Payback

Freedom is not the absence of enslavement; it’s the ability to make choices that have consequences.

The book of Shemot/Exodus began with a whimper. Last week’s Parshat Shemot told the story of a failed redemption, and the second to last verse has Moses complaining to God, hatzel lo hitzalta et amecha [you never saved the Jewish people as you promised!] I think the reason it failed is that the purpose of the Exodus process was not to be saved by God but to teach us life-altering lessons about what freedom really means.  After Moses protests to God, the next and final verse of Shemot is God’s response, Ata Tireh, Now you’ll see what I can do, but alternatively, He could have meant, Now you’ll see what freedom is all about.  And this declaration leads into this week’s Parsha.

But strangely, God seems to digress at the beginning of Vaeira by pointing out that He didn’t show the name YHVH (an acronym for one of God’s names) to the forefathers, only the name El Shaddai (another one of God’s names).  He goes on to say that He heard the cries of the Jewish people about the Egyptians enslaving them and that he will redeem us with miracles and wonders. Also, He will have a special relationship with us, and bring us to Canaan, establishing his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 

But how is this declaration different from His promise in Shemot that He would take the Jews out of slavery in Egypt and bring us to Canaan?

I think we can discern the answer if we examine the surprising perspective used in the Torah’s narrative about the Exodus, that Pharaoh becomes the central figure, not the Jewish people. 

Let’s consider another famous question all the commentators ask about Pharaoh: How can we blame Pharaoh for his intransigence if God hardened his heart after the first 5 plagues?  It’s ironic (and even hypocritical) that in a story about freedom, God seems to remove Pharaoh’s free will!  I think that when we find such a blatant irony, we can be sure it’s no accident – it must contain a vital, unexpected lesson. 

Pharaoh was evil, which means he had pivotal moral choices to make, and he ended up devoting his life to a path of evil.  As Siporno explains, Pharaoh didn’t lose his free will; he wanted to keep the Jews enslaved but the plagues were pressuring him to relent. 

So, when God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, God was, in essence, strengthening his free will to enable him to do what he really wanted to do – not allow the Jews to leave. In doing so, God taught the world that if you choose an evil path in life, there are consequences from your choice that you’ll have to live with. 

And that’s what Rambam discusses in Hilchot Teshuva when he asks this same question about why God hardened Pharaoh’s heart and how it aligns with the fact that humans have free will.  The Rambam explains, if someone chooses a path of evil in life, usually over a great deal of time, they can’t simply jump off that path whenever they feel like it. Their choice of path will come back to haunt them, with consequences, not because they engaged in one evil behavior, but because they chose a path of evil.  The lesson here is that freedom is not simply the absence of enslavement.  It’s about the ability to make fundamental choices that have consequences.  We’re not talking here about the everyday decisions people make, but choices of a broad nature that have a serious impact on life.

When explaining this point, the Rambam uses the word piraon in referring to payback or consequences;  and amazingly, piraon has the same root as the name Pharaoh פ-ר-ע. 

I believe the Rambam means to tell us that Pharaoh was given his name to reinforce this idea that if someone chooses a path of evil like Pharaoh, while they will always maintain free will over their individual actions, they will eventually be mired in their own evil outlook. They will relinquish the ability to change course and will be forced to bear the consequences of their commitment to evil.

This lesson about the paths we choose is also critical when we make choices about our relationships. You can’t have a genuine relationship without the parties choosing to be together. In Parshat Vaeira, God makes his choice clear: He will commit Himself to the Jewish people and fulfill his promise to our forefathers to give us the land of Israel, making this promise the center of our relationship.  God’s commitment means He will stick with us, no matter what. The Jewish people had to learn through the long, drawn-out process of the Exodus that our freedom lies not simply in liberty, but in making the choices that can keep us on the path upon which we will fulfill our ultimate destiny with God.  Shabbat shalom.