Vaera – Shooting for Honoring Hashem


 One of the most fundamental beliefs in Hashem and His Ways is discussed in this week’s Torah portion of Vaera by Rabbeinu Bachye, regarding the bondage in Egypt, the prelude to the ten plagues, and the ultimate salvation from Egyptian servitude. It is worthwhile to go through the majority of the piece in the Rabbeinu Bachye, but I am planning on elaborating on a point towards the end.
 Hashem warns Moshe, “And I will harden Pharoah’s heart” (Shemos 7:3). Rabbeinu Bachye submits, “Many have asked at this juncture that if Hashem hardened his heart so that he would not send them, then why did He pile upon them these great plagues for no reason? Isn’t this an act of violence at first glance, and the Blessed Hashem who is righteous would not do such a terrible thing?! If the hardening of his heart was for him to refuse to send them away, then how could he be punished for hardening his heart with all these plagues? The answer to this is that Pharaoh on the one hand was wicked and had already sinned. If his sin would have been preventing the Jews from being sent out and Hashem then hardened his heart about that prevention and punished him for that then that would have been violence [on Hashem’s part]. However the sin for Pharaoh was mentioned earlier (Shemos 1:9-10), ‘Behold the nation of the Children of Israel are many and mightier than us, come and let’s outsmart them’. So since [Pharaoh] was wicked and a denier of Hashem of his own volition, and he and his nation purposely spited them, they were liable to be prevented from the paths of repentance, in that Hashem put into his heart that he would not send them away. For if they had repented, it would have been impossible to punish them. The proof is the people of Nineveh; in the times of Yonah, they repented and were saved from punishment (and in fact some medrashim say Pharaoh was their king, who had survived the splitting of the sea and fled to Nineveh). Therefore, Hashem needed to prevent them from  walking the paths of repentance. Not that they didn’t have the ability to repent, but the ways to realize, to get to such an idea, were blocked. As He [told Moshe] ‘I will harden Pharoah’s heart;’ this is what the Ramban zt”l wrote.

There is a medrish (Shemos Rabba 13:4) that relates ‘And I will harden Pharoah’s heart;’ ‘Rebbe Yochanan said, this is an excuse for non-believers to say that he had no chance to repent. Reish Lakish said back, close up the mouths of the non-believers, they will scoff if they want. They can be rebuked, one, two, three times and still not change. He (Hashem) closed the door from repentance in order to punish him (Pharaoh) for his sins. So, the evil Pharaoh, after Hashem made it clear to him 5 times (5 plagues) and he did not heed to His word, Hashem said to him you made yourself stubborn, and hardened your own heart, I will add tuma (spiritual uncleanliness) onto your tuma.’ According to this medrish, it explains that when Hashem said, ‘I will harden Pharoah’s heart’ it was in the end, for during the first five plagues, it only says, ‘Pharoah’s heart strengthened’ and ‘Pharaoh made his heart heavy’. Behold he did not want to send the Jews away out of honor to Hashem, (כבוד שמים), it was only when the plagues became too overwhelming, he would become weary from dealing with them and he would soften his heart, and change his mind to rather set them free because of the burden of the plagues and not to do the will of his Creator. But during the last five plagues it says that Hashem hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and Hashem did this in order that His name will be talked about throughout the land as it’s written, ‘and I will make Myself exalted and Myself holy etc.’ (Yechezkel 35:23).” (Click here for Hebrew text.)
It’s implicit from Rabbeinu Bachye that if Pharaoh would have focused and been motivated to free the Jewish People out of honoring Hashem and doing His will, then at some point during the first five plagues Pharoah would have followed through with this plan. Only because his motivation for freeing the Jews was to take off the burden of the plagues that in between plagues when the burden was lightened did he change his mind, ultimately keeping them in Egypt each time. But why would even a proper motivation like Honoring Hashem and doing His will make such an impact on such a wicked person as Pharaoh, who put in much thought to outsmarting the Jews and enslaving them? Even if he came to realize that it was worthwhile to give honor to Hashem, why was it guaranteed that he would not change his mind, just like he ultimately did not change his mind out of the pure pressure from the plagues? The reason why he would have set them free for the sake of doing Hashem’s will would be because he would be inspired and focused by the plagues to follow Hashem’s directive; but isn’t inspiration fleeting, especially for the wicked?

We must nevertheless say, based on this Rabbeinu Bachye, that if Pharaoh would have in fact decided to free the Jews to honor Hashem, and had he realized what he was doing, he would never have changed his mind.

There’s an incredible lesson that can be learned from here. If one focuses on and has a really honest attitude that when he is doing the right thing it is for the Will of Hashem, and to give Him honor, then that realization will be the impetus to never regret and change his mind from his positive actions.