Parshas Bo
A Jolt of -Oy Gevalt!
And HASHEM hardened the heart of Pharaoh and he did not send out the
Children of Israel. (Shemos 10:20)
At first, “And Pharaoh’s heart hardened” (Shemos 8:15) and in the end “And
HASHEM hardened the heart of Pharaoh”. Why is that so? That is according
to what Reish Lakish says, “He who comes to contaminate is opened up for.”…
Once a person desires badness he is tripped up from heaven. (Pesikta Zuta)
Why did HASHEM harden Pharaoh’s heart? Doesn’t that interfere with his
free will? Now we know why HASHEM did so. Pharaoh hardened his own heart
and therefore HASHEM hardened it for him. By giving up control and abusing
his free will he was made to lose control and he was denied free will. It
was really all a testimony to Pharaoh’s terminal stubbornness. He was
perhaps the biggest denier of HASHEM that ever walked the good earth.
The Kotzker Rebbe ztl. sardonically said that the “free thinkers” of these
days believe that they are authentic scoffers, but their actions don’t
always support their claim. They are really deceiving themselves and
others. Whenever they are visited by the slightest of tragedies or illness
they immediately run to pray and petition G-d. Pharaoh, on the other
hand, was a real scoffer. Nine plagues had already landed on the heads of
Egypt and each with a clear warning with precise detail as to how it would
unfold being fulfilled. Still Pharaoh not only refused to yield but he
resisted in believing. The Torah tells us, “And it was at midnight and
HASHEM smote every first born in the Land of Egypt from the first born of
Pharaoh that sits on the throne until the first born of the captive who
was in the dungeon and all the first born animals. And Pharaoh got up that
night (from his bed: Rashi) and all his servants and all of Egypt and
there was a great outcry throughout all of the Land of Egypt and there was
no house in which there was not there a death. He called to Moshe and
Aaron at night and said, “Rise up, go out from among my people, even you,
even the Children of Israel; Go and serve HASHEM as you have
spoken!””(Shemos 12:29-31) The Kotzker takes note that Pharaoh himself was
a first born and he had heard directly all of Moshe’s warnings for the
first nine plagues and amazingly the verse testifies “and Pharaoh got up…”
that means that he went to sleep as if nothing unusual would be happening
that night. This demonstrates that he was a real scoffer. He saw the truth
staring him in the face and yet he remained unaffected.
On the flip side the sages tell us, “One who comes to purify gets help!”
As opposed to the one who seeks impurity who finds an open door, the one
who truly desires holiness gets wind in his sails. Avraham Avinu after
nine increasingly difficult tests is faced with the ultimate. He is asked
to bring his son Yitzchok as a burnt offering. It was Yitzchok he waited
for till one hundred years of age and in whom he had sewn wisdom for
thirty-seven years. There too the Torah tells us, “And Avraham arose in
the morning…” (Breishis 22:3) That implies also that he went to sleep the
night before the fateful journey. That too is amazing! With increasing
clarity and intensity he learned over the course of a lifetime to look
truth in the face and embrace it. Therefore he accepted his destiny with
perfect calm.
Oddly, from the outside, the Baal Bitachon- the Master of Trusting G-d,
and the bum can look hauntingly similar. Both are sleeping peacefully.
What’s the real difference? One goes to sleep comforted by truth while the
other is sedated, in a fantasy- a bubble, at risk of being awakened by a
jolt of -oy gevalt!
DvarTorah, Copyright © 2007 by Rabbi Label Lam and Torah.org.
