In Parshat Va'era the Egyptians are introduced to the might and the power of God through the ten plagues which are introduced consecutively, each producing much misery. At each intersection of dialogue and plague the text emphasizes that Pharaoh's heart was hardened by God. Pharaoh waffled between allowing the Hebrews to leave and keeping them resulting in more plagues.
Would Pharaoh have relented earlier to let the people go if his heart was not hardened by God? It is difficult to know, but it seems that God has a plan in mind and Pharaoh becomes as much of a player in God's unfolding drama as Joseph and the forefathers and foremothers.
Hardened hearts and stubborn defiance plays a large role in the current landscape as it has over the generations. People's hearts are increasingly hardened toward the words of others and it seems like narratives fly through the air but do not intersect with an over abundance of hardened hearts.
Hardened hearts are sometimes necessary to protect ideas and people, but perhaps some heart softening is in order and has been order many times during history to keep a gentler society.
Hardened Hearts
When your heart is hardened
you stand alone
eyes squeezed shut.
ears locked
fingers clenched,
feet dug in.
Hypervigilant
When your heart is hardened,
your power to decide,
debate
calcifies and crumbles.
When your heart is hardened,
the world is black and white.
Words like
ours
and us
dominate.
More rejections than reflections
dot the dialogue.
Compromise becomes a useless antique,
pushed to the back of the cabinet.
It's Us versus Them
Right versus Wrong
It doesn’t much matter which side you are on.
Right or left.
Pro or con.
It’s all the same.
When your heart is hardened
the I is more important than the thou.
Dialogue is lost in a sea of rejections.
Stubbornness,
the darkened goal post,
that blinds players from
scoring the goal.
And the king of all hard heartedness
The oldest syndrome in the world.
We're all infected at some point.
The
I
Cannot
Be
Wrong
Syndrome.
You hear one voice that repeats
like a broken 45,
only us,
only us,
only us,
only us
like hail falling
sizzling
from the sky.
The words
scorch the earth
while the words
progress,
share,
love,
neighbor,
dialogue,
community
slip away,
their ink
fading,
fading
until
it
is
barely
seen.
In every generation
we seek the cure
for the hardened heart.
Society needs a cure.
Desperately.
Some people seek it
and sometimes,
perhaps it is luck,
or
perhaps
it is something else.
A hint of light?
A soft murmur?
The broken 45 repeats.
listen,
listen,
listen,
listen,
listen.
You hear it.
You understand it,
with all the strength that listening brings.
Perhaps you are the one who has found the cure.
But when the Egyptian magician-priests did the same with their spells, Pharaoh’s heart stiffened and he did not heed them—as יהוה had spoken.
Exodus 7:22 (Translation from Sefaria)
Exodus 9:12 (Translation from Sefaria)
Speak Now by Leslie Odom Junior