Torat HaTikvah
5 of Shvat, 5768

Aleph: Torah as Liberation

In this online Shiur (lesson), we will explore some of the sources of our sacred heritage in greater depth.

Rather than presenting a structured essay, a retelling framed in my thought and interpretation, I would like to put before you sources for you to study, wrestle with, grow with in your own unique way.  For only if you “eat” the text, chew it over, let it become a part of you, evolve your own response, does it become truly yours.  Rather than presuming to instruct you, I would like to instead offer the teachings to you as a subject for thought, discussion and inspiration…

Four offerings, then, one for each level of Torah understanding.   I invite you to study one each lesson.  Our sages teach us, “how is Torah mastered?  Line by line, a few words each day.”

For know that when you embark on the study of Torah, you are entering a beautiful orchard of delight.  For Torah is compared to an orchard - in Hebrew Pardes.

Torah is approached at four different levels: the P’shat, the plain meaning, the Remez, the “hinted” allusion, the Drash, the life-lesson and the Sod, the foundational, “secret” meaning - not a secret because it cannot be told, but secret because to truly understand, the teaching must be lived with, experienced over time - it must become a spiritual practice.

Together, these four levels Pshat, Remez, Drash, Sod are the Pardes, the Orchard of the Torah.

Lesson One:  P’shat: the plain meaning. Before approaching any other level, it is essential to read and experience the Torah’s  most basic meaning. This does not mean that the P’shat is easy!  Consider:  We recently read in our Parshat HaShavua- weekly Torah portion.

HaShem told Moshe: Come to Pharaoh, for I have made his heart, and the heart of his servants heavy so that My signs may be in his midst. (Shmot (Exodus) 10:1).

But don’t people have free will to make their own moral choices?   Can it be that God has taken away Pharaoh’s ability to choose his own response to God’s command to free Israel, to end slavery and oppression?    Has God denied Pharaoh free will simply in order to demonstrate power?   Is this idea in accordance with our own knowledge of the world? Of Jewish teachings? Of the nature of power relationships?  Do political leaders, people in authority, people invested in the status quo revise their basic assumptions and modes of behavior easily?  What is required for them to do so? What about ourselves?

These are questions of P’shat, of the plain meaning of Torah.  Let us examine two opposing responses to these questions.

Rabbi Shlomo Ben Yitzchak (known by his acronym of RASHI- 10th century Alsace, France.  One of the greatest medieval Torah commentators) says:

At a certain point, Pharaoh did indeed lose his free will because of his previous choices.  The Egyptians became unable to change.  Pharaoh was warned once, twice, three times. After that, he and his society lost to power to choose and the full force of justice came down upon Egypt.
As the Egyptians deprived Israel of rest, so were they deprived of rest when frogs and vermin invaded their homes.

As the Egyptians despoiled Israel of their property, so did the plagues of cattle disease, hail and locusts did the same to Egypt.

And still they would not learn and change, not empathize with the pain of those they oppressed.

As the Egyptians deprived Israel of their dignity and rights, so did they suffer the darkness of oppression during the plague of darkness.

Let us contrast this with the perspective of another commentator:

Rabbi Ovadiah Seforno (wrote his commentary on the Torah in 15th century Italy):

Notice that the verb used is “made heavy Pharaoh’s heart.” “Make heavy” means “strengthen.” Pharaoh’s heart, and the heart of his nation were strengthened in order to allow them to make their choice without the fear of the plagues stopping them.

Both Rashi and Seforno read the text as it is, plainly before them.  Both identify the issue of human freedom and moral choices as central to the text.  And yet they present what seem to be diametrically opposed understandings.

Rashi says that Pharaoh’s choices eventually limit his freedom; that Humanity is created, delineated and ultimately limited by choices.

Seforno says that God is so careful not to abrogate human freedom that Pharaoh’s heart is strengthened to be equal to the rigors of battle with the Creator of the Universe. Let Pharaoh’s responsibility, says the Seforno, be based on his choices alone, and let those choices be truly freely made to the very last.

Are these positions truly opposed to each other? Or are they fundamentally in agreement?  Are they perhaps emphasizing different dimensions of the ultimate human power: the power of intention, of will.   If our freedom has a limiting factor, it is self-imposed, the result of our own choices.   Ultimately, Pharaoh is more a slave than those he enslaves, because he is slave to his own inability to empathize with suffering.

And Moshe Rabbeinu, our teacher Moshe? Where is his will in this account? Without fear, or hesitation, he strides boldly into the presence of the most powerful human on earth, right up to Pharaoh.  This is a different order of encounter than Pharaoh’s with God, for there is never a direct threat upon Pharaoh.  Moshe is still flesh and blood, walking alone before the ranks of Pharaoh’s military might, greatest in the world. At any moment, Pharaoh might strike him down. God has not promised divine protection for Moshe- only that I will be with you - no matter what happens. This is not the same as a shield from physical danger. He is as vulnerable and exposed as you or I would be approaching a powerful and brutal dictator. How does he have the strength for this encounter?

The Sfat Emet, Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh Leib Alter, writing in the 19th century, says that Moshe was truly free: free of his own ego, his own needs, his own self-preoccupation with himself.   It is when the centeredness on the self is abandoned through an act of will, an elevation of faith, that our true potentials are unlocked and we become capable of achieving the ultimate expression of our being.

Moshe being liberated, was able to liberate a nation.  Each of us is in a personal Egypt, a place of limitation and obstacles - each of us has a Moshe within who can lead the way to liberation. Let this be Torat HaTikvah - our teaching of hope

Yeshar Ko’ach - May you grow from strength to strength!

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