that Pharoah's actions are his own, it is at this is the point that he really makes his mistake. His closest advisors are telling him to give up, and all empirical evidence point to a situation well beyond his control. He even admits that he believes in the power of the Hebrew god, asking Moses to secure a blessing for him, but still Pharaoh won't back down.

We have all been in this position before. We have taken a stand on something, and things are going badly. All common-sense points to the fact that we are wrong, but we simply don't want to admit it, it's too embarrassing.

It's like we have been climbing up a very high pole, but now we are stuck, and worst of all, all our classmates are below, laughing at us, and peeking at out underwear through our torn shorts.

This is not a case of standing up for what we believe in against all odds. That can be heroic. In this situation, we know we are wrong, but our ego doesn't want to suffer the pain of acknowledging it.

In a case like this, let us not become Pharaohs! We can apologize, ask for forgiveness, and do better the next time. There is always a way down from the pole, we just have to allow ourselves to see it.

We are all humans, and we all make mistakes. However, to admit these mistakes, rise above them, and begin the healing process - now that's the kind of miracle we can bring down from the heavens every day.