Viggo Mittermaier [June 9, 2022] Pesach
Drash
Erev Tov! I am so thankful that many of you have taken time out of your busy schedules to come and celebrate my Bar Mitzvah with me. I want to give a special thanks to Carol, Matt, and Rabbi Elana for helping me craft this speech today. In addition to them, Jesse, who has been a really great friend through Religious school, and through this entire Bar Mitzvah preparation experience. With that, let’s jump right in.
Many of you may be familiar with the story of Pesach, or Passover, to which my torah portion is about. However, some of you may not, so I will summarise it briefly.
After many years of turmoil and hardship, the Israelites of Egypt were fed up and tired of being slaves under Pharaoh’s rule. God said to Moses: “Demand that Pharaoh let the Israelites free. And if he does not, 10 terrible plagues will be cast upon the land of Egypt.”
Those plagues were water turning to blood, frogs, lice, flies, livestock pestilence, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and the killing of the firstborn son. After the killing of the first born, and the killing of his own son, Pharaoh finally let the Hebrews free. Moses parted the Red Sea, and the Israelites escaped into the wilderness of Sinai.
Within my Torah portion, there are many examples of struggle, stubbornness, and many instances where morality is tested. In Exodus-10:1, we read
“Bo el Paraoh, ki-ani heechbad’ti et leebo”
God says to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened Pharaoh's heart.”
In the Torah, sometimes God hardened Pharaoh's heart, and other times Pharaoh hardened his own heart. Why would Pharaoh harden his own heart? Why would God harden Pharaoh's heart? I set out to understand and explore this concept, and discover what other influential people thought.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks explains how this phrase, “hardening of the heart” can be interpreted with three different Hebrew roots: k-sh-h (kasheh) (hardening), ch-z-k (chazak) (to strengthen), and k-b-d (kabeid) (making heavy). It’s important to realise that in the written language of the Torah, that I will read from shortly, there are no vowels, only consonants, and certain letters can resemble others in just the way they look. This fact makes many interpretations possible and valid.
First, Rashi, a famous medieval commentator from France, interprets this using the verb k-sh-h, hardening, as a consequence for refusing to let the Jews go after the first five plagues. Pharaoh was cruel to the Jews, and his heart was hardened as a punishment. Pharaoh forced the Jews — and his own people to suffer, and God would punish Pharaoh for his selfishness.
Albo, a Spanish rabbi writing in the 1400s, and Sforno, an Italian Rabbi from the 1500s, also offer an interesting point of view, using the verb ch-z-k, to strengthen. Perhaps God strengthened Pharaoh’s heart simply to strengthen him to make his own decision. Pharaoh was under pressure to not look like a coward and let his people down as a leader. This stress might force him to make rash decisions. If Pharaoh wasn’t going to let the Jews go, it would be his decision and not God’s; he would face the consequences of whatever choice he made.
The third verb: k-b-d (making heavy) is interpreted by Maimonides, commenting in the 11th century. Maimonides thinks of k-b-d as “repentance was withheld from him, and the liberty to turn from his wickedness was not accorded to him.” Pharaoh had committed such terrible acts that God would no longer let him make his own choice.
God even may have heavied Pharaoh's heart to show Pharoah’s gods that he was not worthy of being allowed into paradise after death. Egyptian culture values a light heart, and the weighing of the heart ceremony is extremely important. Egyptians believed that after an Egyptian passed away, at the gates of paradise, their heart and a feather would be placed on alternate sides of a scale. If the heart was heavier than the feather, their soul would not be allowed into paradise. If the heart and the feather maintained balance, the soul was pure, and the Egyptian gates of Heaven would be opened for them. Not only was Pharaoh cruel to the Israelites, he was betraying his own culture and was not worthy of being allowed into Paradise. This is relevant because in our social media-filled day and age, it is increasingly important to have a kind heart, and I hope, as I grow up, to lead with kindness and consideration towards others.
Judaism greatly values argument and disagreement, as long as the opinions are valid in the eyes of God, contribute to the greater good, and are not driven out of hatred or thirst for power. Jewish tradition has a long past of Rabbinic interpretation of the Torah, such as the viewpoints by Rashi, Albo, Sforno, and Maimonidies.
I think that it is really important to try and take perspective when people offer other opinions. Without ideas different from yours, there is very little room to grow and expand on your own knowledge. Knowledge is power, and power can do great things, if you understand it and use it right.
In Proverbs 16:2, it states, “All the ways of a person are clean in their own eyes, but God weighs the spirit.” One does not do things that they think are wrong; they do them because they think that they are right. If everyone thinks that what they do is right, how do we know what is really the best action or choice? I think that deep inside, everyone has a moral compass that will tell them what is really right to a certain extent. In addition to this, certain universal ethics such as not killing or stealing govern societies and can help make the right choice. If this is so, why do people still do things that other people think are wrong? I think that when someone believes in something really intensely, they will be willing to go out of their way to convince others that their opinion is the right one, and sometimes violence is a last resort that can result in extreme injury and fatality. An example of this is the January 6th U.S. Capitol Riot. So many people believed that the 2020 election had been “stolen” that they decided to storm the Capitol. The riots resulted in 5 deaths: 1 police officer and 4 rioters.
Within Judaism there are many guiding principles that declare actions that result in the hurting of yourself or others to be unethical and wrong. Even if you believe in something really strongly, it is not right to end yours or someone else's life over it. I think that we can learn a lot from this. In our world, with almost 7.8 billion people, we need to understand that everyone is different, but that doesn’t make anyone less valuable.
Returning to an earlier topic, I find it interesting how different rabbis interpret a single word really differently, and have really different opinions, but are still able to disagree respectfully. But how do we know which opinion is the “correct” one? That’s the thing. There is no “correct” opinion. According to the dictionary, the definition of an opinion is, “a view or judgement formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge.” When those rabbis read the word “hardening” in the Torah, their opinions were immediately formed. Their interpretations were simply based on how their brains made sense of the word. So there is no correct interpretation, but is there a “right” opinion? I came to the same conclusion. There is no “right” opinion. All opinions that do no harm are in my view, ethically justifiable.
In addition to this, I did decide that for me, there is always a “right choice.” In Pharaoh's case, he was presented two options: let the Jews free and lose part of your working labor force, or deny the Jews freedom, and allow your own people to suffer through ten plagues. For me, the obvious choice would be to let the Jews free. However, I also considered the choices if I were in Pharaoh’s position. If he chose the first option, he would look like a coward to his entire kingdom. I can honestly say, I don’t know what I would do in his shoes. I also questioned the information that Pharaoh was given. Perhaps Pharaoh received information that caused him to believe that the Jews belonged to him, and he could control them. If he received that information, I find it to actually be understandable as to why he made his choices. However, even if the decisions he made are understandable, universal ethics should have guided him on the right path.
This relates to my life because in modern day society, social media dominates much of daily life for most people. We are constantly being fed information through these communal platforms, and much of it is just different opinions formulated by different people. So how do we determine what data is true? Many accurate and factual opinions can be provided by experts, so that is a start, but that is pretty much where it ends. Within these social media platforms, we are presented with choices: Believe this or that. Studies prove that based on where you live, what you do for work, and what your background is, search engines like Google provide different results and feed different information.
For example, I live in Larkspur, California, I receive a good education from a good public school, and I am a fortunate, Caucasion, male, U.S. American citizen, I am Jewish, but you can’t see “Jewish” in my skin, so that feels irrelevant. I personally have received information from social media that causes me to believe that Climate Change is human caused and is a major issue, I am Pro-Choice, and I support all others with different ethnic backgrounds. In a place like Alabama, however, it is likely that someone will be given different information from social media that may cause them to think that Climate Change is natural. They may be Pro-Life, and they may carry a certain hatred for a group of people that looks, sounds, or thinks differently than themselves.
We must decide what information to believe. I am supposed to tell you what I do to sort through the data, information, and opinions set upon me, but to be honest the only advice I can give is to stay true to yourself, AND at the same time, try hard to value others and their opinions. The world is rapidly changing, and everyone, including you and I, will change with it. But one thing that will absolutely never change is that you are you, and no one can stop you from becoming what you want to be as long as you hope. I encourage you to carry a light heart through life, just as I will strive to do. I can promise you that I will follow my heart and consider the vast pool of opinions different from mine as I walk through life. I will be kind to others, and I will forge a really, really, great path.
Thank you and Erev Tov.
After the V’ahavta:
As we have just chanted the V’ahavta, I want to speak on what it means. The V’ahavta is a prayer of love and spreads the message that we must do good deeds, and teach our children and peers to do them as well. To me the prayer is trying to portray that we must never forget the power of loving kindness and how it can make our hearts warm.
As I was reflecting on the postponement of my Bar Mitzvah in January to today, June 9, I thought about how easy it was to spread the information about our decision to all of my family and friends. If it is so easy to spread such simple information such as that, it should be just as easy to spread love. I believe that the reason you all specifically are here is because I have felt a specific love towards you, whether that be in the form of relation, friendship, or kinship. I hope this message resonates with you as we continue with the Michamocha.