The Guy Who Drives You Mad
Every Flower Must Grow through Dirt
- January 30, 2020
- |
- 4 Sh'vat 5780
Rabbi YY Jacobson
1201 views
The Guy Who Drives You Mad
Every Flower Must Grow through Dirt
Rabbi YY Jacobson
- January 30, 2020
“Come to Pharaoh”
The opening of the 10th chapter of Exodus, the beginning of this week’s Torah portion Bo, reads: "And G-d said to Moses: 'Come to Pharaoh, because I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his servants in order that I might show My signs in their midst...'”
Two obvious questions come to mind. First, why does G-d tell Moses to “come to Pharaoh” (Bo el Paraoh), rather than “Go to Pharaoh” (“Lech el Pharaoh”)?
Second, the sentence “Come to Pharaoh, because I have hardened his heart” is enigmatic. What is the sequence? How does the fact that “I have hardened his heart” constitute the reason to “come to Pharaoh”? The Torah should have stated, “Come to Pharaoh and warn him.[1] I have hardened his heart so that I might show My signs.”
The Torah, it seems, should have structured this sentence as it did earlier, where G-d tells Moses:[2] “You shall speak all that I command you, and Aaron, your brother, shall speak to Pharaoh, that he let the children of Israel out of his land. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and I will increase My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh will not listen to you, and I will lay My hand upon the Egyptians.” Note: First G-d tells Moses and Aaron to speak to Pharaoh and instruct him to let the Jews go free; then G-d adds that He will harden Pharaoh’s heart.
Here the message is different: “Come to Pharaoh because I have hardened his heart.” But the fact that G-d has hardened Pharaoh’s heart is not a reason to “come to Pharaoh.”
Moses’ Fear
The Zohar, the fundamental text of Kabbalah, presents a daring answer to the first question.[3] Moses was terrified to go to Pharaoh. G-d could not say to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh.” He was too afraid. So G-d told Moses, “Come to Pharaoh,” meaning “Come with Me to Pharaoh.”[4] You are not alone. I will hold your hand and accompany you as you we go together to the tyrant.
But then G-d added something even more profound. “Come to Pharaoh, because I have hardened his heart.” First, He said, you are not going alone, you are coming with Me. Second, you ought not to be scared, because it is I who have hardened his heart. His stubbornness comes also from Me; his mighty resistance is all My doing.G-d was telling Moses, that it was He, Hashem, not Pharaoh, who has “hardened his heart.” Pharaoh is not the one in control. He does not possess ultimate power. The reason he can develop such obstinacy is because G-d has hardened his heart.
And why would G-d make his heart hard and immovable if G-d wanted His people to go free? For this G-d continues telling Moses: “In order that I might show My signs in their midst...” I want to be able to show My people the wonders and miracles I performed in order to liberate them from their oppressive bondage.
Why should you, Moses, be terrified? It is all Me, not him. I, your loving Creator, I am the one who is behind his hardness and inflexibility. It is not an objective reality; it is part of My reality. It is an integral part of the road toward redemption. Its entire purpose is so that I can perform all My miracles in Egypt. The purpose of his resistance, orchestrated by the Almighty, is to help the cause of redemption, not to stop it.[5]
Life’s Hardships
Each of us faces fears, obstacles, and challenges. We encounter people and circumstances which scare us deeply, overwhelm us, and bring out the worst in us. They cause us to become indignant, paralyzed, and miserable.
These are natural human emotions. I am trying to do something and then some fellow shows up and tries to undermine me and my work. I am trying to live a normal life and then a curveball knocks me off my feet. How do I respond?
We have the ‘fight or flight’ response, guided by the amygdala. Of course, at times, one or the other are the way to go. But there is always another perspective that must inform the former two.
Portals, No Barriers
G-d tells Moses: “Come to Pharaoh, because I have hardened his heart.”
When I encounter a Pharaoh in my life—a potent force that refuses to allow me to go free and to live my life to the fullest, to maximize all of my G-d-given potentials and serve G-d with joy, passion, creativity and a full excited heart—I need to recall that this reality was placed here by G-d. “I have hardened his heart.” Don’t get distracted by this guy and his incentives. He is doing what he is doing and G-d will take care of that in due time.[6] As far as I am concerned, G-d wants me to know that it is He who placed this barrier in front of me, in order to inspire my conviction, to stimulate my courage, to empower my soul, to dig deeper into my integrity, do excavate deeper recesses of the soul, to allow me to flex my muscles and take a stand in life.
And remember, you never go alone to face adversity. You are coming with Me. I am always with you.
What G-d was telling Moses was this: You must always remember that you never encounter obstacles in life, and therefore you never have to be afraid of them. Rather, they are all part of your journey to fulfill your glorious mission in life. They are not obstructions but passages; not barriers but portals; not blockades but windows to discover who you are and allow you to fulfill your ultimate destiny. Every experience that seems so difficult and traumatizing is really here to assist you to discover your deepest potentials, powers and energies that may be completely hidden even to yourself.
Sometimes, the journey is painful. Building muscle is always painful. It requires all tissue to be torn. But it must never frighten or paralyze you. It must motivate and incite you. As you discover all of those “hardened hearts” out there in the world and you want to go mad, take a deep breath, and recall the words “I have hardened his heart.” This is part of what G-d wants you to deal with, to confront, to look at, to reflect on, and always in order to bring you to unknown heights.
How do you climb a tall mountain? Mountains cannot be surmounted except by winding paths. Climbing mountains straight up is nearly impossible. This is the story of life. Sometimes life is like a zig zag of challenges but it’s the only way to reach to the top.
Uncharted Territory
There was a young man who was suffering from deviant sexual tendencies. He penned a letter to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, asking one simple question: Why me?
On 25 Shevat, 5746, Feb. 4, 1986, the Rebbe responded:[7]
We do not know. The mysteries of people’s journeys are beyond our human finite comprehension. But then he offered an incredibly comforting insight. Sometimes, the Rebbe wrote to this struggling soul, your soul has inherent power and potential that can literally inspire the world. But you are unaware of this facet of your soul. You don’t really know who you really are. Then you discover a serious challenge in your life. And in order to overcome it, you need to dig very deeply to find the stamina and resources to overcome adversity. You are thus compelled to travel to an uncharted place in your psyche that would have otherwise remain unexposed. In that process, you come across the true power and light of your soul. You discover your true extraordinary powers, which can then illuminate your life and your world in incredibly powerful ways.
Life offers us this opportunity each day of our lives by providing us with tests or challenges—some of them easier, some of them tougher. To be sure, many of these challenges remain mysterious and incomprehensible. Why do some of us endure challenges so disturbing, painful, and shattering? Nobody knows. I stand in awe before some of my friends and students whom I know have been through so much. We don’t know why. All we know is what our calling and response must be. The function of every challenge, small or large, is to invite us to go much deeper into ourselves and excavate our full inner radiance, discovering the resources and potential we need to muster to face these tests and triumph over adversity.
“Every flower must grow through dirt,” goes the saying. Thoreau once said: “Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.”
Being totally happy with life is great, but you learn nothing about yourself from it. Most of what we learn about ourselves, we learn during our struggles. Use this as an opportunity to see what you’re really made of.
The Donkey
I once asked an elderly wise person whom I used to approach for advice, "Where do you get such good judgement from?" He answered, "Good judgment comes from bad experience." He related the following story.
One day, a donkey fell into a pit. The animal cried and whined for hours while his owner tried to figure out what to do. Finally, the farmer decided that since the animal was old, and the pit needed to be covered up anyway, he'd just bury the old donkey right there. He got a shovel and started filling up the pit. The donkey kept up its wailing, but then fell silent. After an hour of furious shoveling, the farmer paused to rest. To his amazement, he saw his old donkey jump out of the pit and trot away!
At first, when the donkey realized what was happening, he cried even more piteously. But then the animal hit on a plan. As each spadesful of dirt hit his back, the donkey would shake it off and take a step up on the growing mound of earth. Eventually, the mound grew tall enough for him to jump out of the pit.
Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the pit is to shake it off and use the dirt to climb one step up. How do you do that? By always remembering that “I hardened his heart.” That every single hardship and challenge eclipsing your light and obstructing your spiritual growth has no substantive power of its own; it is really a husk that contains a Divine seed, a Divine energy, a Divine opportunity. It is merely another pathway in your journey to greatness.
Yes, sometimes, it is nerve racking. But do not lose composure; do not lose hope. And do not give it any power or validity. Rather, ask yourself what is my mission here at this moment in this situation? What is G-d teaching me here?
70 Years
This above insight in the Torah portion and its application to our lives was presented by the Lubavitcher Rebbe at a gathering on Motzaei Shabbos Parshas Vaeira, 28 Teves, 5738, January 7, 1978, three months after suffering Two life-threatening heart attacks. It was a life changing perspective, one that redefines every hardship you face.
This Wednesday, 10 Shevat 5780 (Feb. 5, 2020) marks the 70th yartzeit of his father-in-law, the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson (1880-1950), who almost single handedly took on the Communist regime during the 1920s and built an incredible underground network of Judaism in the darkest of times and the harshest of places. “Fire will not burn us and water will not drown us,” was the motto of his Chassidim in the abyss of the Soviet Union.
The day also marks seven decades of the leadership of his son-in-law, the Lubavitcher Rebbe (1902-1994), who always taught this message: Every hardship you encounter on your path toward wholeness and on your journey to change the world is only a reflection of your own state of mind. In essence it is all part of G-d's loving plan for you. “I have hardened his heart.” I am here with you in the darkest of moments, helping you discover the true meaning behind your challenges: an opportunity to perform your own unique miracle and experience G-d’s infinite light shining through you.
It was this approach the Rebbe lived by and taught to thousands of disciples. “Internalize it,” he pleaded, “and you will set the world on fire.”
(My brother and I, and Rabbi Dovber Pinson, will hold a special event in Monsey, NY, to mark this day, on Tuesday evening, Feb. 4, 2020, 7:30 PM. Please click here to watch the livestream.)
[1] See Rashi to this verse, Exodus 10:1
[2] Exodus 7:2-4
[3] Zohar, part II, 34a
[4] To quote the mystical words of the Zohar: “G-d summoned Moses into a chamber within a chamber, to the unique, supernal and mighty serpent… But Moses was afraid. Until this point, Moses had only approached the rivers surrounding the serpent (Pharaoh), and he was scared to approach the serpent itself…”—Zohar, part II, 34a
[5] To be sure, G-d was not absolving Pharaoh from guilt over his gruesome actions. Yet what he was telling Moses was that his ability to stop Jews from leaving Egypt is not because he controls their destiny; rather it is because G-d has closed his heart.
[6] See Tanya Igeres Hakodesh chapter 25 where this theme is explained.
[7] I have seen a copy of the letter. What follows is an elucidation of the Rebbe’s message according to my understanding.
- Comment
Class Summary:
The opening of the 10th chapter of Exodus, the beginning of this week’s Torah portion (Bo) reads: "And G-d said to Moses: 'Come to Pharaoh, because I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his servants in order that I might show My signs in their midst...'”
Two obvious questions come to mind. First, why does G-d tell Moses to “come to Pharaoh” (Bo el Paraoh), rather than “Go to Pharaoh” (“Lech el Pharaoh”)? Second, the sentence “Come to Pharaoh, because I have hardened his heart” is enigmatic. What is the sequence? How does the fact that “I have hardened his heart” constitute the reason to “come to Pharaoh”? The Torah should have stated, “Come to Pharaoh and warn him. I have hardened his heart so that I might show My signs.”
Each of us faces fears, obstacles, and challenges. We encounter people and circumstances which scare us deeply, overwhelm us, and bring out the worst in us. They cause us to become indignant, paralyzed, and miserable. These are natural human emotions. I am trying to do something and then some fellow shows up and tries to undermine me and my work. I am trying to live a normal life and then a curveball knocks me off my feat. How do I respond?
We have the ‘fight or flight’ response, guided by the amygdala. Of course, at times, one or the other are the way to go. But there is always another perspective that must inform the former two.
Dedicated by Fariborz Sani, in memory of our father Rahim Sani (Rahameen ben Nissan Levi), and in honor of the Sani Family.
Dedicated by: Rivki Raphaelson; Daniel p Van praag; Peter Triestman
“Come to Pharaoh”
The opening of the 10th chapter of Exodus, the beginning of this week’s Torah portion Bo, reads: "And G-d said to Moses: 'Come to Pharaoh, because I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his servants in order that I might show My signs in their midst...'”
Two obvious questions come to mind. First, why does G-d tell Moses to “come to Pharaoh” (Bo el Paraoh), rather than “Go to Pharaoh” (“Lech el Pharaoh”)?
Second, the sentence “Come to Pharaoh, because I have hardened his heart” is enigmatic. What is the sequence? How does the fact that “I have hardened his heart” constitute the reason to “come to Pharaoh”? The Torah should have stated, “Come to Pharaoh and warn him.[1] I have hardened his heart so that I might show My signs.”
The Torah, it seems, should have structured this sentence as it did earlier, where G-d tells Moses:[2] “You shall speak all that I command you, and Aaron, your brother, shall speak to Pharaoh, that he let the children of Israel out of his land. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and I will increase My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh will not listen to you, and I will lay My hand upon the Egyptians.” Note: First G-d tells Moses and Aaron to speak to Pharaoh and instruct him to let the Jews go free; then G-d adds that He will harden Pharaoh’s heart.
Here the message is different: “Come to Pharaoh because I have hardened his heart.” But the fact that G-d has hardened Pharaoh’s heart is not a reason to “come to Pharaoh.”
Moses’ Fear
The Zohar, the fundamental text of Kabbalah, presents a daring answer to the first question.[3] Moses was terrified to go to Pharaoh. G-d could not say to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh.” He was too afraid. So G-d told Moses, “Come to Pharaoh,” meaning “Come with Me to Pharaoh.”[4] You are not alone. I will hold your hand and accompany you as you we go together to the tyrant.
But then G-d added something even more profound. “Come to Pharaoh, because I have hardened his heart.” First, He said, you are not going alone, you are coming with Me. Second, you ought not to be scared, because it is I who have hardened his heart. His stubbornness comes also from Me; his mighty resistance is all My doing.
G-d was telling Moses, that it was He, Hashem, not Pharaoh, who has “hardened his heart.” Pharaoh is not the one in control. He does not possess ultimate power. The reason he can develop such obstinacy is because G-d has hardened his heart.
And why would G-d make his heart hard and immovable if G-d wanted His people to go free? For this G-d continues telling Moses: “In order that I might show My signs in their midst...” I want to be able to show My people the wonders and miracles I performed in order to liberate them from their oppressive bondage.
Why should you, Moses, be terrified? It is all Me, not him. I, your loving Creator, I am the one who is behind his hardness and inflexibility. It is not an objective reality; it is part of My reality. It is an integral part of the road toward redemption. Its entire purpose is so that I can perform all My miracles in Egypt. The purpose of his resistance, orchestrated by the Almighty, is to help the cause of redemption, not to stop it.[5]
Life’s Hardships
Each of us faces fears, obstacles, and challenges. We encounter people and circumstances which scare us deeply, overwhelm us, and bring out the worst in us. They cause us to become indignant, paralyzed, and miserable.
These are natural human emotions. I am trying to do something and then some fellow shows up and tries to undermine me and my work. I am trying to live a normal life and then a curveball knocks me off my feet. How do I respond?
We have the ‘fight or flight’ response, guided by the amygdala. Of course, at times, one or the other are the way to go. But there is always another perspective that must inform the former two.
Portals, No Barriers
G-d tells Moses: “Come to Pharaoh, because I have hardened his heart.”
When I encounter a Pharaoh in my life—a potent force that refuses to allow me to go free and to live my life to the fullest, to maximize all of my G-d-given potentials and serve G-d with joy, passion, creativity and a full excited heart—I need to recall that this reality was placed here by G-d. “I have hardened his heart.” Don’t get distracted by this guy and his incentives. He is doing what he is doing and G-d will take care of that in due time.[6] As far as I am concerned, G-d wants me to know that it is He who placed this barrier in front of me, in order to inspire my conviction, to stimulate my courage, to empower my soul, to dig deeper into my integrity, do excavate deeper recesses of the soul, to allow me to flex my muscles and take a stand in life.
And remember, you never go alone to face adversity. You are coming with Me. I am always with you.
What G-d was telling Moses was this: You must always remember that you never encounter obstacles in life, and therefore you never have to be afraid of them. Rather, they are all part of your journey to fulfill your glorious mission in life. They are not obstructions but passages; not barriers but portals; not blockades but windows to discover who you are and allow you to fulfill your ultimate destiny. Every experience that seems so difficult and traumatizing is really here to assist you to discover your deepest potentials, powers and energies that may be completely hidden even to yourself.
Sometimes, the journey is painful. Building muscle is always painful. It requires all tissue to be torn. But it must never frighten or paralyze you. It must motivate and incite you. As you discover all of those “hardened hearts” out there in the world and you want to go mad, take a deep breath, and recall the words “I have hardened his heart.” This is part of what G-d wants you to deal with, to confront, to look at, to reflect on, and always in order to bring you to unknown heights.
How do you climb a tall mountain? Mountains cannot be surmounted except by winding paths. Climbing mountains straight up is nearly impossible. This is the story of life. Sometimes life is like a zig zag of challenges but it’s the only way to reach to the top.
Uncharted Territory
There was a young man who was suffering from deviant sexual tendencies. He penned a letter to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, asking one simple question: Why me?
On 25 Shevat, 5746, Feb. 4, 1986, the Rebbe responded:[7]
We do not know. The mysteries of people’s journeys are beyond our human finite comprehension. But then he offered an incredibly comforting insight. Sometimes, the Rebbe wrote to this struggling soul, your soul has inherent power and potential that can literally inspire the world. But you are unaware of this facet of your soul. You don’t really know who you really are. Then you discover a serious challenge in your life. And in order to overcome it, you need to dig very deeply to find the stamina and resources to overcome adversity. You are thus compelled to travel to an uncharted place in your psyche that would have otherwise remain unexposed. In that process, you come across the true power and light of your soul. You discover your true extraordinary powers, which can then illuminate your life and your world in incredibly powerful ways.
Life offers us this opportunity each day of our lives by providing us with tests or challenges—some of them easier, some of them tougher. To be sure, many of these challenges remain mysterious and incomprehensible. Why do some of us endure challenges so disturbing, painful, and shattering? Nobody knows. I stand in awe before some of my friends and students whom I know have been through so much. We don’t know why. All we know is what our calling and response must be. The function of every challenge, small or large, is to invite us to go much deeper into ourselves and excavate our full inner radiance, discovering the resources and potential we need to muster to face these tests and triumph over adversity.
“Every flower must grow through dirt,” goes the saying. Thoreau once said: “Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.”
Being totally happy with life is great, but you learn nothing about yourself from it. Most of what we learn about ourselves, we learn during our struggles. Use this as an opportunity to see what you’re really made of.
The Donkey
I once asked an elderly wise person whom I used to approach for advice, "Where do you get such good judgement from?" He answered, "Good judgment comes from bad experience." He related the following story.
One day, a donkey fell into a pit. The animal cried and whined for hours while his owner tried to figure out what to do. Finally, the farmer decided that since the animal was old, and the pit needed to be covered up anyway, he'd just bury the old donkey right there. He got a shovel and started filling up the pit. The donkey kept up its wailing, but then fell silent. After an hour of furious shoveling, the farmer paused to rest. To his amazement, he saw his old donkey jump out of the pit and trot away!
At first, when the donkey realized what was happening, he cried even more piteously. But then the animal hit on a plan. As each spadesful of dirt hit his back, the donkey would shake it off and take a step up on the growing mound of earth. Eventually, the mound grew tall enough for him to jump out of the pit.
Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the pit is to shake it off and use the dirt to climb one step up. How do you do that? By always remembering that “I hardened his heart.” That every single hardship and challenge eclipsing your light and obstructing your spiritual growth has no substantive power of its own; it is really a husk that contains a Divine seed, a Divine energy, a Divine opportunity. It is merely another pathway in your journey to greatness.
Yes, sometimes, it is nerve racking. But do not lose composure; do not lose hope. And do not give it any power or validity. Rather, ask yourself what is my mission here at this moment in this situation? What is G-d teaching me here?
70 Years
This above insight in the Torah portion and its application to our lives was presented by the Lubavitcher Rebbe at a gathering on Motzaei Shabbos Parshas Vaeira, 28 Teves, 5738, January 7, 1978, three months after suffering Two life-threatening heart attacks. It was a life changing perspective, one that redefines every hardship you face.
This Wednesday, 10 Shevat 5780 (Feb. 5, 2020) marks the 70th yartzeit of his father-in-law, the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson (1880-1950), who almost single handedly took on the Communist regime during the 1920s and built an incredible underground network of Judaism in the darkest of times and the harshest of places. “Fire will not burn us and water will not drown us,” was the motto of his Chassidim in the abyss of the Soviet Union.
The day also marks seven decades of the leadership of his son-in-law, the Lubavitcher Rebbe (1902-1994), who always taught this message: Every hardship you encounter on your path toward wholeness and on your journey to change the world is only a reflection of your own state of mind. In essence it is all part of G-d's loving plan for you. “I have hardened his heart.” I am here with you in the darkest of moments, helping you discover the true meaning behind your challenges: an opportunity to perform your own unique miracle and experience G-d’s infinite light shining through you.
It was this approach the Rebbe lived by and taught to thousands of disciples. “Internalize it,” he pleaded, “and you will set the world on fire.”
(My brother and I, and Rabbi Dovber Pinson, will hold a special event in Monsey, NY, to mark this day, on Tuesday evening, Feb. 4, 2020, 7:30 PM. Please click here to watch the livestream.)
[1] See Rashi to this verse, Exodus 10:1
[2] Exodus 7:2-4
[3] Zohar, part II, 34a
[4] To quote the mystical words of the Zohar: “G-d summoned Moses into a chamber within a chamber, to the unique, supernal and mighty serpent… But Moses was afraid. Until this point, Moses had only approached the rivers surrounding the serpent (Pharaoh), and he was scared to approach the serpent itself…”—Zohar, part II, 34a
[5] To be sure, G-d was not absolving Pharaoh from guilt over his gruesome actions. Yet what he was telling Moses was that his ability to stop Jews from leaving Egypt is not because he controls their destiny; rather it is because G-d has closed his heart.
[6] See Tanya Igeres Hakodesh chapter 25 where this theme is explained.
[7] I have seen a copy of the letter. What follows is an elucidation of the Rebbe’s message according to my understanding.
Tags
Categories
Essay Bo
Rabbi YY Jacobson
- January 30, 2020
- |
- 4 Sh'vat 5780
- |
- 1201 views
The Guy Who Drives You Mad
Every Flower Must Grow through Dirt
Rabbi YY Jacobson
- January 30, 2020
“Come to Pharaoh”
The opening of the 10th chapter of Exodus, the beginning of this week’s Torah portion Bo, reads: "And G-d said to Moses: 'Come to Pharaoh, because I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his servants in order that I might show My signs in their midst...'”
Two obvious questions come to mind. First, why does G-d tell Moses to “come to Pharaoh” (Bo el Paraoh), rather than “Go to Pharaoh” (“Lech el Pharaoh”)?
Second, the sentence “Come to Pharaoh, because I have hardened his heart” is enigmatic. What is the sequence? How does the fact that “I have hardened his heart” constitute the reason to “come to Pharaoh”? The Torah should have stated, “Come to Pharaoh and warn him.[1] I have hardened his heart so that I might show My signs.”
The Torah, it seems, should have structured this sentence as it did earlier, where G-d tells Moses:[2] “You shall speak all that I command you, and Aaron, your brother, shall speak to Pharaoh, that he let the children of Israel out of his land. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and I will increase My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh will not listen to you, and I will lay My hand upon the Egyptians.” Note: First G-d tells Moses and Aaron to speak to Pharaoh and instruct him to let the Jews go free; then G-d adds that He will harden Pharaoh’s heart.
Here the message is different: “Come to Pharaoh because I have hardened his heart.” But the fact that G-d has hardened Pharaoh’s heart is not a reason to “come to Pharaoh.”
Moses’ Fear
The Zohar, the fundamental text of Kabbalah, presents a daring answer to the first question.[3] Moses was terrified to go to Pharaoh. G-d could not say to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh.” He was too afraid. So G-d told Moses, “Come to Pharaoh,” meaning “Come with Me to Pharaoh.”[4] You are not alone. I will hold your hand and accompany you as you we go together to the tyrant.
But then G-d added something even more profound. “Come to Pharaoh, because I have hardened his heart.” First, He said, you are not going alone, you are coming with Me. Second, you ought not to be scared, because it is I who have hardened his heart. His stubbornness comes also from Me; his mighty resistance is all My doing.G-d was telling Moses, that it was He, Hashem, not Pharaoh, who has “hardened his heart.” Pharaoh is not the one in control. He does not possess ultimate power. The reason he can develop such obstinacy is because G-d has hardened his heart.
And why would G-d make his heart hard and immovable if G-d wanted His people to go free? For this G-d continues telling Moses: “In order that I might show My signs in their midst...” I want to be able to show My people the wonders and miracles I performed in order to liberate them from their oppressive bondage.
Why should you, Moses, be terrified? It is all Me, not him. I, your loving Creator, I am the one who is behind his hardness and inflexibility. It is not an objective reality; it is part of My reality. It is an integral part of the road toward redemption. Its entire purpose is so that I can perform all My miracles in Egypt. The purpose of his resistance, orchestrated by the Almighty, is to help the cause of redemption, not to stop it.[5]
Life’s Hardships
Each of us faces fears, obstacles, and challenges. We encounter people and circumstances which scare us deeply, overwhelm us, and bring out the worst in us. They cause us to become indignant, paralyzed, and miserable.
These are natural human emotions. I am trying to do something and then some fellow shows up and tries to undermine me and my work. I am trying to live a normal life and then a curveball knocks me off my feet. How do I respond?
We have the ‘fight or flight’ response, guided by the amygdala. Of course, at times, one or the other are the way to go. But there is always another perspective that must inform the former two.
Portals, No Barriers
G-d tells Moses: “Come to Pharaoh, because I have hardened his heart.”
When I encounter a Pharaoh in my life—a potent force that refuses to allow me to go free and to live my life to the fullest, to maximize all of my G-d-given potentials and serve G-d with joy, passion, creativity and a full excited heart—I need to recall that this reality was placed here by G-d. “I have hardened his heart.” Don’t get distracted by this guy and his incentives. He is doing what he is doing and G-d will take care of that in due time.[6] As far as I am concerned, G-d wants me to know that it is He who placed this barrier in front of me, in order to inspire my conviction, to stimulate my courage, to empower my soul, to dig deeper into my integrity, do excavate deeper recesses of the soul, to allow me to flex my muscles and take a stand in life.
And remember, you never go alone to face adversity. You are coming with Me. I am always with you.
What G-d was telling Moses was this: You must always remember that you never encounter obstacles in life, and therefore you never have to be afraid of them. Rather, they are all part of your journey to fulfill your glorious mission in life. They are not obstructions but passages; not barriers but portals; not blockades but windows to discover who you are and allow you to fulfill your ultimate destiny. Every experience that seems so difficult and traumatizing is really here to assist you to discover your deepest potentials, powers and energies that may be completely hidden even to yourself.
Sometimes, the journey is painful. Building muscle is always painful. It requires all tissue to be torn. But it must never frighten or paralyze you. It must motivate and incite you. As you discover all of those “hardened hearts” out there in the world and you want to go mad, take a deep breath, and recall the words “I have hardened his heart.” This is part of what G-d wants you to deal with, to confront, to look at, to reflect on, and always in order to bring you to unknown heights.
How do you climb a tall mountain? Mountains cannot be surmounted except by winding paths. Climbing mountains straight up is nearly impossible. This is the story of life. Sometimes life is like a zig zag of challenges but it’s the only way to reach to the top.
Uncharted Territory
There was a young man who was suffering from deviant sexual tendencies. He penned a letter to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, asking one simple question: Why me?
On 25 Shevat, 5746, Feb. 4, 1986, the Rebbe responded:[7]
We do not know. The mysteries of people’s journeys are beyond our human finite comprehension. But then he offered an incredibly comforting insight. Sometimes, the Rebbe wrote to this struggling soul, your soul has inherent power and potential that can literally inspire the world. But you are unaware of this facet of your soul. You don’t really know who you really are. Then you discover a serious challenge in your life. And in order to overcome it, you need to dig very deeply to find the stamina and resources to overcome adversity. You are thus compelled to travel to an uncharted place in your psyche that would have otherwise remain unexposed. In that process, you come across the true power and light of your soul. You discover your true extraordinary powers, which can then illuminate your life and your world in incredibly powerful ways.
Life offers us this opportunity each day of our lives by providing us with tests or challenges—some of them easier, some of them tougher. To be sure, many of these challenges remain mysterious and incomprehensible. Why do some of us endure challenges so disturbing, painful, and shattering? Nobody knows. I stand in awe before some of my friends and students whom I know have been through so much. We don’t know why. All we know is what our calling and response must be. The function of every challenge, small or large, is to invite us to go much deeper into ourselves and excavate our full inner radiance, discovering the resources and potential we need to muster to face these tests and triumph over adversity.
“Every flower must grow through dirt,” goes the saying. Thoreau once said: “Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.”
Being totally happy with life is great, but you learn nothing about yourself from it. Most of what we learn about ourselves, we learn during our struggles. Use this as an opportunity to see what you’re really made of.
The Donkey
I once asked an elderly wise person whom I used to approach for advice, "Where do you get such good judgement from?" He answered, "Good judgment comes from bad experience." He related the following story.
One day, a donkey fell into a pit. The animal cried and whined for hours while his owner tried to figure out what to do. Finally, the farmer decided that since the animal was old, and the pit needed to be covered up anyway, he'd just bury the old donkey right there. He got a shovel and started filling up the pit. The donkey kept up its wailing, but then fell silent. After an hour of furious shoveling, the farmer paused to rest. To his amazement, he saw his old donkey jump out of the pit and trot away!
At first, when the donkey realized what was happening, he cried even more piteously. But then the animal hit on a plan. As each spadesful of dirt hit his back, the donkey would shake it off and take a step up on the growing mound of earth. Eventually, the mound grew tall enough for him to jump out of the pit.
Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the pit is to shake it off and use the dirt to climb one step up. How do you do that? By always remembering that “I hardened his heart.” That every single hardship and challenge eclipsing your light and obstructing your spiritual growth has no substantive power of its own; it is really a husk that contains a Divine seed, a Divine energy, a Divine opportunity. It is merely another pathway in your journey to greatness.
Yes, sometimes, it is nerve racking. But do not lose composure; do not lose hope. And do not give it any power or validity. Rather, ask yourself what is my mission here at this moment in this situation? What is G-d teaching me here?
70 Years
This above insight in the Torah portion and its application to our lives was presented by the Lubavitcher Rebbe at a gathering on Motzaei Shabbos Parshas Vaeira, 28 Teves, 5738, January 7, 1978, three months after suffering Two life-threatening heart attacks. It was a life changing perspective, one that redefines every hardship you face.
This Wednesday, 10 Shevat 5780 (Feb. 5, 2020) marks the 70th yartzeit of his father-in-law, the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson (1880-1950), who almost single handedly took on the Communist regime during the 1920s and built an incredible underground network of Judaism in the darkest of times and the harshest of places. “Fire will not burn us and water will not drown us,” was the motto of his Chassidim in the abyss of the Soviet Union.
The day also marks seven decades of the leadership of his son-in-law, the Lubavitcher Rebbe (1902-1994), who always taught this message: Every hardship you encounter on your path toward wholeness and on your journey to change the world is only a reflection of your own state of mind. In essence it is all part of G-d's loving plan for you. “I have hardened his heart.” I am here with you in the darkest of moments, helping you discover the true meaning behind your challenges: an opportunity to perform your own unique miracle and experience G-d’s infinite light shining through you.
It was this approach the Rebbe lived by and taught to thousands of disciples. “Internalize it,” he pleaded, “and you will set the world on fire.”
(My brother and I, and Rabbi Dovber Pinson, will hold a special event in Monsey, NY, to mark this day, on Tuesday evening, Feb. 4, 2020, 7:30 PM. Please click here to watch the livestream.)
[1] See Rashi to this verse, Exodus 10:1
[2] Exodus 7:2-4
[3] Zohar, part II, 34a
[4] To quote the mystical words of the Zohar: “G-d summoned Moses into a chamber within a chamber, to the unique, supernal and mighty serpent… But Moses was afraid. Until this point, Moses had only approached the rivers surrounding the serpent (Pharaoh), and he was scared to approach the serpent itself…”—Zohar, part II, 34a
[5] To be sure, G-d was not absolving Pharaoh from guilt over his gruesome actions. Yet what he was telling Moses was that his ability to stop Jews from leaving Egypt is not because he controls their destiny; rather it is because G-d has closed his heart.
[6] See Tanya Igeres Hakodesh chapter 25 where this theme is explained.
[7] I have seen a copy of the letter. What follows is an elucidation of the Rebbe’s message according to my understanding.
- Comment
Dedicated by Fariborz Sani, in memory of our father Rahim Sani (Rahameen ben Nissan Levi), and in honor of the Sani Family.
Dedicated by: Rivki Raphaelson; Daniel p Van praag; Peter Triestman
Class Summary:
The opening of the 10th chapter of Exodus, the beginning of this week’s Torah portion (Bo) reads: "And G-d said to Moses: 'Come to Pharaoh, because I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his servants in order that I might show My signs in their midst...'”
Two obvious questions come to mind. First, why does G-d tell Moses to “come to Pharaoh” (Bo el Paraoh), rather than “Go to Pharaoh” (“Lech el Pharaoh”)? Second, the sentence “Come to Pharaoh, because I have hardened his heart” is enigmatic. What is the sequence? How does the fact that “I have hardened his heart” constitute the reason to “come to Pharaoh”? The Torah should have stated, “Come to Pharaoh and warn him. I have hardened his heart so that I might show My signs.”
Each of us faces fears, obstacles, and challenges. We encounter people and circumstances which scare us deeply, overwhelm us, and bring out the worst in us. They cause us to become indignant, paralyzed, and miserable. These are natural human emotions. I am trying to do something and then some fellow shows up and tries to undermine me and my work. I am trying to live a normal life and then a curveball knocks me off my feat. How do I respond?
We have the ‘fight or flight’ response, guided by the amygdala. Of course, at times, one or the other are the way to go. But there is always another perspective that must inform the former two.
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Anonymous -4 years ago
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Moshe -4 years ago
Hashem vivified Pharaoh also
In the great conundrum between the basic principle that Hashem knows all and controls all, yet we have free choice there are many answers. One is He controls the big picture, the bottom line, the final outcome (omg, I'm starting to repeat myself like Rabbu yy!) but we choose the fine details. Like Moshiach destined to come from Tamar one way or another. And Potiphar's dna destined to join with Yosef.
I am afraud to go challenge my Pharoah. So we learn that Hashem is with me in this confrontation. I have nothing to fear.
Great.
But we both have free choice, we both have a challenge with the other, we both are afraid. Hashem is with my opponent also! He also has nothing to fear from me cuz Hashem is with him also.
This happens all the time, i.e Hashen is with both sides of a confrontation and a challenge. Tohu is right. Token is right.
BUT in our parsha it shows the exception in that Hashem took away free choice from Pharoah (normally both have Hashem with them and both have free choice) so Moshe really had nothing to fear. Its "no contest ". ultimately.
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Chaya Gross -4 years ago
Yes yes and yes. Everything is G-d’s doing but He gives us free will as well. Shabbat shalom from the Holy City of Yerushalayim. Blessings that you too will soon be here because it is written that the word of G-d will come from Yerushalayim. We so desperatelty need Jewish leaders who are ready to leave the “comforts” of exile and come build up Etetz Yisrael NOW! Even after the Channukah attack in your neighborhood is it not yet clear? America is not different...the writing is on the wall...is it not?
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Moshe -4 years ago
Chaya. Not all of us "chutzniks" are comfortable. E.g. To raise a special needs child is more doable here, the govt gives more help. The Rebbe said "make here EY" even as he sent hundreds of shluchim. Some of us have obligations, not comfort, here. The Rebbe was a prime example. As far as building "up" EY goes, it seems to me that it's pretty well built up already. They say that the national bird of EY is the crane! And lastly, the Chanuka attack here pales to the attacks in EY.
Nevertheless, like my sibs in EY and everyone else there who constantly urge making aliyah, I can only say we're all working to do everything and striving to come asap........with Moshiach!
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