Va’erah: war

In this week’s parsha, aspects of Gd are revealed. Gd had a relationship to the glorious ancestors  of the degraded Israelites and Gd has heard their cry. Gd has had a plan for their salvation. That plan includes a demonstration of unique and overwhelming powers – the plagues that take up most of this parsha.

Before describing the spectacle of force versus will, the battles with Pharaoh, we have a small section of the dramatis personae, a list of the characters in the upcoming drama. Most of the characters listed do not appear in this chapter, or even in this book of the Torah. The list ends with Pinchas, Aaron’s grandson.  Pinchas is a major character in a story that is set 40 years later and appears at the end of Numbers; one of the last stories told in the Torah.

The events of the next few chapters are clearly not the end of the narrative. The process extends to Pinchas and the rebellions in the desert prior to the settlement of the Promised Land. This is the story of Gd’s power and its relationship to human persuasion and action. Pharaoh and the Egyptians must be convinced to let the Israelites go; the Hebrews need to be persuaded that their liberation is desirable; Gd’s mastery must be accepted, and the limits of liberty established.

The plagues are acts of war against Pharaoh. They are destructive measures intended to convince the enemy to accede to the will of the victor. They are destructive, cruel operations that degrade the resources and the will of the foe.  Gd’s aim is to achieve the goal of Israelite liberation and, simultaneously the generation of a reputation of insurmountable power. It says as much in the text:

וַאֲנִ֥י אַקְשֶׁ֖ה אֶת־לֵ֣ב פַּרְעֹ֑ה וְהִרְבֵּיתִ֧י אֶת־אֹתֹתַ֛י וְאֶת־מוֹפְתַ֖י בְּאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרָֽיִם׃

And I will harden Par῾o’s heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Miżrayim.

וְלֹֽא־יִשְׁמַ֤ע אֲלֵכֶם֙ פַּרְעֹ֔ה וְנָתַתִּ֥י אֶת־יָדִ֖י בְּמִצְרָ֑יִם וְהוֹצֵאתִ֨י אֶת־צִבְאֹתַ֜י אֶת־עַמִּ֤י בְנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ מֵאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֔יִם בִּשְׁפָטִ֖ים גְּדֹלִֽים׃

But Par῾o shall not hearken to you, that I may lay my hand upon Miżrayim, and bring out my armies, my people the children of Yisra᾽el, out of the land of Miżrayim by great judgments.

 

Overwhelming the current enemy is insufficient. The license to harm must be revoked. Otherwise, a new perpetrator will arise and the struggle will continue in a new place and at a new time.

I believe that evil forces can be crushed by overwhelming force. I think that happened to the German Nazis. That took massive destruction, as well as the plague of the Russian winter.

Asymmetric force evokes sympathy for the subdued. Innocents are harmed along with actual and potential adversaries. The situation is unfair. Why should all of Egypt need to seek clear water? Should the plague have been limited to those who drowned the Hebrew baby boys? Should those who tolerated it, both Egyptians and Israelites, have been reminded of those days? What about the young who could not have participated in any way, active or passive? Should the heinous act be recalled to them in this way? Maybe.  I can be sympathetic to the plight, even the predicament of the perpetrator who is suffering, and I can simultaneously receive the message.

It is only after the plague of hail, the plague for which sheltering instructions are offered, a plague of weather that was obviously beyond the human capability of the time, ( John von Neuman  considered the possibility of a weather war with the Soviet Union. [Maniac, B Labatut].) that Pharoah admits his villainy.

וַיִּשְׁלַ֣ח פַּרְעֹ֗ה וַיִּקְרָא֙ לְמֹשֶׁ֣ה וּֽלְאַהֲרֹ֔ן וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֲלֵהֶ֖ם חָטָ֣אתִי הַפָּ֑עַם

And Par῾o sent, and called for Moshe and Aharon, and said to them, I have sinned this time: the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.

Was it the failure to follow the Divine instructions to shelter that evoked this contrition? Was it the realization that the opposing force was insurmountable?  I am not sure. Pharaoh knew his transgression all along, some element now came to his consciousness. Importantly, Pharoah did not act on his remorse.

 

וַֽיֶּחֱזַק֙ לֵ֣ב פַּרְעֹ֔ה וְלֹ֥א שִׁלַּ֖ח אֶת־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל כַּאֲשֶׁ֛ר דִּבֶּ֥ר יְ בְּיַד־מֹשֶֽׁה׃ {פ}’ 

And the heart of Par῾o was hard, neither would he let the children of Yisra᾽el go;

as the Lord had spoken by Moshe.

 

This is the last sentence of the parsha. It is ambiguous. My simple understanding of “ as the Lord had spoken by Moshe.” Is that Moshe communicated the demand to release the Israelites to Pharaoh  in the name of the Lord.  The classic commentators interpret “as the Lrd had spoken by [the hand] of Moshe” as Gd’s declaration that Pharaoh would not release the Israelites until all ten planned plagues had been delivered.

 

On Passover, the 7 (or8) day celebration of liberation from Egypt and bondage, we abbreviate the song of victory, the Hallel, on the last 6(or 7) days of the festival in sympathy for the suffering of the Egyptian oppressors.

 

There can be no final victory over evil. The suffering of the enemy is hard to watch.  That of innocents, yet harder.  Ongoing threat is intolerable to all.