Parashat Bo - Hardening Pharaoh’s Heart

 This week’s parasha concludes the Pesach story and sets the annual observance of Pesach in the spring. Key to the story, to God’s show of might is God hardening Pharaoh’s heart.  So many have tried to excuse God for this act. The best explanation I’ve found is that God hardens Pharaoh’s heart, but Pharaoh keeps his heart as it is. Without excusing God’s actions in causing the suffering of so many Egyptians, we are all affected by circumstance and by the actions of others. In that state, we can choose to open our hearts or lock them away. Pharaoh’s heart is locked in one attitude. He sees and hears only that which is in the box. He cannot or will not soften. And so, today’s challah is a heart in a braided box, being pushed upon. There is no room in the box to expand or turn, and so the heart is contained.

As Pesach is set to be the spring, the second challah is a flower marking the hope of spring that builds throughout the cold winter. Tu BiShevat is almost upon us, with its celebration of the first buds and its, modern, environmental attitude. If we only open our eyes to look, we can see the signs of the cold, darkness passing and the world being reborn.

            

Wishing everyone a Shabbat shalom and a year of open hearts and sunshine.