Pharoah’s Free Will?
We know that G-d limits Pharoah’s free will by “hardening his heart.” Indeed, Pharaoh’s heart is hardened a total of six times. And that Pharoah says “No” to the Exodus, refusing the Jewish people their own free will, a total of six times.
What if G-d acts measure-for-measure, middo kneged middoh? To the extent we limit the freedom of others, we can have our own freedom limited?
Are there other innovative explanations? For example, perhaps G-d does not interfere in the free will of people – but Pharaoh considered himself a deity, not a man…?
Why Wait For the Egyptian People?
When it actually comes time for the Jews to leave Egypt, the Torah tells us that the Egyptian people also sent the Jews out:
וַתֶּחֱזַ֤ק מִצְרַ֙יִם֙ עַל־הָעָ֔ם לְמַהֵ֖ר לְשַׁלְּחָ֣ם מִן־הָאָ֑רֶץ
And Miżrayim was urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste
Why does the Torah tell us this? Up until this point, only Pharoah made decisions for Egypt, right? Why does this matter?
Perhaps it is G-d putting Egypt back the way Joseph found it? After all, Joseph enslaved the Egyptians to Pharoah. Enslavement inherently means losing the ability to make your own decisions. So the Egyptians were essentially passive from Joseph’s enslavement until the Jews leave, right?
Does G-d, using the plagues, shake the Egyptians out of their torpor, and undermine the Egyptian enslavement to Pharoah? Did He punish Egypt to the point where the people were willing and able to speak for themselves? And if so, does it mirror what happened under Joseph?
Gold and Silver and Garments?
G-d first tells Moshe, in their first conversation at the burning bush, that,
When you go, you shall not go empty. Every woman shall borrow from her neighbor, and from her who sojourns in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and garments (Ex. 3:21)
And then, after all but the last plague:
Let every man borrow from his neighbor, and every woman from her neighbor, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold. (Ex. 11:2)
And then what happens? The people do as they are told….
and they borrowed from the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and garments (Ex. 12:35)
And here is an obvious question: why does it really matter that the Jews got gold and silver from the Egyptians? Are these material possessions really important, and if so, why? And what do garments have to do with anything?!
Perhaps an answer is that jewels of silver and jewels of gold and garments are in fact part of Jewish lore. Do they not come from the very first story of an engagement between man and wife?
Avraham’s servant brings out
Jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and garments, and gave them to Rebekah (Gen. 24:53)
Perhaps there is a bigger message here? Was G-d seeking to recreate the engagement of Isaac and Rivkah! In that final act before leaving their home in Egypt to travel and “meet” Hashem at Sinai, the Jewish people would be receiving the same engagement present that their foremother, Rivkah, had received before she left her home to travel to marry Isaac?
Would this suggest that, in a parallel to Isaac and Rivkah, the promise of the engagement is followed by a wedding? Is that wedding, perhaps, at Sinai?
The Nature of Egypt – and Mitzvos from It?
Egypt harmonized with nature. Their lives were within the natural cycles, with no forward movement over millennia (Egypt was famously un-innovative).
Might this connect to chometz? Isn’t chometz created by mixing flour and water and then leaving nature to run its course? Egypt was the breadbasket of the ancient world, so wouldn’t it make sense that ridding ourselves of chometz to commemorate the Exodus is a way of ridding ourselves of Egypt?
Does it not also suggest ridding ourselves of the idea that harmony with nature is the highest good? To what extent does the symbolism of rejecting chometz apply to all pagan/earth-worshipping/organic cultures as contradistinct from Judaism?
Consider the ritual of dipping the grass in the blood and putting it on the doorpost. Besides being an obvious parallel to the Mezuza, might it also suggest a core mission of the Jewish people: to combine animal (blood for Pesach, parchment for Mezuzah), and vegetable (grass for Pesach, ink for mezuzah), combined with human effort and our own homes and relationships? Might the symbolism reflect the purpose of Torah Judaism: to elevate the natural world upward, and connect it to our own homes and families?
Does this perhaps explain why doing this specific ritual saved the Jewish people from the plague of the first-born? That we were advertising our understanding of our purpose in this world? And that this key alignment satisfied G-d’s requirements that we have some knowledge of what it means to be Jewish?
Is elevating the natural world (as opposed to harmonizing with it) really so central to Judaism, and opposite to Paganism?
New Moon?
Isn’t it interesting that until the Exodus, the Torah gives no absolute measurements of time: the flood, for example, is given in terms of Noach’s own lifespan? So time was measured using the age of Avraham or the pregnancy period for Tamar, but there is no absolute measure of the passage of years for the whole world?
Why does this matter?
Given that the first commandment to the people was This shall be the first month, it certainly seems important. But why?
Perhaps it is because slaves have no need to keep time? They are told what to do. They are incapable of planning ahead (which is why nobody thought to bake bread even a mere day before they set out). So maybe time is important for freedom?
Or maybe time is important because agreeing on time is essential for any cooperation? Civilization functions using clocks. Is a unified understanding of the passage of time a prerequisite for any people?