Bo: The stout heart

Bo: The stout heart

 

Could we have known that Gd had hardened the heart of Pharaoh had Gd not told Moshe?  Is there an objective sign? 

 

 In the first instance of Divine heart hardening, after the plague of locusts, it appears that the consequence of the hardened heart is a heated argument [about the details of who would leave Egypt ( to perform the sacrificial rite, and then presumably return)] between Pharaoh and Moshe.   The  main manifestation of the hardened heart seems to be  anger.  Thus, it may be that the hardened heart is independently detectable ( without information from Gd).  Anger  maybe the telling sign of the hardened heart.  Anger is often the motivation for an irrational decision. The heart is the organ of understanding.  The hard heart makes errors.  Note also the relationship to the word courage: the rage of the cour (heart in French)

For the strong obey when a strong man shows them the way.

Give me some men who are stout-hearted men,
Who will fight, for the right they adore,
Start me with ten who are stout-hearted men,
And I'll soon give you ten thousand more.
Shoulder to shoulder and bolder and bolder,
They grow as they go to the fore.
Then there's nothing in the world can halt or mar a plan,
When stout-hearted men can stick together man to man.

STOUT-HEARTED MEN
From "New Moon"
(Sigmund Romberg / Frank Mandel /
Laurence Schwab / Oscar Hammerstein II)

 

 the you tube

http://www.youtube.com/v/Ih6cbrAsK4A&hl=en&fs=1"

Vaerah: slavery and plagues

Vaerah: slaves and the plagues

 

As Barack Obama was inaugurated as president of the US, by way of identification with his constituency I realized that my father had actually been a slave (when he was in death camp Treblinka).  Thus, I was closer to the experience of slavery than any African American!

 

Slavery is a victimization and slavery is a punishment. There is  a voluntary aspect to slavery, perhaps a destruction of will, but perhaps a bending of a pre-existing distortion of the will. The adoption of new values may be the introduction to slavery. A nation enslaves its own people. ( blaming the victim?)

 

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Plagues

 The signs and wonders and plagues are all a challenge to modern credibility.  We live in a world where any wonder can represented on the stage or screen and no one believes that it is magic.  We live in an age in which forces that are more powerful than ordinary nature ( nuclear and fusion) can be unleashed by people who do not understand those forces.  A stick that turns into a snake and a few frogs are not very impressive anymore.

 

It is not the tricks that are important anymore.  It is what the tricks mean.

The snake is the symbol of dangerous bad advice ( thus it is on the Caduceus ?)

The blood of the Nile was a reminder of the drowned Hebrew boys.

The frogs and lice  and mixed multitude are all reminders of the annoyance of having a rapidly reproducing underclass population in your mist.

       frogs are just a lot of bodies

    lice, even more bodies and a problem that poor people can inflict on  others 

    The mixed multitudes is bigger bodies and conveys the idea of miscegenation.

The dever ( animal plague) demonstrates the distinctness of the Hebrews and reminds one of contagion

The boils are the embodiment of the creepy feelings the Egyptians  must have had toward the Hebrews ( and may have been the human manifestation of the animal disease) [ In fact the  story suggests the idea of vaccination in that a disease that is fatal in one species ( e.g. small pox) may be less severe in another ( cow pox) ]

The hail is a demonstration of the benignity of nature and how it could be different.  Instead of gentle rain, chunks of ice with fire inside could fall from the sky.

 

shemoth: undoing the Eitz haddath

shemoth: Undoing the Eitz Hadaath

 

  

לֹא אִישׁ דְּבָרִים אָנֹכִי גַּם מִתְּמוֹל גַּם מִשִּׁלְשֹׁם גַּם מֵאָז דַּבֶּרְךָ אֶל-עַבְדֶּךָ  כִּי כְבַד-פֶּה וּכְבַד לָשׁוֹן אָנֹכִי  " I am not a man of words"

The contrast is between Moshe and the midwives.  The midwives, when they are caught violating the law of Pharaoh deftly excuse themselves by claiming that the Hebrew women are actually animals that do not use midwives, appealing to the prejudice of the Egyptians -  and the excuse works.

Moshe, the adopted son of the princess of Egypt, cannot exonerate himself from the killing of the Egyptian guard.  He has so little "chayn [charm]" that the slaves are ready to snitch on him! He has no Teflon.

 

 

There is considerable cheating on the governmental edicts because of the recognition of a higher authority. The midwives  fear the Lrd; Moshe's mother complies with the edict to cast her son into the river, she merely delays her performance and adds a floatation device;  Moshe is a fugitive from justice.  But the weirdest interaction is between Moshe and Gd.  Moshe challenges Gd's choice of him as Gd's agent of redemption! What chutzpah! 

 

 

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 The story of Moshe and echos  back to Eden.. There is a tree ( or bush) that is off limits. In both stories there is a serpent (nachash).   Both stories are related to exile.  Moses is exiled form Egypt ( previously described as ( Bereshith 13:10:   כְּגַן ְהָ כְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם בֹּאֲכָה צֹעַר   ( like a garden of Hashem, like the land of Egypt as one goes toward Tzoar). Also, the transient tzoraas of Moshe is allusion to exile and death. 

 

The knowledge that came from the Eitz Haddath is that every person will die That is the fundamental prophecy http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=d4hmw97_228c33dvf6x&hl=en

Vayechi: hic jacet

VAyechi:  Here Lies

 

Early in Bereshith, there is the story of the Garden of Eden, eating the forbidden fruit and the exile from Paradise.  Bereshith ends in a chiasmatic manner.  At the end of the story, Joseph is the provider.The grain of Egypt is the forbidden fruit. The price of the food is slavery ( the sweat of the brow).

 

Slavery is the curse that Noah brought into the world in his embarrassment ( from being discovered drunk).  Joseph's brothers try to avoid Joseph's dream of mastery of his brothers. So they sell Joseph into slavery and Joseph enslaves his brothers! Joseph's brothers sold themselves for food.   Thus, there is premonition of the Pharaoh's offer that " only the men leave Egypt" in the story of the burial of Jacob ( when the Israelite slaves are accompanied by armed guards when "only the men" leave Egypt. 

 

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There is an emphasis on where a person is buried.  Jacob, Rachel, Leah, the patriarchs and Matriarchs, Joseph. Why does it matter?  The place of your burial is where you become one with the earth, it is the final return.  Joseph's  re-burial after the Exodus is part if the redemption.  I am glad that my parents are buried in Eretz Yisroel and having survived the Holocaust, they deserve it! Where you are buried is your eternity on earth.

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Vayigash: substitutiary sacrifice

 

The Parsha  has a very human perspective.  People make choices.  Gd is in the background.  In dreams.

 

When Yehudah confronts Joseph,  he offers himself as a substitution for Benjamin.  He offers himself as a sacrifice.  He adopts the role of Isaac.

The Priest-King of Nemi, the guardian of the Golden Bough can only be usurped by a runaway slave.  The kings of Israel come from  runaway slaves.  Moses.  Joshua, the descendant  of Joseph.  Now Judah offers himself as a slave and his descendants become Kings.

 

prior  years: http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=d4hmw97_170hp5pr5dc&hl=en

 

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=d4hmw97_171f6tn3sgh&hl=en