The two brothers appear before Pharaoh to request the freedom of their people, but Pharaoh refuses to liberate them. Time and time again, Pharaoh “hardens his heart.” As a consequence, terrible plagues are set upon Egypt. The waters of the Nile are bloodied; then the land is filled with frogs and swarms of insects; then there is the death of Egyptian livestock; and later there is destructive hail. These plagues are sent to punish Pharaoh and force him to free the Israelites.
We all know this story well. We re-tell it every year at our Seder tables. Most of the time we focus on the plagues and the long awaited release of the Israelites. But for me, one phrase stands out in the story. That is the phrase “hardening the heart.” Twenty times in this and next week’s parasha the phrase appears. Ten times in this portion relating to the first five plagues and ten times in next week’s portion. It is interesting to note that this week Pharaoh hardens his own heart. But next week it will be God who hardens Pharaoh’s heart.
What is the meaning of this phrase and how does it relate to us today? To the Biblical mind, the heart is the locus for emotion. So to harden one’s heart means to close it off to feelings. Ten times Pharaoh actively refuses to feel the pain and anguish of the Israelite people. He turns his back (and his heart) away from their suffering and so he is able to say “no” to their freedom. Eventually, after doing this enough times, he is no longer in control of what his heart can feel. He has closed himself off so often, the door to his feelings is no longer able to be opened.
My question is…are we guilty of hardening our hearts? Do we see others doing this? Is this condition becoming an epidemic in our community, our country, our world? Do we or others ever close ourselves off from the emotions, perhaps the suffering of friends, spouses, those in need we don’t event know? Our Torah portion points out that if we do this long enough, we may not be able to reverse the impact of our actions. These days we all know a great deal about how to take care of our physical hearts, but do we take good care of our emotional hearts. Clearly Pharaoh didn’t, but surely we can do better.
Shabbat Shalom,
