Va’eira
Reflection by Or HaLev teacher Rabbi Ami Silver:
"What do we do when our hearts are heavy? When they feel closed and hardened? Beneath the narrative of plagues, power and domination, this week’s parsha offers us a window into the hardening and opening of the heart. Throughout our parsha, Moses approaches Pharaoh and demands him to free the Israelites from slavery. Pharaoh refuses, literally 'hardens his heart,' and God brings plagues upon Egypt. In response to some of the plagues, Pharaoh has a change of heart and tells Moses to take the Israelites out, but once the plague ceases he again `hardens his heart` or his `heart grows heavy` and he returns to his initial position, keeping the Israelites captive. Until the plague of hail comes along, and God tells Moses to send Pharaoh a different message:
`This time I am sending all of my plagues into your heart and to your servants and your people` (Exodus 9:14). And this time, something seems to shift. In response to the hail, Pharaoh calls to Moses and Aaron and says, `this time I have sinned, God is righteous and me and my people have been wicked` (9:27). Pharaoh has a moment of clarity here, an admission of truth, accountability, and a shift in perspective. But what is it about this plague that embodies `all of God’s plagues` and allows them to pierce Pharaoh’s heart? Something unique about the hail in Egypt was that there was `fire burning within the hail` (9:24). It had the capacity to carry multiple elements, even opposing forces and polarities within it. This is a quality that can soften a hardened heart.
The Kabbalistic tradition identifies Pharaoh (פרעה) with the `back of the neck` (העורף), with turning away from what is here and refusing to face the fullness of reality. When we feel that our hearts are closed or heavy, perhaps we can accept it as an invitation to ask ourselves what feelings are alive inside that this closed heart may not be willing to feel. Can we make room for the different layers of feeling that may be present? For the pain and the compassion, for sadness and care, for despair and longing for connection? As we turn toward the spectrum of feelings that the heart carries, we may help it soften and open, even for a moment."