פרשת וארא

This week’s Parsha describes in great detail the frightening plagues which Hashem brought upon Pharaoh and the Egyptian race in order to “persuade” them to emancipate the Jewish nation from their 210 year bondage. We find that as each plague reached its zenith, and the Egyptians were in unbearable agony, they agreed to let the Jewish people go, only to later renege on their commitment once the plague had subsided. The Mussar masters derive from the Egyptians’ evil attitude a practical lesson for us to learn. We find that when tragedy falls upon us, we begin to examine our actions, and take upon ourselves all sorts of promises to better our ways if Hashem will only have mercy on us this once, only to quickly forget about those resolutions as soon as our difficulties are resolved. This conduct is obviously highly hypocritical and should be avoided by any Torah scholar.

However there is one verse in this week’s Parsha which does not seem to have any logical explanation. The verse says that after the plague of pestilence, in which all the Egyptian livestock were completely wiped out, and not one of the Jewish animals perished, Pharaoh witnessed this and he hardened his heart. This verse implies that it was specifically because Pharaoh saw the undeniable hand of God in the miraculous way in which Egypt’s animals had died that he became stubborn. Such conduct seems irrational. How could Pharaoh harden his heart when he saw these inexplicable events unfolding before his eyes? His response seems counterintuitive. Instead of hardening his heart, he should have softened his heart based on the irrefutable hand of God in the events that had happened to him!

R’ Leib Chasman explains that the Torah is teaching us an invaluable insight into the workings of the evil inclination. Every person on this earth desires to be right and will attempt to justify their actions to be in line with their idea of what “right” is. However, there are times when a person’s mistakes are clearly visible in front of their eyes, and there is no way to continue justifying their course of action. It is during these times that a person is faced with a choice. He can either admit to the obvious truth before him and amend his ways, or he can choose to continue his current course, knowing that it is incorrect, because he is too afraid to admit that he has been acting inappropriately. This second course of action is generated from fear. Perhaps he is afraid of what people will think about him if he admits that he has been traversing a false path, or perhaps he is even afraid to face himself. But either way, to continue on an incorrect path, even though a person has been faced with an undeniable truth, requires a greater level of commitment to evil. This is what the verse means when it says that Pharaoh hardened his heart. Even though he saw that only the Jewish livestock survived this terrible plague, and he had no rational explanation for this phenomenon, and he could not go on thinking that he was right and the Jews were wrong as he had been up until that point, he chose to continue acting as if he believed that way in order to preserve his sense of dignity as we explained.

In truth, we find that Pharaohs whole outlook reflected this basic character flaw in which although he knew one thing to be true, his actions did not fall into line with his knowledge. We find that Pharaoh claimed that he himself created the Nile river. In order to perpetuate this preposterous claim, Pharaoh would defecate early in the morning when no people were around, (ironically in the Nile), so as not to give away his “human” identity. How could Pharaoh claim to others that he was divine, (and it is implied in the Midrash that he even believed it himself), when he was clearly aware of his own not-so-divine habits? We must explain that Pharaoh was certainly aware of his non-divinity, as in fact the Ramban (5) corroborates by quoting the verse in reference to Pharaoh’s remarks about Yosef, “God has granted you such great wisdom”. But Pharaoh chose to maintain a façade of divinity, despite his knowledge of the truth in order to perpetuate the false image he had built of himself.

Unfortunately, we too are guilty of this hypocrisy which was displayed by Pharaoh. There are many things which we know to be true intellectually, but in practice, our actions fail to meet the standards which our knowledge determines to be moral. The Mishna in Avos says that if our knowledge is greater than our actions, then that knowledge will soon be lost, whereas if our actions are greater, meaning that in practice we live up to even more then we know to be true, then our wisdom will continue growing. This principle is quite an important one for any Yeshiva student whose business is acquiring knowledge.

We all have certain areas of our lives in which our actions do not quite measure up to what we know to be right. This happens because the desires of our hearts hide the obviousness of the truth. How does a person reach the stage in which he is in complete control of his heart, and eventually a stage in which his good deeds even outweigh his knowledge? R’ Yechezkel Sorno offers some very practical advice. He begins by citing a Midrash Raba (B. 67) in which the Midrash lists the three people who spoke to their heart. Chana, Dovid, and Daniel, all used a tactic called “speaking to their heart” in order to gain control of their passions. R’ Yechezkel explains that there are three practical ways to achieve dominion over one’s heart. Firstly, he suggests, a person should learn the books of Mussar in depth and with great fervor in order to inculcate the messages from these precious books into our hearts. Secondly, he recommends that when a person prays to Hashem on a daily basis, he takes that opportunity to “talk to his heart” and reinforce the truth of Hashem and His Torah in his heart, thereby giving him renewed motivation to conquer his evil inclination. And thirdly, R’ Yechezkel tells us that if we sit down for a few minutes a day to review our actions, and determine whether or not we have measured up to the demands of the Holy Torah, this process will be extremely effective in strengthening our hearts to always do what is right. With these three ways, we are sure to reach a stage in which we have a certain mastery over our heart, and we will not fall prey to the Yetzer Hara’s tricky method of acting in a way we know not to be correct.

May we all merit to gain control over our hearts and act with integrity!