Taking Pharaoh to Heart

 

Pharaoh is no bleeding heart.

Throughout the story of the ten plagues (last week's Torah portion and this week's), Pharaoh and the country over which he rules get hit with catastrophic punishments. Pharaoh promises Moses to let the Israelites go off into the desert to worship God, if only the plague goes away. The plague ends, and Pharaoh changes his mind--or, in Biblical parlance, his heart is hardened.

Sometimes the Torah narrative says God hardens Pharaoh's heart. Sometimes, especially toward the end of the story, Pharaoh does it to himself. 

I'm not going to get into the much-discussed question of how God can hold Pharaoh accountable for his actions when God is pushing those actions in a particular direction. Others have explored that in depth. 

Instead, I want to ask: is a hard heart necessarily a bad thing? From the Hebrew, it seems like an open question.

Hearts: Hard, Strong, or Heavy?

The first thing to understand about hearts in Hebrew is that they are neither blood pumps nor valentines. In the Torah, a heart (lev) is not sentimental; it's the organ of understanding. 

Yes, we understand with our emotions as well as our intellect. That kind of understanding is called a heart of wisdom. But it's important to know that whatever happens to Pharaoh's heart, it's not simply a feeling: it affects his calculations and his actions, too.

A hard term to translate

What does happen to Pharaoh's heart? One verb that describes it is the root ch-z-k. It's conventionally translated in Exodus as "harden," but it's not hard in the sense of difficult--there's a different word for that. 

It's not hard in the sense of stiff and unyielding, either. At least, in many other contexts it's not used that way, and there are alternative words for rigidity that the text could have used. So, why this one?

The most natural translation for words using ch-z-k is "strong." But there's a problem with that translation, which is that "strong" is usually a positive! 

* When Jews get to the end of reading the Book of Exodus (or any of the Five Books of Moses) in shul, we rise and say Chazak, chazak v'nit-chazek: "Strong, strong, and let's strengthen each other."

* When Moses passes the leadership on to Joshua, he wishes him Chazak v'ematz: "Be strong and of good courage."

* At the end of Psalm 31, we read a similar phrase, only in the plural. Chizku v'ya'ametz l'vavchem: "Be strong and let your heart take courage...." (Is it significant that "heart" is mentioned here, too?)

So many other times, ch-z-k means "strong," and it's said with approval. So, what does it mean that Pharaoh's heart is strengthened--and why is it a bad thing?

 

A heavy thought

Here's an even more puzzling version of what happens to Pharaoh's heart as the ten plagues progress. In Exodus 9:7 (after the cattle die and before the Egyptians get stricken with boils), it's the first time that Pharaoh apparently hardens his own heart, without divine intervention. (I learned this from Aviva Zornberg's interview by Krista Tippett.) 

But the Hebrew this time is not ch-z-k, or strong. It's ch-v-d, or heavy.

Va-yichvad lev Par'oh, v'lo shilach et ha-am.  

In English: Pharaoh's heart becomes heavy, and he doesn't send out the people (or let the people go, as the familiar song says).

Clearly, this Hebrew phrase is not the English-language idiom "a heavy heart." Pharaoh is not becoming sad. That is not why he reneges on his promise to Moses. Heaviness here implies weightiness, severity, and even immobility. Pharaoh weights himself down and refuses to budge from his supreme authority, over Egypt and over the Israelites.

Again, the problem is that ch-v-d has many positive connotations. In fact, it's the same root as the word for "glory"...which we most commonly hear associated with God!

What's wrong with Pharaoh's heart?

A strong heart, a glorious heart--in English, we might say a stout heart. Wouldn't we praise these qualities in our friends and allies? Then, why is hard-heartedness so terrible in the Egyptian leader?

I have to admit, I do not have a good answer yet.

Here's one traditional answer, from the text: God needs Pharaoh to keep on refusing so that God can show the Egyptians, and the world, that Pharaoh is not a god. 

The repeated cycle of plague from God, pleading from Pharaoh, and reprieve from God shows that it's not just a one-time event. This God (whom Pharaoh says, at the beginning of the story, "I do not know") can control the world at will. It's Pharaoh's weighty heart (vay-yichbad lev) against God's glory (kavod). Guess which one wins?

This answer makes sense in context, but I don't like it. It poses the question of why an almighty God needs to impress mere human beings with his power. It seems like a cosmic pissing context between two swaggering men. (I miss the women from the first portion of Exodus!)

Here's another answer from a friend in the #ParshaChat: God actually makes Pharaoh's heart stronger--that is, more capable of compassion.

On this reading, ch-z-k is positive here, as it usually is. God makes Pharaoh's ability to understand the situation rightly, and to have compassion, stronger. The terrible thing is that Pharaoh refuses to use his improved ability, his stronger heart. He sticks with his position of power instead.

I like this reading, but I don't think it works with the plain meaning of the Torah. What's more, I can think of times when a misplaced compassion is injustice and times when a refusal to bend is a virtue. (Remember "Nevertheless, she persisted"?)

So, I invite you to help me take this Torah portion to heart. How would you make sense of the positive and the negative, the strong and the stubborn, the hard and heavy heart vs. the courageous and glorious? What is really going on here?

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I'm reading through Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg's amazing commentary on the biblical Book of Exodus, The Particulars of Rapture. Each chapter expounds one of the portions we read in the synagogue weekly. It's slow going because it is so rich with insights. To keep on track, I will post at least one insight weekly between now and mid-March, when (God willing) I finish the book.