Behaving in a Manner Befitting Being Created in the Image of God

Parshat Bo

by Rabbi Avi Billet

When one reads the opening of Parshat Bo, it is hard to ignore the question of who has the bigger ego – Pharaoh or God?

Over the course of the previous 7 plagues, Pharaoh has actually given in 4 times. He allowed the Israelites to leave during the plague of frogs, twice in the plague of beasts, and once in the plague of hail. In each case, however, after the plague dissipated, he changed his mind, most likely because his ego wouldn’t allow for him to give up his slaves so easily.

In God’s case, it seems that the plagues have taken on a life of their own, with their objective having become “So that Pharaoh will know that I am God.”

We all know who is going to win this proverbial battle of wits. It’s not even a contest. But the truth is, if the objective is for Pharaoh to learn who God is, that was achieved during the plague of hail when Pharaoh declared, “I have sinned. God is righteous, while I and my nation are wicked!” (9:27)

Most troubling in trying to pinpoint the critical turning point is when the shift comes from Pharaoh standing stubbornly in defiance of God, versus when the Torah tells us that God Himself strengthened Pharaoh’s heart. It first happened in the plague of boils, and we’re told in the prelude to the plague of locusts that “I have hardened [Pharaoh’s] heart as well as the heart of his servants, so my signs can be spread through them.”

It seems unfair at this point – even if Pharaoh were to give in, he has other devils controlling his mind. He doesn’t stand a chance.

Rabbi David Fohrman has developed a very innovative approach to the differences between the phrases “va’y’chazek et libo” and “va’yakhbed at libo” (strengthened and hardened his heart, respectively) which is worth perusing on his Alephbeta website. In a shiur I heard on yutorah.org, Rabbi Zev Leff argues that the purpose of any strengthening of Pharaoh’s heart was to make it that he wouldn’t give in and let the Israelites leave Egypt on account of the plagues – he needed to come to the realization on his own that letting the slaves leave was the right thing to do, irrespective of plagues.

Which brings us to the question of God’s ego. There are many ways to explain God’s role in the world, what He represents, what He wants of us, and why He created the world in the first place. Some of the answers include the desire to have a world of Emet (truth), Chesed (kindness), Shalom (peace), and of course to spread His word and teaching through the Torah. Prior to the Torah being given, His purpose was for His Name to be known – an objective concretized by Avraham, following the failed efforts and non-efforts of prior generations.

Is this egotistical? You create a world, and You don’t want its inhabitants, particularly those capable of the greatest intellectual and spiritual heights, to forget about You? You don’t want them to take You and Your world for granted? This isn’t ego. This is normal. This is healthy pride. If I’m a CEO, a principal, a business owner, I am proud of what I built. And even if not everyone sees me, and it seems that I’m not in touch with the littlest people, I care about them. And I’d like them to at least know who I am – know that I employ them, that their purpose in this position is guided by my rules, and that I care about the things which touch their lives.

It is true that Pharaoh seemed to recognize this in the plague of hail, but 6 verses after asking Moshe to pray for the hail to go away, we see that once the hail is gone, “And he continued to sin.” (9:34) Rashbam and Chizkuni note this timeline, suggesting that the explanation for the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart is Divine influence, based on the opening verse of our parsha, which God said to Moses, “Come to Pharaoh. I have made him and his advisors stubborn, so that I will be able to demonstrate these miraculous signs among them.”

Prior to this, we’ve seen God strengthen Pharaoh’s heart after the plague of boils, but not specifically after the devastating plague of hail. So what gives? Why does God take credit for Pharaoh’s hardened heart in the foreshadowing of the plague of locusts, and not in the immediate aftermath of the plague of hails, where such credit would be due?

I think the answer is that the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart is not an unfair tactic utilized by God to delay Pharaoh’s chances of salvation for himself and his people. Pharaoh has let the slaves leave multiple times, and each time he backpedaled. And, after hail, not only did he backpedal, but he sinned and doubled-down in his obstinance. What does it take – after you’ve said God is righteous – to recognize the folly of your position?

For Pharaoh, it is a huge ego. He can’t admit he’s wrong for more than a minute. Even when the evidence is staring him in the face.

There is a lot of talk these days about what is right and wrong, who has an ego, who is a narcissist, what is best for this country, for other countries, for the world. Those of us who practice a little humility know we don’t have the answers, even if we think we know what’s correct. The world is complicated. Nothing is black and white.

Except, in the end, that this world is God’s world, and we must answer for the way in which we behaved and interacted with others. We can yell and scream all we want about how we understand injustice and what it means. But if we are yelling and screaming and never respectfully listening to another point of view, we are not demonstrating the kind of qualities that are Godlike – truth, kindness, peace. If in the end, the purpose of the plagues was for Pharaoh to learn about God, we too must never remove God from how we relate to others. All people are created in the image of God.

What they do in the name of that image determines how we treat them – whether refugees and immigrants from across the globe, or our neighbor with whom we have political differences.