This week’s Torah portion is Va’eira, which means and He appeared. It begins with a repetition of God’s name, yud, hei, vav, hei. God then makes five magnificent promises to Moses, that we will be taken out of Egypt and given our own land. Moses doubts that he will be able to influence Pharaoh but God sends him with Aaron to begin the cycle of the ten plagues. Seven plagues occur in this portion. There is a well-known phrase that appears six times in the Torah, “Send out my people that they may serve me.” Sometimes it is translated, “Let my people go, that they may bring offerings.” (Ex. 7:16, 26; 8:16; 9:1, 13; 10:3) It’s important to realize that we were not just being let go. We were being freed for something: for service.
The Etz Chayim commentary also stresses this. The power struggle between Pharaoh and God was about who we would serve. It is said in the text that God would harden Pharaoh’s heart, but in the first few interactions, the Torah reports that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. How did he do this? By not being willing to cede any of his power. We know that God met power with power: Pharaoh’s use of his power came back at him like a boomerang, to mix cultural references. Moses knew that he himself had no power, and he became God’s servant. This is what God intended for the Israelites: to become God’s servants rather than Pharaoh’s, but Pharaoh believed we should serve him. By beginning the portion with God’s name, which means Being, Existence, God introduces to Moses only, and through him to us, the idea of universal moral law. God tells Moses to say, “Send out the people that they may serve me”; but perhaps we should read this, “Send out the people that they may serve me,” and not you. God wants Pharaoh, Moses, the Egyptians, and the Israelites all to realize that God is not only a higher and more powerful power, but that God is natural law and moral law. God is gravity, in the physical realm, and also goodness and freedom in the moral realm.
Pharaoh does not seem to grasp the principle of moral cause and effect, which the Torah teaches us near the end of Leviticus, where it says, “the same shall be done to you.” (Levit. 26:16) The Israelites’ God was such a threat to Egypt because God’s presence meant the end of the Absolute Monarchy and also a threat to immoral authority. We know that there are no chiefs in Judaism, only the rank and file. There are no rulers in Judaism, only servants. Had Pharaoh ceded his power to God, he would have become just another servant, a king no more.
An interesting detail is that Pharaoh asks Moses to speak to God for him. Pharaoh can’t have an honest relationship with God because Pharaoh is playing chess with power, manipulating and twisting the truth. He doesn’t understand the power he is trying to wield. God doesn’t want us freed in order to win. God wants our service to change the world.
Moses asks Pharaoh to let us go that we may bring offerings, only that doesn’t happen. We are the offerings; it is ourselves that God desires, for what Abraham Joshua Heschl called, moral grandeur and spiritual audacity. When Heschl walked with Martin Luther King and stood by him, they, and so many others, stood for God’s higher authority. In ancient Egypt it was a very special time in history, when God made plans to introduce the understanding of natural law and moral truth: that human power has limits because it must serve that which is greater than itself. If it benefits only a few, it is false, If it benefits the whole, it comes from the Divine.
When we exploit people and try to keep them down, taking away rights and opportunities, we use power dishonestly, twisting the truth. When we promote each other’s welfare, freedom, and prosperity, taking their plight as our own, we do God's work. May we serve the greater good as did Dr. King and those who he inspired to go with him. May we keep in mind that we are here for service: for moral grandeur and spiritual audacity, to make this world a better place. Each of us has a role to play in the unfolding of goodness, in ourselves and in the world. May those who have served before us be our examples and may we work with God’s power in the universe, and not against it.
Showing posts with label Va'eira. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Va'eira. Show all posts
Friday, March 27, 2015
Friday, January 3, 2014
A Personal Experience of the Divine
This week’s Torah portion is the second in the Book of Exodus, Va’eira, which means, “and I appeared.” It begins with God returning to the topic of the Divine name. God makes several promises to the Israelites, and then returns to a second topic, that of hardening Pharaoh’s heart, first mentioned in the previous portion. God instructs Moses to speak to Pharaoh, that he send the people out of Egypt; and the portion goes on to give an account of the first seven plagues.
The portion reads at the beginning: “God spoke to Moses, and said to him, I am yud hei vav hei (Being, Existence). I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, by the name of El Shaddai, God Almighty or God the Provider, or God who is Sufficient, but by my name yud hei vav hei I did not make myself known to them.” (Ex. 6:2-3). This introduces the theme of knowing. There is something new that God wants Moses and the Israelites to know.
God also says, “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh will not listen to you, that I may lay my hand upon Egypt, and take out my legions, my people the children of Israel, from the land of Egypt with great judgments. And the Egyptians shall know that I am yud hei vav hei, when I stretch forth my hand upon Egypt, and bring out the people of Israel from among them.” (Ex. 7:3-5) We usually think that the 10 plagues were primarily for Pharaoh’s benefit, so that he would let the people go. But thinking about the changes that would occur, after the people left, the lives of Pharaoh and the lives of the Egyptians were not so very greatly transformed. The two excerpts quoted tell another story, giving us an additional perspective.
All religion is experiential. That’s why no one can prove the existence of God to anyone else, but each person can prove the existence of God to herself or himself. Being slaves, the people were sunk in a very low state: they were demoralized, probably even devoid of hope. Given that God can do anything, it would have been relatively easy to convince Pharaoh to let the people go. This was deliberately delayed again and again so that God could multiply the signs and wonders: what we have called the 10 Plagues.
The two much greater tasks than convincing one person to do one thing were to give each Israelite an experience of God’s Presence and mastery in the world, and also to unify the Israelites to the point that they would have hope and willingly follow Moses out of Egypt, to a place with no water and no food, no cities and no houses, no clothing and no resources. What person in their right mind would do such a thing? My favorite sage, the S’fat Emet quotes Midrash Rabbah, which comments on Proverbs: “God will grant wisdom; from God’s mouth, knowing and understanding. (Prov. II, 6). Wisdom is great, but knowing is still greater…For God gives wisdom; but to one who God loves, out of God’s mouth comes knowing and understanding. R. Isaac & R. Levi…taught, it can be compared to a rich man's child, who, on returning from school, saw a dish of food in front of his father. When the father offered him a helping, the son said: I would rather have some of that which you yourself are now eating. The father complied, on account of his great love for him, giving him from his own mouth. (Ex. Rabbah XLI:3) The S’fat Emet adds that “this is knowing in your very soul.”
It is one thing to have someone tell you that God exists and that God is Existence, and further that God will take you out of slavery. It is something very different and very precious to have a personal experience that forms the basis of an unshakable conviction that this is really true. This is God’s task, not only at the time of the bondage in Egypt. This is an ongoing task between the Divine and every human being. Is there anyone among us who has not had a strange coincidence, or a personal epiphany, or an experience of being led to do something or meet someone who came to be important in life? Is there anyone who has not felt support at a crucial time or received some kind of blessing that was totally surprising at the time?
We might ask, why should God care so very much to contact each person, in his or her very soul? Why did God enslave us in the first place? Why did God care so much to take the Israelites out of Egypt? The aim of taking us out of Egypt was surely not just to make our lives easier. The larger purpose was to improve the world: to improve human beings, human life, and to point the way to the knowledge of a universal spiritual body of law; to facilitate progress, goodness, and kindness; to make known a better way to live.
God’s task will never stop. It is eternal and ongoing, and each of us is a vital part of it. We are each coming out of a personal Egypt; and God cares very, very much that we do. May we know in our very soul that we are being fed from, to put it figuratively, God’s own mouth, and may we realize how very important each of us is to God and to the improvement of the entire world.
The portion reads at the beginning: “God spoke to Moses, and said to him, I am yud hei vav hei (Being, Existence). I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, by the name of El Shaddai, God Almighty or God the Provider, or God who is Sufficient, but by my name yud hei vav hei I did not make myself known to them.” (Ex. 6:2-3). This introduces the theme of knowing. There is something new that God wants Moses and the Israelites to know.
God also says, “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh will not listen to you, that I may lay my hand upon Egypt, and take out my legions, my people the children of Israel, from the land of Egypt with great judgments. And the Egyptians shall know that I am yud hei vav hei, when I stretch forth my hand upon Egypt, and bring out the people of Israel from among them.” (Ex. 7:3-5) We usually think that the 10 plagues were primarily for Pharaoh’s benefit, so that he would let the people go. But thinking about the changes that would occur, after the people left, the lives of Pharaoh and the lives of the Egyptians were not so very greatly transformed. The two excerpts quoted tell another story, giving us an additional perspective.
All religion is experiential. That’s why no one can prove the existence of God to anyone else, but each person can prove the existence of God to herself or himself. Being slaves, the people were sunk in a very low state: they were demoralized, probably even devoid of hope. Given that God can do anything, it would have been relatively easy to convince Pharaoh to let the people go. This was deliberately delayed again and again so that God could multiply the signs and wonders: what we have called the 10 Plagues.
The two much greater tasks than convincing one person to do one thing were to give each Israelite an experience of God’s Presence and mastery in the world, and also to unify the Israelites to the point that they would have hope and willingly follow Moses out of Egypt, to a place with no water and no food, no cities and no houses, no clothing and no resources. What person in their right mind would do such a thing? My favorite sage, the S’fat Emet quotes Midrash Rabbah, which comments on Proverbs: “God will grant wisdom; from God’s mouth, knowing and understanding. (Prov. II, 6). Wisdom is great, but knowing is still greater…For God gives wisdom; but to one who God loves, out of God’s mouth comes knowing and understanding. R. Isaac & R. Levi…taught, it can be compared to a rich man's child, who, on returning from school, saw a dish of food in front of his father. When the father offered him a helping, the son said: I would rather have some of that which you yourself are now eating. The father complied, on account of his great love for him, giving him from his own mouth. (Ex. Rabbah XLI:3) The S’fat Emet adds that “this is knowing in your very soul.”
It is one thing to have someone tell you that God exists and that God is Existence, and further that God will take you out of slavery. It is something very different and very precious to have a personal experience that forms the basis of an unshakable conviction that this is really true. This is God’s task, not only at the time of the bondage in Egypt. This is an ongoing task between the Divine and every human being. Is there anyone among us who has not had a strange coincidence, or a personal epiphany, or an experience of being led to do something or meet someone who came to be important in life? Is there anyone who has not felt support at a crucial time or received some kind of blessing that was totally surprising at the time?
We might ask, why should God care so very much to contact each person, in his or her very soul? Why did God enslave us in the first place? Why did God care so much to take the Israelites out of Egypt? The aim of taking us out of Egypt was surely not just to make our lives easier. The larger purpose was to improve the world: to improve human beings, human life, and to point the way to the knowledge of a universal spiritual body of law; to facilitate progress, goodness, and kindness; to make known a better way to live.
God’s task will never stop. It is eternal and ongoing, and each of us is a vital part of it. We are each coming out of a personal Egypt; and God cares very, very much that we do. May we know in our very soul that we are being fed from, to put it figuratively, God’s own mouth, and may we realize how very important each of us is to God and to the improvement of the entire world.
Friday, March 29, 2013
Finding the Hidden Light
This week’s Torah portion is Va’eira, which means and He appeared. God speaks to Moses about the meaning of God’s name, which is a form of the verb To Be, meaning, Being, Existence, and: future, past, and present. God makes five promises to Moses, describing a marvelous redemption. God commands Moses to speak to Pharaoh and command Pharaoh regarding the Israelites’ release, saying that God will harden Pharaoh’s heart. Then the Portion describes the inter-action between Moses and Pharaoh through the first seven plagues. At the outset of this portion, God tells Moses that God will make Pharaoh’s heart strong, so that all the signs and wonders, what we call the ten plagues, will be manifested to show the Egyptians and the Israelites that there is one God, and not many.
God uses the word Aksheh for hardening of the heart. But then this word is not used again. The hardening of the heart is mentioned ten more times in this portion. Five times the word Chazak is used, the same word we say when we finish a book of the torah, Chazak. And five times the word caveyd is used. This word caveyd usually means heavy, which opens for us a psychological interpretation of the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart. God first uses this word. The text says, Pharaoh made his heart heavy. Then it says that each time Pharaoh made his heart heavy, it became strong or strengthened. In our language, the opposite of heavy is light and the opposite of hard is soft.
We would all like to be lighthearted and softhearted rather than heavy hearted: not miserable but happy. This portion tells us that there is so much that we can do within ourselves to promote our happiness. I once read an article in the health section of the NY Times that cited research to the effect that each of us seems to have a set point of emotional equilibrium to which we usually return. Some of us are lighthearted and optimistic by nature. Some of us are worriers and more pessimistic. The events of our lives may nudge us into the other camp for a while, but then we tend to return to our habitual world view. The Torah seems to be telling us that Pharaoh inflicted his worrying and his unhappiness on himself and those around him.
We know this to be psychologically true. Usually people who are mean and difficult are unhappy. Pharaoh’s own inner darkness made others miserable and prevented him from seeing the light that was available to him. In Proverbs, King Solomon says, for the commandment is a lamp and the Torah is light. One meaning of this verse is that it is only through the guidance of the Torah that we can understand life. Pharaoh had Moses, Aaron, and the ten plagues to show him what was real and what was illusion.
We need Torah to be able to see reality clearly; life as it truly is, and not how it appears. The S’fat Emet wrote, “All the Patriarchs’ efforts were for the sake of the Children of Israel. The Patriarchs went into all the hidden places within nature, struggling until…they found the light of holiness…It is by sanctifying oneself in this worldly matters that you attain some bit of understanding.” This light, this power, this understanding is available to us. May we seek it with light and loving hearts, keeping our hearts open to each other, cultivating our happiness by finding the good in life, and may the joy of the Sabbath help us to find our own hidden light.
God uses the word Aksheh for hardening of the heart. But then this word is not used again. The hardening of the heart is mentioned ten more times in this portion. Five times the word Chazak is used, the same word we say when we finish a book of the torah, Chazak. And five times the word caveyd is used. This word caveyd usually means heavy, which opens for us a psychological interpretation of the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart. God first uses this word. The text says, Pharaoh made his heart heavy. Then it says that each time Pharaoh made his heart heavy, it became strong or strengthened. In our language, the opposite of heavy is light and the opposite of hard is soft.
We would all like to be lighthearted and softhearted rather than heavy hearted: not miserable but happy. This portion tells us that there is so much that we can do within ourselves to promote our happiness. I once read an article in the health section of the NY Times that cited research to the effect that each of us seems to have a set point of emotional equilibrium to which we usually return. Some of us are lighthearted and optimistic by nature. Some of us are worriers and more pessimistic. The events of our lives may nudge us into the other camp for a while, but then we tend to return to our habitual world view. The Torah seems to be telling us that Pharaoh inflicted his worrying and his unhappiness on himself and those around him.
We know this to be psychologically true. Usually people who are mean and difficult are unhappy. Pharaoh’s own inner darkness made others miserable and prevented him from seeing the light that was available to him. In Proverbs, King Solomon says, for the commandment is a lamp and the Torah is light. One meaning of this verse is that it is only through the guidance of the Torah that we can understand life. Pharaoh had Moses, Aaron, and the ten plagues to show him what was real and what was illusion.
We need Torah to be able to see reality clearly; life as it truly is, and not how it appears. The S’fat Emet wrote, “All the Patriarchs’ efforts were for the sake of the Children of Israel. The Patriarchs went into all the hidden places within nature, struggling until…they found the light of holiness…It is by sanctifying oneself in this worldly matters that you attain some bit of understanding.” This light, this power, this understanding is available to us. May we seek it with light and loving hearts, keeping our hearts open to each other, cultivating our happiness by finding the good in life, and may the joy of the Sabbath help us to find our own hidden light.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Noticing God
This week’s Torah portion is Va’eira, which means, and He appeared. God speaks to Moses about the Divine Name and promises to redeem the Israelites and take them out of Egypt, leading them to the Land. Moses has doubts about the success of his mission and voices his frustration to God, who instructs Moses and Aaron to go to Pharaoh and demand that the people be freed. Pharaoh repeatedly refuses, bringing upon himself and his people the plagues of blood, frogs, lice, swarms of beasts, and fiery hail. Each plague brings Pharaoh to consider freeing the people, only to go back on his word and reconsider, once the plagues have been removed.
In this Torah portion, the theme of knowing is introduced in the very beginning, the 3rd verse, which reads: “through my name God I did not become known to them.” Then, as the portion proceeds, this theme is restated eight more times. The Torah says, “so that you will know that I am God.” It’s repeated a few different ways to include Moses, the Israelites, Pharaoh, and the Egyptians. Anything repeated in the Torah has significance and something that appears eight times bears further investigation. So we might ask, what does God want us to know and why does God want us to know it?
The “what” is fairly easy: there was no monotheism at that time, except among us, the Hebrews. God wanted a universal truth to come into the stream of human knowledge, that there is one God and that all other “gods” are not real. This God did through what we now call plagues. The Women’s Torah Commentary points out that the phrase, 10 Plagues, eser makkot, does not appear anywhere in the Torah. God calls these events signs, otot, or wonders, moftim, and not plagues. One would think that the seven years of plenty and seven years of famine in Joseph’s time would have ushered in a period of monotheism. It’s possible that it did, but 200-400 years later, Egypt was again a polytheistic society. The Ten Wonders were designed then, to get our attention, get Pharaoh’s attention, and get the Egyptians’ attention, which they certainly did. We should remember that the first few wonders were merely annoying and not life threatening: the Nile turning to blood so that the Egyptians had to dig to find fresh water, frogs, lice, and insects; later boils, hail, and darkness. Only cattle disease, and the final plague, killing of the firstborn destroyed animal and then also human life.
When God first appeared to Moses, the Torah says: “God saw that Moses turned aside to see and God called out to him from amid the bush.” Moses’ capacity to notice something unusual, to be aware of the inconsistencies of life, was what recommended him for a special spiritual relationship with God. The painter Eugene Delacroix once said, “The eyes of many people are dull or false; they see objects literally; of the exquisite, they see nothing.” And a writer, the Reverend Erie Chapman, who contributed to an online site for caregivers commented: “The decision to see with "dull eyes" or to open to "the exquisite" is very personal. It takes work to learn the appreciation of the sacred.” This is what God wants us to do: to be able to notice and see beyond the obvious. Everything that we encounter has the potential, like the wonders, to educate us: to allow us to see and understand more of the underlying truth of God’s existence and our place within it. The Apter Rebbe, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel of Apt once asked, “Why do we need such a strong reminder from God?” I might also ask, Why isn’t truth evident to us and why can’t we automatically notice God’s presence in the everyday occurrences of out lives? If everyone could realize truth innately, there might be no need for a Torah to tell us what is real and what is only an illusion. But also, there would be no progress for us: no learning, no spiritual attainment. We would already be living in the messianic era, called the end of days.
That we have the capability, like Moses to notice and learn from the marvels of our everyday lives is a great gift that we are asked to develop and use: to become aware of more than just the physical and receive the knowledge that is being sent to us. This was said ever so much more elegantly in the Reform movement’s siddur, Gates of Prayer: “Days pass and the years vanish, and we walk sightless among miracles. Eternal One, fill our eyes with seeing and our minds with knowing; let there be moments when Your Presence, like lightning, illumines the darkness in which we walk. Help us to see, wherever we gaze, that the bush burns unconsumed. And we, clay touched by God, will reach out for holiness, and exclaim in wonder: How filled with awe is this place, and we did not know it! Blessed is the Eternal One, the holy God!” May we become more and more aware of the Divine Presence, who now as then, wants to be known and to bless us with knowledge and wisdom.
In this Torah portion, the theme of knowing is introduced in the very beginning, the 3rd verse, which reads: “through my name God I did not become known to them.” Then, as the portion proceeds, this theme is restated eight more times. The Torah says, “so that you will know that I am God.” It’s repeated a few different ways to include Moses, the Israelites, Pharaoh, and the Egyptians. Anything repeated in the Torah has significance and something that appears eight times bears further investigation. So we might ask, what does God want us to know and why does God want us to know it?
The “what” is fairly easy: there was no monotheism at that time, except among us, the Hebrews. God wanted a universal truth to come into the stream of human knowledge, that there is one God and that all other “gods” are not real. This God did through what we now call plagues. The Women’s Torah Commentary points out that the phrase, 10 Plagues, eser makkot, does not appear anywhere in the Torah. God calls these events signs, otot, or wonders, moftim, and not plagues. One would think that the seven years of plenty and seven years of famine in Joseph’s time would have ushered in a period of monotheism. It’s possible that it did, but 200-400 years later, Egypt was again a polytheistic society. The Ten Wonders were designed then, to get our attention, get Pharaoh’s attention, and get the Egyptians’ attention, which they certainly did. We should remember that the first few wonders were merely annoying and not life threatening: the Nile turning to blood so that the Egyptians had to dig to find fresh water, frogs, lice, and insects; later boils, hail, and darkness. Only cattle disease, and the final plague, killing of the firstborn destroyed animal and then also human life.
When God first appeared to Moses, the Torah says: “God saw that Moses turned aside to see and God called out to him from amid the bush.” Moses’ capacity to notice something unusual, to be aware of the inconsistencies of life, was what recommended him for a special spiritual relationship with God. The painter Eugene Delacroix once said, “The eyes of many people are dull or false; they see objects literally; of the exquisite, they see nothing.” And a writer, the Reverend Erie Chapman, who contributed to an online site for caregivers commented: “The decision to see with "dull eyes" or to open to "the exquisite" is very personal. It takes work to learn the appreciation of the sacred.” This is what God wants us to do: to be able to notice and see beyond the obvious. Everything that we encounter has the potential, like the wonders, to educate us: to allow us to see and understand more of the underlying truth of God’s existence and our place within it. The Apter Rebbe, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel of Apt once asked, “Why do we need such a strong reminder from God?” I might also ask, Why isn’t truth evident to us and why can’t we automatically notice God’s presence in the everyday occurrences of out lives? If everyone could realize truth innately, there might be no need for a Torah to tell us what is real and what is only an illusion. But also, there would be no progress for us: no learning, no spiritual attainment. We would already be living in the messianic era, called the end of days.
That we have the capability, like Moses to notice and learn from the marvels of our everyday lives is a great gift that we are asked to develop and use: to become aware of more than just the physical and receive the knowledge that is being sent to us. This was said ever so much more elegantly in the Reform movement’s siddur, Gates of Prayer: “Days pass and the years vanish, and we walk sightless among miracles. Eternal One, fill our eyes with seeing and our minds with knowing; let there be moments when Your Presence, like lightning, illumines the darkness in which we walk. Help us to see, wherever we gaze, that the bush burns unconsumed. And we, clay touched by God, will reach out for holiness, and exclaim in wonder: How filled with awe is this place, and we did not know it! Blessed is the Eternal One, the holy God!” May we become more and more aware of the Divine Presence, who now as then, wants to be known and to bless us with knowledge and wisdom.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Planting Suggestions
This week’s Torah portion is Va’eira, which means, and He appeared. God speaks to Moses about the Divine Name and promises to redeem the Israelites, which reassures him. But when Moses tells the people of a coming salvation, they don’t listen, because of their servitude and hard work. Moses again has doubts about the success of his mission and brings his frustration to God. God is patient, repeatedly speaking to Moses and Aaron, to give them insight and also a positive outlook. God says, “I shall harden Pharaoh’s heart and I shall multiply my signs and wonders.” Then later God says, “Pharaoh will not heed you,” and later, “Pharaoh’s heart is heavy.” Here, God is giving Moses a window into the process of redemption, a psychological view of what needs to happen before Israel is freed.
Commentators have struggled to reconcile how God could harden Pharaoh’s heart with the principle that God never takes away our free will. I have explained this to myself with the thought that increasingly cruel decisions produce increasingly more drastic results; power meeting power; and that rule still applies, but additionally there is another way to look at this contradiction.
Did you ever get ready to leave for work in the morning when an idea popped up in your mind like: should I take an umbrella, or did I put my phone, my keys, or my papers in my briefcase or pocketbook? Do I have my gloves? I have a feeling it will rain.. Of course, we all have. And some of these little thoughts we ignore and some we pay attention to. Some are warnings, and one of the principles of Torah is that there is usually a warning before something unfortunate happens. But also, some of these little thoughts are suggestions, and I believe these suggestions are planted there to help us and also to be tests. We always have free will as to whether to pay attention to them or not. Our free will is never taken away. We have the ability to choose freely – to decide and to act, or not to act, on these suggestions. These suggestions are opportunities in disguise: the opportunity to pass tests which is really grasping onto rungs of a ladder put there for us; to lead us to increased understanding of the reality of our relationship to God and to the world; to open our eyes to a deeper reality than the one with which everyone is familiar. We all have many voices inside – not only the two common ones, the optimist and the pessimist, but also the soul’s yearning voice, the generous, and the selfish voices, and many more. The suggestions that occur to us test us and allow us to choose which voice to pay attention to: the voices of conventional and logical reasonableness or the voices of joy and aliveness, faith, hope, and understanding.
It is interesting that God instructs Moses in this psychological way of thinking. God says, Pharaoh’s heart is heavy. In other worlds, Pharaoh is an unhappy person. He is suffering. I have sent him suggestions about what to do. He won’t choose to listen to the voice of kindness or compassion because of his own misery. It’s obvious, God seems to be saying. Even you, Moses can see it’s true. Even you can predict what Pharaoh will do. It will take a tremendous show of power to get him to pay attention to you. He will be very, very hard to educate.
It is a well known Jewish teaching that no one is given a test unless they can pass it. Not that we always do pass tests, but that we can; that we are capable right now, just as we are, of passing them. So in this New Year, let us all be aware of the possibility that the little thoughts that pop up in our minds are suggestions planted there for us, for our benefit – as tests – that we can evaluate; and that can lead us to increased understanding and to a more active relationship with God. The choice is up to us. May all of our choices lead us to great blessing in this New Year.
Commentators have struggled to reconcile how God could harden Pharaoh’s heart with the principle that God never takes away our free will. I have explained this to myself with the thought that increasingly cruel decisions produce increasingly more drastic results; power meeting power; and that rule still applies, but additionally there is another way to look at this contradiction.
Did you ever get ready to leave for work in the morning when an idea popped up in your mind like: should I take an umbrella, or did I put my phone, my keys, or my papers in my briefcase or pocketbook? Do I have my gloves? I have a feeling it will rain.. Of course, we all have. And some of these little thoughts we ignore and some we pay attention to. Some are warnings, and one of the principles of Torah is that there is usually a warning before something unfortunate happens. But also, some of these little thoughts are suggestions, and I believe these suggestions are planted there to help us and also to be tests. We always have free will as to whether to pay attention to them or not. Our free will is never taken away. We have the ability to choose freely – to decide and to act, or not to act, on these suggestions. These suggestions are opportunities in disguise: the opportunity to pass tests which is really grasping onto rungs of a ladder put there for us; to lead us to increased understanding of the reality of our relationship to God and to the world; to open our eyes to a deeper reality than the one with which everyone is familiar. We all have many voices inside – not only the two common ones, the optimist and the pessimist, but also the soul’s yearning voice, the generous, and the selfish voices, and many more. The suggestions that occur to us test us and allow us to choose which voice to pay attention to: the voices of conventional and logical reasonableness or the voices of joy and aliveness, faith, hope, and understanding.
It is interesting that God instructs Moses in this psychological way of thinking. God says, Pharaoh’s heart is heavy. In other worlds, Pharaoh is an unhappy person. He is suffering. I have sent him suggestions about what to do. He won’t choose to listen to the voice of kindness or compassion because of his own misery. It’s obvious, God seems to be saying. Even you, Moses can see it’s true. Even you can predict what Pharaoh will do. It will take a tremendous show of power to get him to pay attention to you. He will be very, very hard to educate.
It is a well known Jewish teaching that no one is given a test unless they can pass it. Not that we always do pass tests, but that we can; that we are capable right now, just as we are, of passing them. So in this New Year, let us all be aware of the possibility that the little thoughts that pop up in our minds are suggestions planted there for us, for our benefit – as tests – that we can evaluate; and that can lead us to increased understanding and to a more active relationship with God. The choice is up to us. May all of our choices lead us to great blessing in this New Year.
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