Parshas VaEra continues the story
of the exodus of Israel from
Egypt .
A major theme is just how destructive a single sin can be if it is stubbornly
adhered to. The sin which triggers the harsh retributions on Pharaoh and Egypt is their refusal to allow Israel to leave
their domain. This causes ten horrible plagues and culminates with the drowning
of the Egyptians in the Red Sea .
The sin in fact begins when
Pharaoh places a golden necklace around the neck of Yosef. To a certain extent
he is telling Yosef that even with all of this luxury; he is chained to Egypt . This
becomes clearer with the burial of Ya'akov. Pharaoh allows Yosef to leave
temporarily only because of an oath made to his father to bury him in the Holy Land . When Yosef actually travels to the Ma'aras
HaMachpela he is accompanied by a large Egyptian force which would make escape
very difficult. In addition the possessions and children of the Israelites
remain in Egypt
to a certain extent as a pledge.
When Israel
becomes a large and powerful people, Egypt fears that in the event of a
war by making a deal with the enemy they could leave. In the first nine of the
ten plagues Pharaoh steadfastly refuses to authorize Israel to travel away from their
control. After the death of the first born Egypt consents to their departure
but reneges and pursues.
The stubbornness of Egypt 's determination to hold onto Israel , though,
seems only to be a vehicle for how destructive a relatively small sin can be if
it is clung to. The desire to retain a productive employee, who has his sights
on better opportunities, is not so terrible. However, the obstinacy causes much
more serious sins and with serious consequences. In Egypt it starts with persecution
which becomes paranoid and murderous.
By the time Moshe approaches him,
the sin is ruling over Pharaoh, his advisors, and the Egyptian people. When
Moshe turns his staff into a snake which eats the staffs turned to snakes of
Pharaoh's advisors, they really should know that they can not win. With the
third plague (lice) Pharaoh's advisors verbally acknowledge that it is the
finger of G-d. The threat to bring a plague of locusts (the eighth) is taken
seriously, but it does not change the situation. The obstinacy in clinging to a
small sin causes big sins and other sins that were present to surface. Pharaoh
begins a tyrant and his people become murders. When the sin rules over them it
twist there brains making them vain apostates playing stupid games. In the end
it causes their destruction.
All people and all nations have
their failings and shortcomings. The question is at what point they are
corrected. At times a religious precept will strike a responsive chord and a
person will proceed to follow it. This would be reckoned as an act of faith.
Other times a person is taught by the behavior of his environment. Still other
times a person will be guided by his internal sense of right and wrong. If this
is the product of things like observation and meditation it would be a product
of the intellect. Certain types of behavior arouse love or hatred or can be
beautiful or ugly. Learning from this is a product of the emotions. At times
behavior elicits a physical reaction, good or bad. This is in the realm of action.
In all four situations there are
degrees of clarity. At times a person is dealing with abstruse hints other
times message is apparent. A religious precept can be very clear. Other things
can be very logical or very stupid. An emotional response can be very strong.
Something can be physically beneficial or harmful. As clarity increases the
case for a particular behavior becomes more compelling. At some point refusal
to submit becomes a sin and a psychological complex tends to develop.
There is a social dimension as
well. Typically one must violate popular morality to do something wrong.
However there are times when society is wrong and a person must separate
himself to do the right thing. When a person acts on knowledge of a new fact or
an understanding of the implications of existing information, he is reckoned as
a חכם
(wise man). If he adheres to dogma he is reckoned as principled. If he pays a
price for doing the right thing he is reckoned as a צדיק (tsadik).
Parsha VaEra explores how great
the damage caused by stubbornly clinging to a transgression can be and knowing
when a person must change his behavior.
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