Sunday, January 28, 2007

Bo knows free will

Parshat Bo continues the issue of Hashem's hardening of Pharoah's heart. There are a lot of good takes on the issue, most of which I've read for the first time in the past few years.

I’m sure someone came up with this before (and if you know I’d love a reference) but here’s my take on the hardening Pharoah’s heart. I think it was measure for measure punishment. Pharoah claimed to be a divinity, and he took free choice away from an entire nation by enslaving them. In response, Hashem showed Pharaoh that not only was he not in charge of his nation, he was not even in charge of his own choices.

N.B. This post originally appeared in slightly different form as a comment on Yesh Omrim.

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