The use of omnipotence

How powerful is God and how does God use that power?

These questions arise in this week’s Torah reading, Bo, which includes the final plagues and the freeing of the Israelites from Egypt.

God commanded Moses in the opening of the parasha (Exodus Chapter 10, verses 1-2):
“…Come to Pharaoh! For I have made his heart and the heart of his servants heavy-with-stubbornness, in order that I may put these my signs among them
2 and in order that you may recount in the ears of your child and of your child's child how I have been capricious with Egypt, and my signs, which I have placed upon them – that you may know that I am God.“

God’s explicit purpose made life difficult for the Egyptians so that the Israelites would understand the extent of God’s power. God’s power extends beyond physical miracles, God also controls Pharaoh’s heart and mind.

One of our Renaissance scholars from Italy, Obadiah ben Jacob Sforno, suggests that God made Pharaoh more stubborn so that other Egyptians would have the opportunity to repent. This reading expands our understanding of God. God now cares for more than the Israelites – God cares for all of creation.

In Sforno’s reading we can bring our ideas of God into the central message of the Exodus, that all peoples deserve consideration, and that we should not oppress others because we were once oppressed.

We Make Our Own Redemption

Today we look at Va-Eira, Exodus 6:2 - 9:35 - God's instructions to Moses to free the Israelites, the description of the descendants of Israel in Egypt by name and tribe, and lots of plagues.

In order to convince the Israelites that God is really God, God manipulates Pharaoh, hardening his heart which leads to more plagues and divine interventions.

I don't like this God, the one who decides to sacrifice the well-being of the Egyptians, to kill off their people, for the sake of proving a point.

The Israelites though, in other words, we, are in fact the problem. We refuse to admit the miraculous in our midst and want proof that Moses and God will truly redeem us.

Today we live without supernatural intervention and we must find redemption in human actions and kindness - we must make redemption in our own good acts and attitudes of compassion. This Elul, let us participate in the miracle of existence by generously giving a little bit more of our selves.