by Zelig Golden
26 Tevet 5768 | January 4, 2008
In this week’s parsha Va-Era, Moses becomes the emissary of G-d in fomenting the Exodus from Egypt with the first seven natural disasters – blood, frogs, lice, insects, cattle disease, boils, and hail – that Egypt suffers because Pharaoh refuses to free the Jewish slaves. (Exodus 6-9). As each disaster takes its toll on Pharaoh’s people, he decides to free the Jews, but then G-d hardens his heart and Pharaoh changes his mind, eliciting yet more punishment on the people.
If G-d is so powerful and so clearly desires the freedom of Israel’s tribes, why does G-d make Pharaoh so stubborn? On one level, G-d may simply want to demonstrate her power to the faithless Jews so that they will heed the words later transmitted at Sinai. G-d may also be teaching the Egyptian task-masters a lesson for subjugating Israel’s people to slavery. On another level, the drama of the ten plagues speaks to a deeper truth about what it takes for us to grow, transform, and navigate through Mitzrayim (Hebrew for Egypt, also meaning the narrow places in our lives).
It seems to be a universal truth that people often must experience tragedy to catalyze change. Individually, personal growth often follows hard times – depression, loss of a relationship, feeling lost in life – some call this the dark night of the soul. We sometimes have to hit rock bottom before we begin our Tshuvah, or return to ourselves, through therapy, spiritual inquiry and awakening to our true nature. Societally, change may come at an even greater cost – consider global warming. As the polar ice cap is melting, and even though our communities and nations know that severe ecological disasters will result from our greenhouse gas emissions, we continue to drive our cars and burn coal for power because the effects have not yet hit us at home.
Like Pharaoh, we don’t change until we really hit rock bottom. It takes the physical death of Pharaoh’s own son – from the tenth plague, death of the first born – from him to finally release the enslaved. (Exodus 12: 29-32). In a similar manner, our mystical tradition teaches that to evolve as individuals, we may need to undergo spiritual deaths of ego and internal restrictions so that we may emerge from the narrow places of our own lives to more fully connect with ourselves and G-d. As the Ba’al Shem Tov prayed, “I desire to kill (or afflict) myself in order to serve G-d in truth and with a whole heart, in love and awe, that I acknowledge His Unity fully.” (Tzava’at Harivash, 43a).
The show of force that are G-d’s ten plagues teaches us of our own resistance to change, and what that resistance may bring. The violence of the Exodus story shows us one path – the heart and prayer of the Ba’al Shem Tov shows us another. Ultimately, the Exodus story calls on us to be proactive at this critical juncture in human history.
