Vaera 5780: An Overabundance of Evidence

A version of this sermon was delivered at Temple B’nai Torah – A Reform Congregation in Wantagh, NY on Shabbat Va’era 5780/2020

There are certain perennial questions we have as Jews.  At Passover we ask five of them.  The four in the Hagaddah and then "When do we eat!?"  That question by the way is also the question asked every Yom Kippur!  So, each year when we get to the Torah portions that describe the famous story of the plagues, the Passover, and the Exodus, a series of questions always seem to come up.  Each year, we ask why it is that we read about Passover well before the Holiday falls.  That has to do with the Torah cycle and the holiday cycle.  And that's where we are in the Torah right now.  Another question that arises as we reach this week’s portion, Parshat Va’era, is the question of why it is that God hardens Pharaoh’s heart.  After all, if God wanted to change Pharaoh’s mind, why prevent it from happening?  It seems counter-intuitive that God would prevent the Pharaoh from being moved to change or act in response to Moses’s pleas and God’s signs and wonders.

Toward the beginning of the portion, we read that God sends Moses to speak to the people Israel, to announce that the God of their ancestors will redeem them.  Even though Moses follows God’s instructions about how to introduce himself to the people, they don’t believe him.  The Torah tells us why: “their spirits [are] crushed by hard labor.” (Ex. 6:9)  They are so despondent in their situation that they cannot imagine that redemption is possible.  They don’t have the capacity or vocabulary to understand God, and sadly, we know, the slave generation will never fully commit to God, with but a few exceptions.

When the Israelites don’t listen, God then sends Moses to speak with Pharaoh.  Moses responds to God: If the people won’t listen to me, then how is it that you think Pharaoh is going to listen to me?

We read: “The Eternal replied to Moses, ‘See, I place you in the role of God to Pharaoh, with your brother Aaron as your prophet. You shall repeat all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall speak to Pharaoh to let the Israelites depart from his land. But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, that I may multiply My signs and marvels in the land of Egypt.’” (Ex. 7:1-3)

Now, there is an interesting parallel in the Hebrew.  The people’s spirits are crushed by what the Torah calls avodah kashah, hard labor.  God says that God will “ekasheh et lev Paroh” harden the heart of Pharaoh.  Already we see that God’s response to Pharaoh will be to turn the tables on him, to dole out to Pharaoh what Pharaoh has done to the Israelites.  God will show that God’s power supersedes that of Pharaoh, or that of any of the gods of Egypt.  “You made the people’s labor kasheh,” God is saying, “So, I will make your heart kasheh, and you will pay for it.”

The plagues are meant as much for the Israelites as the Egyptians.  The Israelites’ hearts and spirits are hardened beneath their labors.  Their hearts will need to soften in order to finally be a free people.  But the Egyptians, up until this point, don’t think they’ve done anything wrong, at least we don’t have any indication that they think the way they’re treating the Israelites is wrong.  We don’t hear from anyone but the Pharaoh.  And we know that it is his own obstinacy in the face of overwhelming evidence that ultimately leads to his downfall.  That Pharaoh’s heart hardens after each of the first five plagues is his own doing.  The Torah tells us after the plague of blood in the Nile: “when the Egyptian magicians did the same with their spells, Pharaoh’s heart stiffened and he did not heed [Moses and Aaron]. (Ex. 7:22)  We read similar indications after each of the first five plagues. 

As each of the first five plagues strike Egypt, the evidence mounts before Pharaoh, that God is not pleased and that he ought to pay attention. 

After the frogs, his heart hardens when the relief comes.  After the lice, the Egyptian magicians can no longer recreate the plagues, and they say to Pharaoh, this is the finger of the God! Yet, his heart hardens.  After the insects, we read: “But Pharaoh became stubborn this time also, gam bapa’am hazeh.”(Ex. 8:28)  The inclusion of “this time also” shows that even the Torah narrative seems to be confounded by Pharaoh’s stubbornness and inability to learn.

Each of these plagues is evidence of the Egyptians’ wrongdoing.  Rabbi Tali Adler of Machon Hadar makes this point explicit about the first two plagues as she teaches:  

Both of the first two plagues begin in the Nile where Jewish boys were drowned. The first, blood, makes it clear that the Nile, the source of life for the Egyptian people—the place where even Bat Paroah, the woman who saved Moshe bathed—is actually a site of mass murder. All of Egypt, suddenly, is forced to confront the truth that what is life-giving and sustaining for them has been the locus of unbearable suffering for the people they oppress.

The second plague, the frogs, exposes the horror even more explicitly. The frogs, we are told, emerge from the Nile itself—still, presumably, filled with blood. In picturing the image of the frogs—small, slimy creatures crawling out of the river used as a mass infant grave—it is easy to imagine that as the frogs started to emerge, people thought that they were seeing thousands of ghosts emerge from their watery graves.

It’s not until after the 6^th plague, the skin inflammation, that we read that the Eternal stiffened the heart of Pharaoh.  Why does God take over here?  Rashi (to Ex. 7:3) says it’s as punishment.  Since Pharaoh’s heart hardened 5 times on its own, and he didn’t heed God, now God will show Pharaoh what it means not to heed God.  The evidence is mounting.  The proof of the Egyptians’ crimes is public and known, and still, Pharaoh will not let the people go. 

But… we just learned that for plagues 6-10, it is God that hardens Pharaoh’s heart.  So, is the Pharaoh even to blame?  Rabbi Jonathan Sacks says yes, pulling from a Renaissance Italian commentary by Rabbi Ovadia Sforno:

“God hardened Pharaoh's heart precisely to restore his free will. After the succession of plagues that had devastated the land, Pharaoh was under overwhelming pressure to let the Israelites go. Had he done so, it would not have been out of free choice, but rather under force majeure. God therefore strengthened Pharaoh's heart so that even after the first five plagues he was genuinely free to say Yes or No.” [1]

This makes sense especially when we recognize that the Hebrew word for what happens to Pharaoh’s heart changes.  It moves from kasheh, meaning harden as we heard earlier, to chazak, meaning stiffen or strengthen.  In this interpretation, God makes Pharaoh’s heart stronger, so that he can make up his own mind in the face of the evidence before him.  But will he be convinced by evidence, or is the verdict already decided in his head?

            God wants Pharaoh to make his decision based not on pressure from others or based on something out of his control, but rather based on a true recognition that what he had been doing, how he had enslaved the Israelites was indeed not ok, that his rule, and the kingdom of Egypt had become corrupt, cruel, chaotic, and focused on an Egyptian supremacist attitude.

            The end of this week’s portion leaves no question as to the corrupt nature of the Egyptian government:  “when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he became stubborn and reverted to his guilty ways, as did his courtiers.  So Pharaoh’s heart stiffened and he would not let the Israelites go, just as the Eternal had foretold through Moses” (Ex. 9:34-35).  After every plague, the Pharaoh reverts to his default position, that he and Egypt can outlast God’s punishments.  Next week’s portion will dissuade him of that.

Ultimately, we know that Pharaoh never truly heeds the lesson that God is trying to teach him.  He will let the people go, but then he will change his mind and chase after them.  Not listening to the evidence presented to him over and over again destroys Egypt.  According to the Torah narrative, the crops and herds are destroyed by locust and disease, the Nile is putrid, the people who are still alive are inflicted with lice and disease, and his army is ultimately drowned at the Sea of Reeds.  All that his nation had been crumbles around him. He leads his nation to destruction because his heart is hardened, and he can’t find a way to soften it enough to heed the warning and listen to the evidence of what has been laid out before him.

When evidence mounts before us, will it be heeded?  When God sends a message, will it be heard?  Let us strive to live our lives as the antithesis to Pharaoh, with our hearts pliable, open to change, to compassion, to loving the other as ourselves.  Let our hearts be light, not weighed down by the heaviness of sin, indifference, or lust for power.  Let our hearts be loose, willing to accept the evidence we see before us, so that we may always make a choice for the good. 

Shabbat Shalom

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[1] Sacks, Lord Rabbi Jonathan: The Weighing of the Heart: Vaera 5780

Reflections on Our Recent Trip to Israel and Voting for the Zionist Congress

A version of this sermon was delivered at Temple Emanu-El of East Meadow on Friday, January 16, Shabbat Va'era, 2015

I’m glad to be able to share a little bit about our recent trip to Israel.  We had a great time.  We did lots of amazing things.  Saw many amazing sites.  Walked on history.  Learned a lot about what it means to be a part of the people of Israel and a part of the Jewish people.  We experienced our Judaism in a way that can only be done in Israel.

To begin, we were in the city of Tel Aviv.  We had an opportunity to tour around the ancient port city of Yaffo and learn about how and ancient port became a modern port and its role in pre – state Israel.  The city of Yaffo is an interesting and important city.  It is mentioned in the book of Jonah as the port from where Jonah flees God and it’s served four hundreds of years as the only port for the land of Israel. Anyone coming to any part of the holy land would have disembarked at that port. 

We walked up the beautiful cobblestones and overlooked that beautiful coastline of the modern city of Tel Aviv.  In Yaffo we learned about the beginnings of the modern city of Tel Aviv.  We learned how a small group of Jews decided to leave the confines of the walled city of Yaffo, and stake their claim on the sand dunes just north of this ancient city.  They selected their plots by putting their names and the plot number is on shelves they collected from the shore.  This was the humble beginning to what is now the modern city of Tel Aviv.

Much of Israel is like this.  A combination of the old alongside the new.  A combination of the ancient and the modern.  One culture grappling with its ancient roots and its modern destiny.  This is on full display not just in the ancient city of Yaffo and its new sister of Tel Aviv, but throughout the country.  We saw this as we sat in the room in Tel Aviv where Ben Gurion declared Israel a state.  The house, which is now a museum and is called Independence Hall, was one of those first houses in Tel Aviv, from those first families who moved out of Yaffo.  In that room, the ideas made famous in Theodore Herzl’s Altneueland (Old-New Land), became reality.  Israel was to be, for Herzl and his followers, a combination of the old and the new.

But the old and the new don’t always get along.  Even what was once considered a great idea, for example draining swamps in order to make room for more people, in a modern context is now understood more for the environmental impact it may have had than the progress it may have achieved.  Because of this, Israel has been on the forefront of trying to reclaim some of the nature that was altered in the name of progress. 

This rethinking of past successes is not the case in all aspects of Israel’s many innovations, for example the national water carrier, but where Israel can, it takes ecology into consideration more deliberately than at any time in her past.  Our group had the opportunity to visit the Hula Valley Nature Preserve which was re-flooded in order to provide place for the many migrating birds to land on their long trek from Europe or in Asia to Africa.  Did you know that Israel was a bottleneck in a bird highway?

All across Israel what was once the way is no longer the way, and what is now the way may no longer be the way in the near future.  And it has been that way forever.  One group would come in and take over, only to make way for the next.  A difficult history to follow, to be sure.

In the north, we stayed on a Kibbutz, Kfar Blum.  This Kibbutz, like many, if not most, in Israel has had to adapt to a changing economic landscape.  As Israel transitioned from the necessary communal living of its early days into an economic driver in the world, the Kibbutzim have had to change their way of doing business.  Many of them still specialize in one product, but many now also include beautiful hotels or guest-houses for tourists and Israelis looking to get away.  Kfar Blum, situated in the very north of Israel, is like this.

We traveled to see the borders of Syria and Lebanon.  And, while we were not in any danger, we did see plumes of smoke rising in the distance in Syria, as their civil war rages on.  This serves as a reminder that while there is a cold peace with Egypt and Jordan, Israel’s northern-most border is still a concern.  With the rise of a new generation of Islamic Extremists, because let’s not forget that Hezbollah and Hamas are in many ways the progenitors of ISIL, Israel has to be ever-vigilant and maintain a strong military presence.  We witnessed this as we saw tank exercises and heard and felt munitions drills as we were travelling and exploring.

In the North, we also learned about the Druze, an ethnic and religious minority in Israel, who are proud Israeli citizens and proudly serve in the Israeli Army, at rates even higher than Jews!  The Druze are a secretive group when it comes to their religion, so we learn more about their history as a people than about their sacred story or understanding of the nature of God.

After a number of days in the north, we traveled south to end our trip in Jerusalem.  Looking upon the walls of that ancient city never ceases to excite me, no matter how many times I’ve seen them.  It’s also a very powerful moment to enter Jerusalem with those who have never been before.  We learned about the Old City and how it came to be in Israel’s control.  We learned about the ancient history of the city by exploring the City Of David excavation site, which also gave us a glimpse into the complicated and political nature of archaeology in Israel.  Every find adds to our knowledge of history.  Archaeology is about more than the artifacts.  For many, each find is also more proof of to whom the land and the city belongs as well. 

          

Jerusalem also is the home to Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust Memorial and Museum, which we visited.  Every head of state is brought to Yad Vashem, and almost every tourist comes as well.  This is to show the necessity of the existence of the State of Israel.  It is a fine line which is walked by the Museum, which strives to make the case that Israel is necessary, but also prevent the idea that it is only because of the Holocaust that Israel exists.  The truth is somewhere in between the two, as we learned of the decades of work which went into the founding of the state before the Holocaust, but also learned how Israel’s existence was a reaction and a response to the Holocaust.  There are no simple answers in Israel.

We were able to see the old alongside the new in Jerusalem.  Outside of the old city’s walls thrives Israel’s biggest city, with residents of all religions and levels of observance.  There is no doubt that, compared to Tel Aviv, Jerusalem is more religious.  The ongoing fight over the role of Judaism in the public sphere in Israel, and what that Judaism ought to look like, begins in Jerusalem.  The fights over how Israel will choose to understand the Torah for state purposes begins in Jerusalem. 

The catch phrase for our trip was undoubtedly: “It’s complicated!” Seemingly every question posed to our amazing tour guide resulted in two answers.  First an: “it’s complicated” followed by a second, more nuanced answer.  There is no way to understand Israel simply.  Anyone who tries to explain it to you simply, or who believes it can be explained simply, is most-likely not all that interested in anything but a specific and one-sided agenda.  Truly, Israel is complicated.  It is complicated because of its history.  It is complicated because of its location.  It is complicated because of its present and it is complicated because of its unknown future.

One element of the unknown future for Israel is the role of religion in daily life, namely Judaism.  This refers not only to how people practice and pray, but more importantly, what definitions of Judaism are acceptable and which ones are not.  This relates to everything from which restaurants are Kosher, to who can be married, as Israel doesn’t have civil marriage, to which congregations get funding from the government to lead prayer.

We had the opportunity to join in formal prayer 3 times.  Our first Friday night, we were welcomed to Congregation Beit Daniel in Tel Aviv, the Reform Community in Tel Aviv.  There, we learned about the growing Reform Movement in Israel.  Our final day in Israel, Shabbat, for our third prayer experience, we were welcomed to the Reform Movement Seminary, HUC-JIR for Shabbat Morning services.  HUC-JIR doesn’t just train American Jews who want to be reform Rabbis cantors or educators, there is also an Israeli Rabbinic Program, which trains Israelis to be Reform Rabbis.

What was unknown to most Israelis a decade ago, has flourished into a movement which contains almost 50 congregations and which is making inroads among the 80% of Israelis who consider themselves “Secular.”  In Israel, one is classified as Secular or Religious.  There was, for quite some time, no in between.  And, for most Israelis, that was ok.  The Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism is working to make an in-between, because the truth is most Israelis live like American Reform Jews.  They don’t go to Temple all that often, but are looking for and want a Judaism that speaks to their modern lives.

Unfortunately, the only Judaism that is accepted in Israel is of the Orthodox variety, and more and more only an ultra-orthodox variety.  But that is changing…Let me tell you a little bit about our second prayer experience.

We were running a touch late, as the days are short in the winter and Shabbat doesn’t wait for 8:00pm, 7:00pm on the first Friday… We had planned to witness Kabbalat Shabbat at the Western Wall.  This was not our first time seeing the holiest site in Judaism. In fact, we had already seen the entirety of the wall, not just the part exposed at the Kotel Plaza.  So, a little late, but still energetic, we returned to see the joy and the passion with which Jews approach the Western Wall to welcome the Sabbath Queen with Psalms and songs like Lecha Dodi and Shalom Aleichem, which we had learned about in the mystical city of Tzefat. 

The Wall on a Friday night is a study in organized chaos.  Each of the different communities of Jews, each Yeshivah, sends its men down to the wall to pray and sing and dance and joyously welcome the day of rest.  You can differentiate the groups by the hats and the socks and the style of payes.  Typically, the Wall is also a study in contradictions.  As the men are dancing and singing and joyful, the women’s side, separated by a high wall, is much quieter.  I can explain more about this another time, but it’s important to understand that the place which is intended to be the holiest for all Jews has become an Ultra-Orthodox Synagogue, under the authority of an ultra-orthodox rabbi who sets the policy.  The Kotel is for all Jews, but the rules of the Kotel are made by one Jew, with one very rigid point of view.

So, we watched.  We watched and I was surprised, because on the women’s side, there was singing, loud and proud, and prayer in ways I had never seen before on a Friday night.  Granted, I’m not an expert, but I have been to the Kotel on Friday Night enough to know that this was new.  And the reason that this is happening is because the future of what Judaism will look like in Israel is changing, and it is changing because of the work of progressive, liberal and Reform Jews in Israel, in particular the Israel Religious Action Center, or IRAC, the legal advocacy arm of the Reform Movement.  Their work, as well as the work of Women of the Wall, a group of women who meet monthly to pray out loud at the Kotel, have made tremendous strides in changing the culture of the Kotel specifically and Israel in general.

After we watched the chaotic joy at the Kotel plaza, we made our way to the newly minted Egalitarian Plaza, known as Ezrat Israel: The area for Israel.  This is also new.  It was a compromise between the Jewish Agency and the Rabbi of the Western Wall, to provide a place where men and women can pray together.  It is separate and apart, and it is definitely not equal in terms of the amenities, but the fact that it exists is a great step forward, and a step in the right direction.  It was at this egalitarian section of the wall that we prayed together as a community.  It was on this platform that we gathered, men women and children, just as God commands in Deuteronomy, to praise God, to Thank God and to honor our commitments as Jews. 

I will say that while I lead prayers on a regular basis, this time and place was special for me.  This moment was a highlight of my life, because until this trip to Israel, it was not possible for me to lead my entire congregation in prayer at the Kotel.  It just wasn’t an option and now it is, and I am glad that we made use of it, and I look forward to making use of it again!

There is much that can be said about our trip, and I’m not going to tell you everything tonight.  I need something left for next High Holy Days!  But I want to end with an opportunity we all have to help ensure that the egalitarian prayer spaces will remain and that the holiest site for all Jews will indeed be open to all Jews and their many and varied practices.  As I mentioned at the High Holy Days, this year, there is an election for the World Zionist Organization, which forms the backbone of the Jewish Agency, which was responsible for the compromise creating the egalitarian prayer space.  You can all participate, well almost all of you.  Every Jew over the age of 18 is eligible to vote.  It does cost $10 per vote, which is used for administrative fees, but you can each vote, and while the pulpit is not usually, or ever, a place to tell you for whom to vote, tonight, I urge you to vote for the Reform Slate under the banner of ARZA, the Association of Reform Zionists of America. 

In the 2015 World Zionist Congress election, ARZA – REPRESENTING REFORM JUDAISM is campaigning for the following principles:

• Women’s Rights & Gender Equality: We strive for an Israel in which gender equality is the rule – where men and women can pray as they wish and work and live together as equals, deserving of the same respect and honor.
• Religious Equality: We envision and work for a society in which all denominations are treated fairly and with respect; an Israel in which all of us are accepted as Jews, regardless of our level of observance.
• Two States; One Path to Peace: Lasting peace, security and stability for Israel, the Palestinians and the surrounding Middle East region is possible through a commitment to a two-state solution. Although the road may seem long, we must pursue the path to that peace every day.

A vote for ARZA ensures that funds from the Jewish Agency are allocated to Reform and liberal causes in Israel.  If the Reform Movement wins a large enough number of seats on the US delegation, then we can ensure that religious liberties will continue to expand in Israel.  We can work to ensure that all conversions will be accepted by Israel.  We can work to ensure that Reform Judaism in Israel gets funding on par with the government funding of Orthodox Rabbis.

This week we read in our Torah that Moses implores the Pharaoh to let the people go not because slavery is bad, but rather he tells the Pharaoh on God’s behalf to “Let my people go so that they may worship me!”  Freedom of worship, and freedom to worship how we choose is a right all Jews have in America.  It is not a right all Jews have equally in Israel.  You can help to change that.

Shabbat Shalom.