EACH MAN THREW FORTH HIS STAFF, AND THEY TURNED INTO SERPENTS. AND AARON'S STAFF SWALLOWED THEIR STAFFS.

(Shemot 7:12)

 

Take your staff and throw it forth before Pharaoh, and it will become a serpent [tanin]. What is the Difference Between a Serpent [Tanin] and a Snake [Nahash]?

...the tanin is a large and especially dangerous snake, as it is said, their wine is the wrath of taninim (Devarim 32:34), this implies that its wrath is greater than that of a regular snake. Now Moses and Aaron performed all of the miracles through speech, like this snake, whose chief strength is in its mouth. Since it appears that most of the miracles were performed using the staffs of Moses and Aaron, someone might argue the opposite and say that the miracles were performed through the power of the staffs. They could mistakenly say that there was something magical about the staffs. That is why they [the staffs] changed into snakes, in order to show that just as a snake can bite without the aid of magic spells, so too, the power of Moses and Aaron was in their own mouths, and the staffs performed all of the actions which they performed through the power of the speech of their mouths, for the decrees spoken by a tzaddik are fulfilled for him...since He did not want the wrath of taninim around Israel - his staff and that of Aaron involved providence over both Israel and Pharaoh - it was turned in to a snake. But Aaron's staff worked against Pharaoh alone, so it turned into a tanin in order to cancel Pharaoh's power which was compared to a tanin, as has been stated.

(Kli Yakar Shemot 7:9)

 

Everywhere in Scripture we find wizards in the employ of ancient rulers. Similarly today, the natural sciences are harnessed to the needs of the state. If today they asked to mobilize the natural sciences towards solving serious problems such as the satisfaction of all human appetites - without worrying about health-damaging affects - it would be no more than an abuse of man's control over nature. It would share the same fundamental outlook with magic.

 (Rabbi S.R. Hirsch Shemot 7:11)

 

Dedicated to my father Chaim Bermant, z"l, on his 8thYahrzeit.

He was a writer and journalist, and campaigned for

justice and peace between Israel and her neighbors.

Determinism, Collective Responsibility and Individual Responsibility

Azriel Bermant

Everything is foreseen, yet freedom of choice is given. The world is judged with goodness, and the judgment is according to the scope and magnitude of man's actions. (Pirkei Avot,3:15)

This well-know dictum from Pirkei Avot sets forth an important theme of this week's Parsha

We read the following in Parshat Va'era:

And I will harden Pharoah's heart and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. (Shemot 7:3)

Over the ages, the commentators have had difficulties with the verses referring to God "hardening Pharaoh's heart". On the one hand, we know that man is given freewill. On the other hand, the aforementioned verse suggests that Pharaoh was not given the choice to repent and let the Children of Israel leave the land of Egypt.

This raises the following question: If man is given pure freedom of choice, why was Pharaoh punished, when his decision-making appeared to be out of his control?

Rambam in his Mishna Torah dwells upon the issue of freewill and individual choice:

 Do not believe what the fools among the nations and the senseless of Israel say: that the Holy One, blessed be He, decrees whether a person will be righteous or wicked at the moment of his creation. It is not so. Every person may become righteous like Moses our teacher, or wicked like Jeroboam. (Mishna Torah, Teshuva, 5:2)

Nehama Leibowitz presents an interesting response to our question. At the outset, man is free to choose any path of action that he wishes. Yet once a person sets out to do evil and remains on that path, it will become increasingly difficult to change that behavior for the better. Thus, it is not God who is holding such a person back. By persisting in the path of evil, the path of repentance is beset with obstacles. The more one sins, the harder it is to change.

Let us now look once again at Rambam:

...So long as man is attracted to the paths of wisdom and righteousness, he hankers after them the more, and assiduously cultivates them. To this our Sages referred in their statement: "He who comes to purify himself is helped from Above" - implying that he will find his path smoothed.

Resh Lakish sheds more light on the response to our question, through his commentary on a verse from Proverbs:

Said Resh Lakish: What is the force of the text (Proverbs 3, 34): "If to scorners he will scorn; but to the meek he will show favor?" If he tries to defile himself he is given an opening; if he tries to purify himself, he is helped (from above). (Shabbat, 104a)

The Malbim also expands on this verse from Proverbs:

A life lived according to "wisdom", according to Torah ethics, is rooted and nurtured in the essential dignity of the soul, fulfilling its own nature. Sin, on the other hand, diminishes and enfeebles the soul; the impulse to evil rises from the subconscious depths, and sweeps away the lofty aspirations to goodness, so that the soul is overwhelmed and its nobility lessened. The human being grows mean and small, as his animal nature increases in strength and importance. (Malbim on Mishley, 3:30)

In accordance with the words of our sages, acts of goodness have a positive momentum of their own, with added divine inspiration and encouragement. While the righteous are given active divine assistance, the wicked, at best, are given passive assistance in having obstacles removed, in order to retreat from the path of evil.

Acts of evil create their own self-perpetuating downward spiral, leaving ever decreasing room for repentance.

In his book Tradition In An Untraditional Age, the Chief Rabbi of Great Britain and the Commonwealth, Jonathan Sacks, dwells on a question raised by Rambam that expands on our discussion and is particularly pertinent to our Parsha: Why were the Egyptians punished for enslaving and mistreating the Israelites, when God had already told Abraham that his people would be oppressed in a land not their own? In other words, it appears as if the Egyptians were already acting out a divine decree over which they had no control.

Rambam responds by accepting that groups will tend to act in a predictable manner. Determinism seems to exist on this level. Thus, according to this argument, it was perhaps predictable that the Egyptians as a nation would oppress the Israelites. However, this does not extend to the microcosmic level. There were notable Egyptians who stood out for their courage in resisting authority. For example, Pharaoh's daughter rescues an Israelite child from death, in open resistance to her father's edict. Then we have the case of Shifra and Puah who are identified by Abarbanel and Samuel David Luzzatto as Egyptian midwives. Here are two more heroines who were even prepared to risk their lives, in violating the cruel decrees of their own people.

As Rambam puts it:

Each individual Egyptian who oppressed and maltreated the Israelites could have refrained had he so chosen. For God did not make a decree concerning any specific individual, but only informed Abraham that his descendants would be subjected to servitude in a land not theirs. (Mishna Torah, Teshuva, 6:5)

Thus, as a member and a leader of the Egyptian collective, Pharaoh could not be absolved from responsibility for his crimes, on the basis that he was acting out a preordained role as an oppressor of the Israelites. On an individual level, Pharaoh had freedom of action to choose between good and evil. He chose the latter path, from which there was ultimately no return.

In grappling with determinism, Rambam touches on an issue that is a matter of considerable contemporary debate. One often hears the argument that we are all products of the environment in which we live. According to this argument, we are conditioned by forces beyond our control. The problem with this claim is that it provides us with ready-made excuses when we stray from the right path. Thus, people who resort to violence are often encouraged and excused by those who maintain that violent conduct is conditioned by society and the local environment.

The fact is, as Rambam makes clear, we are given choices. As individuals, we have the ability to exercise our responsibilities for good or for bad. Although our local environment does have some impact on our individual decisions and lifestyles, we still have to take responsibility for our own lives, and to recognize that like Pharaoh, we have been given the freedom to choose between good and evil.

Azriel Bermant, MA, International Relations, Writer and researcher

 

 

The Timing of the Announcement that the World had been Created by God and of the Revelation that the earth and all that it contains is the Lord's was Connected to the moaning of the Israelites

If you ask; why that day rather than another? What is this information - that I did not make My name the Lord [YKVK] known to them - more necessary now than at other times? Regarding this, it is said: I will establish My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan (Shemot 6:4), and if I do not publicize now that the whole earth is mine, the nations of the world will say that you are bandits, for you conquer the lands of the seven nation with a mighty hand, and [He] did not rebuke them (I Samuel 3:13). This will lead them to disbelief and heresy - they will say there is no law and no Judge as explained above in connection with Rabbi Yitzhak's statement (Bereishit 1:1). And if you say: but back in the days of the Patriarchs You promised them the land but did not publicize the Creation, regarding this He says I also heard the moaning of the Israelites, etc., that is to say: the Patriarchs needed no signs; even without them they were men of faith, and there was not yet a need for the nations to know of it. But now, when I have heard the moaning of the Israelites and the time has come for them to enter the land, therefore I must now make it known through signs that I am the Lord who brought everything into existence, and the whole earth is mine, and I can give the land to whomever I wish, and that is why Scripture says: and I will give it to you as an inheritance, I am the Lord because the Lord brings everything into existence and I made the earth and all that is on it. Therefore, it is in My hands to give it to you as an inheritance.

(Kli Yakar Shemot 6:3)

 

The God "Who is Sufficient" Does not Require Signs and Wonders

Maimonides, the greatest of the faithful in the Jewish world, interprets the phrase El Shaddai as the God "who is sufficient" (Guide for the Perplexed I:63) : the God whose essence is in Himself, whose internal essence is sufficient for his existence, which is not a function which He plays in the world. Such was the understanding of our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who believed in El Shaddai. The midrash points out that the patriarchs - in contrast to the people of Moses' generation - did not ask for signs and wonders upon which to base their belief in God. But now, when Moses is sent to bring the news of redemption to the children of Israel, who no longer knew God as El Shaddai, names which refer to God's actions in the world must be used. This brings us back to the great distinction which must be made between the great and deep faith in God as God, as against the perception of God as known to us through the functions He serves in history.

(Yeshayahu Leibowitz, z"l, He'arot Le'parashiyot Ha'shavua)

 

Subjugation of the Subjugators

Why did He bring frogs upon the Egyptians? Because they had subjugated the Israelites, ordering them "Bring us abominations and crawling things." Therefore He brought upon them frogs, and when they would pour into their glasses, they would fill up with frogs.

(Shemot Rabba 10:4)

 

If we examine the places that were disturbed so disrespectfully by the frogs, we find reference to all the instances in which the Egyptian masters embittered the lives of their Jewish slaves. As slaves, our fathers had no homes, no private family rooms, no sleep, no proper bread (our own lekhem oni - "bread of affliction" reminds us of this), in all these places these timid creatures promenaded and showed the Egyptians what it means not to be able to quietly enjoy one's house, one's bed, one's bread, without having to fear every moment disturbance by annoying entries.

(Rabbi Shimshon Rafael Hirsch, Shemot 7:28)

 

The purpose of the Plagues

Why did He bring the plague of blood upon them? Because they threw the Israelite children into the sea, as it is said: Throw every newborn boy into the Nile, and so he punished the waters of the Nile.

(Mishnat Rabbi Eliezer, 19)

 

The Holy One blessed be He brought ten plagues upon Egypt, and they came only in reaction to what they [the Egyptians] wanted to do to Israel. This is so because all of His ways are true; no bad attribute comes forth from Him, rather all of the good attributes come forth from Him. It is due to the corrupt deeds of human beings that a bad attribute goes forth to them, i.e.: blood, frogs, lice, wild beasts, plague, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and killing of the firstborn.

(Tana Devei Eliyahu Rabba 8)

 

In order to show you My might - so that you will repent, for I do not desire the death [of sinners].

(Seforno Shemot 9:16)

 

 

 

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