One of the real joys I experienced as a rabbinical student was the privilege of watching great rabbis at work. Most people only get to see a couple of rabbis in action in their lives, but as a student, I was able to shadow a whole host of different rabbis, and I carry many of their teachings with me to this day.
One such lucky occasion involved accompanying a good friend who serves as a full-time chaplain in several hospitals. In addition to learning from the terrific work that he does, I also gained several insights from our conversations, and one of them comes to mind right now, as I read through this week's Torah portion, Va-era.
We are learning about the beginnings of the Exodus, and about Moses' first meetings with Pharaoh. Many of you are probably familiar with the notion of the "hardening of the heart," referring to Pharaoh's unwillingness to let the Israelites leave, even after suffering God's wrath in the form of the 10 plagues. And it is often pointed out that God actually does some of the hardening, it's not just Pharaoh's fault! Yet half of the 20 times the Bible talks about Pharaoh's stone-cold heart, it is Pharaoh himself who is responsible. So what do we make of this metaphor - the hardening
of the heart - and how does it relate to chaplaincy?
One day in the hospital, my good friend told me about his favorite
work of art, Michaelangelo's "David." He talked about its great
beauty and timelessness, but then quickly pointed out that it's a marble statue, and thus it's as cold as can be. Flawlessness, perfection, and immortality are qualities we praise, but it is indeed the flawed imperfection of humanity that truly allows us to be caring, compassionate, and loving. Pharaoh ignored the suffering of his own people because he was too busy proving a point. Where is the honor in that? We look at the story in the Bible and we accuse God of forcing Pharaoh's hand. But notice that God only causes the hardening of the heart, it is in Pharaoh's hands to soften it, and he chooses to do nothing.
Most of us aren't faced with the choices of Moses and Pharaoh. But we DO choose to harden our own hearts to those less fortunate in society. Or we harden our hearts when someone tries to apologize and we aren't ready to forgive them. We often harden our hearts when other people annoy us, misbehave, lose their temper, or don't learn from their own mistakes. I urge us all to leave numb, insensitive, callousness to marble statues and Biblical antagonists. We are made of flesh and blood, let's act like it!
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