Monday, January 30, 2017
Bo #3- Hard Heart?
In perek yud pasuk aleph it explains how Hashem hardened parohs heart in order so that Bnei recognizes Hashem is here and with them. What does it mean to harden his heart? The Ohr Chaim explains that Hashem wants to prove he is behind all of these miracles. And obviously, when the mitzrim are getting tortured they will eventually give in to letting bnei yisroel go. But then Hashem hardens parohs heart after the makah of barad. And paroh keeps on not allowing to let bnei yisroel go since Hashem hardened his heart. A regular human being would not be able to do this and keep resisting, so clearly Hashem has to be behind this. Give a different approach of why or what does it mean when Hashem hardened parohs heart.
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According to aish.com, Hashem hardened Pharohs heart in order to make the statement that He is solely in charge of everything, and the only ruler. Pharoh was extremely powerful and considered himself to be capable of the same things as G-d, possibly even more. Hashem hardens Pharohs heart to take away his free will and show him who is really in charge. The Torah teaches us a lesson here. We believe free choice is an unalienable right, forgetting that Hashem has the power to take it away from us. Here we are shown that Hashems power has no limit.
ReplyDelete-Gabrielle Posner
Naftali Silberberger from Chabad.org says that Hashem was just preventing the plagues from affecting Pharohs desicion about sending benei yisrael out of Egypt. He knew that Pharoh never wanted to send benei yisrael out. Hashem wants Pharoh to keep all of his free choice and not let the plagues effect his choice. This is why Hashem hardens Pharohs heart.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Aisha.com, Hashem hardened pharaohs heart to show once again His almighty hand. The 10 makot are utilized to represent Hashems power and his capabilities. Pharoah, being the king of a hugely successful empire, thought he was unbeatable. By hardening his Heart, Hashem exemplifies his power and control over even pharaoh.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the Sforno, Moshe thought that even though Pharoah doesn't listen to Hashem because of his greatness, he should at least do what Hashem says because he has no choice and since he can no longer stand the makkot.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the Saadia Gaon, Hashem hardening Phaorahs heart means to give courage to him. Phaorah was given courage from hashem, so he would not weaken in his decision to defy hashem and instead stay strong in challenging hashem.
ReplyDelete-Gabriela Beyda
Rashi explains that Hashem is "placing his signs" in Paraoh's heart. This could mean that Hashem is planting ideas in Paraoh's heart to make him stubborn.
ReplyDeletethe rashbam explains that by hardening parohs heart it made him think that moshe was a tzadik and he (Paroh) was a rasha
ReplyDeleteRamban says that Hashem hardened Pharaohs heart to make the Egyptians scared of him, not to punish them. And also to show Bnei Israel that He is God and all the wonders that He can do, so that they will know for the future.
ReplyDeleteThe Seforno explains that Hashem had to harden Parohs heart so that he had the strength to endure the makkot and make his own decision to let Bnei Yisrael go. During every makka Paroh agreed to let them go but only because he could not handle the pain of the makka. It was not his free will allowing them to go. Therefore, Hashem had to harden his heart to give Paroh the chance to repent of his own free will, not because of any pain from the makkot.
ReplyDeleteGotquestions.org says that G-d hardening Pharaoh’s heart was actually y not the first time Pharaoh’s heart was hardened. In Shemot, 7;13 the pasuk says, ‘Pharaoh’s heart became hard”, thus proving that Pharaoh first hardened his own heart against letting the Jews leave Egypt. In 8:15 the pasuk states, “But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart”, and in 8:32 the pasuk states, “But this time also Pharaoh hardened his heart”. Easily, Pharaoh could have saved Mitzrayim and all of the Mitzries from all of the dreadful the plagues if he his heart was not hardened through himself. Throughout the Parsha G-d gives Pharaoh numerous amounts of warnings that judgement was on its way. It was Pharaoh’s own bichira to choose to bring judgment not only upon himself but on his people as well through hardening his own heart against God’s commands
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the bid philosophic questions of the geula the removal of parohs free will.The midrash (quoting rabbi yochanan and resh lakish)says that Hashem sent his messengers to paroh 5 times. others say (ibn ezra and rambam) that paroh mistreated the jews so his punishment was due to this but only later it actually happened.
ReplyDeleteWe learnt with Mrs. Shapiro that after a certain amount of times that you sin and Hashem gives you the ability to do teshuva, but you don't do teshuva, then you lose the ability to choose. After not doing yeshiva so many times Hashem revokes your ability to do teshuva, because you're never going to do it anyway. So paroh, by his own choice, did not do teshuva so many times that Hashem began to take away his ability, and hardened his heart
ReplyDeleteAish.com says it's to show paroah who is the real god and most powerful. HaShem. By hardening his heart HaShem is showing that he is the real god. He has control over paroah
ReplyDelete