A Zero Sum Game: God vs. Pharaoh in Parshat Bo
For those of you who are interested in my methodology in writing my weekly blog, I will share something with you. While in the synagogue, I usually skip ahead to the following week’s parsha, hoping to find something of interest to write in my blog—sometimes I succeed; sometimes I do not and sometimes it is something in the news that dominates my attention and I have to stretch the parsha to fit the news. These past weeks however, when we are all thinking about, and praying for, the hostages who have been freed, will be freed, and who will not be freed. Since over Shabbat I do not usually check news for my own mental self-preservation, I worried whether the four hostages would make it out. When I came across the phrase about the locust: “They shall devour the surviving remnant”– וְאָכַ֣ל ׀ אֶת־יֶ֣תֶר הַפְּלֵטָ֗ה (Exodus 10:5). I had an “click moment”, or as we say in Hebrew נפל לי האסימון for I found my topic. At the time I was not sure who was the “They” devouring the remnant; nor was I sure who the surviving remnant was. But the phrase stayed with me and I wanted to address it in some way and connect it to what’s happening in our society today.
LAST WEEK’S PLAGUES
More on that later, but first we are towards the end of the Ten Plagues. Last week we had blood, frogs, lice, and swarms of insects. Despite all of these afflictions and suffering of his people Pharaoh’s was stubborn and would not let the Israelites go. Moses is told to go once again to Pharaoh and warn him that this time the plague will be one of pestilence.
The hand of יהוה will strike your livestock in the fields—the horses, the asses, the camels, the cattle, and the sheep—with a very severe pestilence–דֶּ֖בֶר כָּבֵ֥ד מְאֹֽד. And this time יהוה will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of the Egyptians, so that nothing shall die of all that belongs to the Israelites. יהוה has fixed the time: tomorrow יהוה will do this thing in the land.’” And יהוה did so the next day: all the livestock of the Egyptians died, but of the livestock of the Israelites not a beast died– לֹא־מֵ֥ת אֶחָֽד (Exodus 9: 3-6).
Notice that until this point, the Israelites also suffered from the plagues, but for some reason did not complain to Moses about this–or perhaps their complaints are not recorded for posterity in the Bible. The next plague will be soot which will form a very fine dust that will cause inflammation breaking out in boils—שחין–on humans and beasts throughout the land of Egypt.
After this God makes this amazing statement: “I could have stretched forth My hand and stricken you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been effaced from the earth. BUT I have spared you to show you My power, and that My fame may resound throughout the world” (vss. 15-16). Why is it so important for God to show off His power? Does He have an inferiority complex? Is there no room for both HIM and His enemies? And the next plague will be hail—ברד.
Throughout the land of Egypt, the hail struck down all that were in the open, both human and beast; the hail also struck down all the grasses of the field and shattered all the trees of the field. Only in the region of Goshen, where the Israelites were, there was no hail.
And this time Pharaoh sends for Moses and Aaron and amazingly admits that he stands guilty: he says that he has sinned this time (חָטָ֣אתִי הַפָּ֑עַם) and that God is the righteous one (צדיק) and he and his people are the evil ones ( הָרְשָׁעִֽים). Instead of Moses taking Pharaoh at his word he says, speaking for himself:
“As I go out of the city, I shall spread out my hands to יהוה; the thunder will cease and the hail will fall no more, so that you may know that the earth is יהוה’s. But I know that you and your courtiers do not yet fear God יהוה” (vs. 29-30).
And sure enough: “Pharaoh’s heart stiffened and he would not let the Israelites go, just as יהוה had foretold through Moses.” And thus, ends last week’s parsha, with almost complete devastation: ‘the flax and barley were ruined, for the barley was in the ear and the flax was in bud; but the wheat and the emmer (kasha?) were not hurt, for they ripen late” (Exodus 9: 31-32). It is clear that the devastation was not complete. I wonder, does the land have to be completely destroyed for God to make His point?
LOCUSTS—THIS WEEK’S PARSHA
And now as I promised you earlier, we come to the phrase that got my complete attention. God tells Moses to go to Pharaoh. He tells him that HE (God) has hardened Pharaoh’s heart and that of his courtiers. Why? So that He can show off His power. But also, “that you may recount in the hearing of your child and of your child’s child how I made a mockery of the Egyptians הִתְעַלַּ֙לְתִּי֙ בְּמִצְרַ֔יִם.” Why? In order that we all know that He is God. And let’s not forget that future generations of Israelites will never forget this story of God’s victory over Egypt. After this, Moses and Aaron again went to Pharaoh and said to him, “Thus says יהוה, the God of the Hebrews, ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? Let My people go that they may worship Me.” But then they add on their own initiative (supposedly in God’s words):
If you refuse to let My people go, tomorrow I will bring locusts (אַרְבֶּ֖ה) on your territory. They shall cover the surface of the land, so that no one will be able to see the land. They shall devour the surviving remnant– וְאָכַ֣ל ׀ אֶת־יֶ֣תֶר הַפְּלֵטָ֗ה — that was left to you after the hail; and they shall eat away all your trees that grow in the field.
Moreover, they shall fill your palaces and the houses of all your courtiers and of all the Egyptians—something that neither your fathers nor fathers’ fathers have seen from the day they appeared on earth to this day.’” With that he turned and left Pharaoh’s presence (Exodus 10: 3-6).
Who left? Moses? If so, what happened to Aaron, since it says only that he left Pharaoh? Did Aaron stay behind to bear witness? But this has no bearing on the conclusion, so I won’t dwell on it. The threat is unbearable: the surviving remnant will be devoured. Nothing will remain. The locust will leave nothing. There will be total devastation. Even the ministers who advised Pharaoh told him in no uncertain terms: “How long shall this one be a snare to us? Let a delegation go to worship their God יהוה ! Are you not yet aware that Egypt is lost?” So Moses and Aaron returned again to the diplomatic table, for it seemed that a compromise was on the way. But no, “a delegation” was not what Moses wanted. He stuck to his original position and even upped the ante: “We will all go—regardless of social station —we will go with our sons and daughters, our flocks and herds; for we must observe יהוה’s festival.” But Pharaoh was only willing to let the males go. So despite the threat to his people, neither side was willing to compromise—there was no possibility of a cease fire. And thus, the terrible plague of locust was brought on. The devastation was such that the language describing it makes it clear that this will be a reversal of the creation story in Genesis:
The locust hid all the land from view, and the land was darkened; and they ate up all the grasses of the field and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left, so that nothing green was left, of tree or grass of the field, in all the land of Egypt (vs. 15).
Once again, this was unbearable to Pharaoh. He hastily summoned Moses and Aaron and totally humbled himself before them: “Forgive my offense just this once, and plead with your God יהוה that this death but be removed from me.” And God removed the plague and sent the locust on their way.
A ZERO SUM GAME
But this time it was God who refused to give in—he was playing a zero sum game. He still had two more plagues (darkness and the death of the first born) in his bag of tricks and so God stiffened Pharaoh’s heart so that he would not let the Israelites go. It is clear from this story that something else is going on. We are no longer talking about freedom of the Israelites. Moses, Aaron, the Israelites, the Egyptians are all pawns in a power struggle between Pharaoh and God. God wants to make it clear to Pharaoh the mighty that he is nothing in relationship to God. He cannot enslave God’s people. And it is meant to be a warning to those in the future who will try to fool around with the Israelites that it won’t work, and that is why prior to the plague it says that the purpose of all this is “that you may recount in the hearing of your child and of your child’s child how I made a mockery of the Egyptians.”
When I read this story, it sounded so much like the negotiations between the delegations of Hamas and Israel for the release of hostages, for the cease fire; for the freeing of terrorists from Israeli prisons. Nothing has changed. For generations, the textbooks of both nations continue to demonize the other. Yet it would seem that there is an optimistic ending of the passages about the locusts:
יהוה caused a shift to a very strong west wind, which lifted the locusts and hurled them into the Sea of Reeds; not a single locust remained in all the territory of Egypt (Exodus 10:9).
Yet, like all annoying insects, it is impossible to totally exterminate them, or for that matter, completely vanquish our enemies. There will always be one locust remaining and this locust will multiply and come back and will be even more dangerous in the future. They will build up immunity—just as bacterial diseases do in nature to antibiotics. Just as it will be impossible to totally destroy the surviving remnants of trees and barley; nature has a way of coming back. The fight will continue. When there is no good will on either side, power, and the pyrotechnics that accompany power, will not solve anything. The devastation will remain, but it will not only be the Israelites, who recount to their descendants about God’s mockery of the Egyptians. The Egyptians will remember this as well. And they will learn a bitter lesson from it. In a zero sum game, when only God is the winner, the rest of us are losers. But what happens when both sides claim that God is on their side? And both sides continue to say “never again”. This is the chilling conclusion that we are left with this week, as we helplessly watch things unfold without our having any control over the outcome.