A New Year

 Bo

Ex.10:1-13:16

 

Précis: God sends additional plagues (locusts and darkness) and alerts Moses that the 10^th and final plague will follow. God instructs Moses on the institution of the Passover. Then, the final plague, the death of first born, is wrecked upon Egypt. The Israelites, accompanied by the “mixed multitudes,” leave Egypt, carrying with them the “spoils of Egypt” given to them by the Egyptians. The parasha ends with a repetition of the laws regarding Passover.

 

Ex. 12:2 “This month shall be for you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.”

 

            Our Jewish calendar has a variety of “first months” (or, more colloquially, New Years). There is the first month mentioned here, of course there is Rosh Hashanah, and Tu B’shvat (the New Year for the trees) but there are also New Years associated with a King’s rule and with the age of animals fit for sacrifice. This multiplicity of “New Years” tells me something a bit profound: we have many opportunities to find a New Year to celebrate, and a New Year to bring hope and promise.

            This past week, President Biden and Vice President Harris took office, and in a sense, it is another “New Year” which may provide us with hope and promise. But it is a New Year in which threats of violence by treasonous insurrectionists required an inaugural ceremony unlike any other, and required the safeguarding of state capitols across the nation. And while we can hope, more than 400,000 Americans have died of Covid. Even though we do have vaccines, it may be months until we are sufficiently inoculated, and many more will die. 

              It will take years to recover from its pernicious impact on all of us. Millions remain unemployed, business failures are rife, and the economic inequality which has long plagued our nation has intensified. Finally, we have seen more clearly the political divisions within our country in which opponents become enemies. There has been an intense stroking of fear, racism, and anti-Semitism through the growing array of vicious sites on the Internet. The integrity of all of our institutions – the President, the Congress, the courts, media, educational institutions, and our electoral process itself have been discredited by lies and dissension. But this being a “New Year,” I can hope that progress will be made in the reconciliation among all Americans through a renewed commitment to truth.

            On a personal level, my own hope in this New Year is for myself and family to remain healthy, to be able hug them, to regain the closeness of family and friendships which have been distanced, and to rejoin my beloved congregation together on Shabbat morning, where together we can thank God for the blessings He has provided to us.

 

 

Hardened Hearts

 Vaera

Ex. 6:2 - 9:35

 

Précis: God reiterates His intention to free the Israelites from bondage and to create a covenant with them. Moses goes back to Pharaoh to seek release of the Israelites. Pharaoh refuses and we see the first seven of the fabled plagues: blood, frogs, fleas, beetles, cattle disease, boils, and hail. Pharaoh relents after each plague begins, deciding to let the people go, but then God “hardens Pharaoh’s heart” and he refuses to allow them to leave.

 

Ex. 10:1 “And God said to Moses, ‘Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart.’”

            If God has actually “hardened his heart” how can Pharaoh be blamed for his refusal to let the children of Israel go? Let me be provocative. Has God hardened the heart of Donald Trump and his enablers? If so, can they be blamed for their conduct, which, at least by some, was seditious and treasonous.

            Some commentators declare that Pharaoh had free will but stubbornly refused to exercise it. He ignored the reality of the plagues. He chose “alternative facts.”

            I contend that we “harden our hearts” when we are overcome by anger. We harden our hearts by believing lies. We harden our hearts when we disrespect the least among us: the poor, the widow, the orphan, the oppressed. Like Pharaoh, when we harden our hearts, no good can come to our country.

            Despite his provocations, Moses continues to treat Pharaoh with respect, even with Pharaoh’s hardened heart. In this, we have a clue as to how to deal with our current situation (difficult though it may be to achieve): we must treat with fairness those whose hearts have been hardened, who have denigrated the spirit and letter of our constitution, who have actually waved the traitorous flag of the Confederacy through the hallowed halls of Congress. The fairness we treat them must be through the laws which all of us are required to abide by, even if they have failed to recognize this duty of citizenship in the United States of America.

            Rashi suggests that Pharaoh’s heart was not “hardened” until he had forfeited the opportunity to repent. We need to be prepared to be open to those whose hearts have been hardened by years of lies and hatred and accept that while difficult, repentance is possible.

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