The Weighing of the Heart In this week’s parsha, before even the first plague has struck Egypt, God tells Moses, “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart and multiply My miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt.” (Exodus 7:3) The hardening of Pharaoh’s heart is referred to no less than twenty times in the course of the story of […]
Freewill: Use It or Lose It In parshat Va’era we read for the first time, not of Pharaoh hardening his heart but of God doing so, “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart,” said God to Moses, “and multiply My signs and wonders in the land of Egypt.” (Ex. 7:3) And so indeed we find in the […]
Freedom & Truth Why did Moses tell Pharaoh, if not a lie, then less than the full truth? Here is the conversation between him and Pharaoh after the fourth plague, arov, “swarms of insects” (some say “wild animals”): Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Go, sacrifice to your God here in the land.” But Moses […]
Spirits in a Material World The Torah sometimes says something of fundamental importance in what seems like a minor and incidental comment. There is a fine example of this near the beginning of today’s parsha. Last week, we read of how Moses was sent by God to lead the Israelites to freedom, and how his […]
Freewill The question is ancient. If God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, then it was God who made Pharaoh refuse to let the Israelites go, not Pharaoh himself. How can this be just? How could it be right to punish Pharaoh and his people for a decision – a series of decisions – that were not made […]
Overcoming Setbacks At first, Moses’ mission seemed to be successful. He had feared that the people would not believe in him, but God had given him signs to perform, and his brother Aaron to speak on his behalf. Moses “performed the signs before the people, and they believed. And when they heard that the Lord […]
Of Lice and Men Throughout all Egypt the dust turned into lice. But when the magicians tried to produce lice by their secret arts, they could not. The lice attacked men and animals alike. The magicians said to Pharaoh, ‘This is the finger of G-d’. But Pharaoh’s heart was hard and he would not listen. […]
Freedom and Truth Why did Moses tell Pharaoh, if not a lie, then less than the full truth? Here is the conversation between him and Pharaoh after the fourth plague, arov, “swarms of insects” (some say “wild animals”): Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Go, sacrifice to your God here in the land.” But Moses […]
The Birth of History The parasha of Va’era begins with some fateful words. It would not be too much to say that they changed the course of history because they changed the way people thought about history. In fact, they gave birth to the very idea of history. Listen to the words: God said to […]
Losing Freedom It is one of the classic philosophical conundrums. In this week’s sedra, before even the first plague has struck Egypt, G-d tells Moses: “But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt. He will not listen to you. Then I will lay My hand on Egypt and […]
