This week's Torah portion, Bo, speaks of the last three plagues visited on Egypt, and of the Jewish People's Exodus. It begins with G-d's command to Moses that he go to Pharaoh to warn him of the impending plague of locusts. G-d, however, states that Pharaoh will not heed the warning: "For I have hardened his heart... in order that you tell in the ears of your child and your child's child that which I have wrought in Egypt."
From this we learn that the locusts did not come as a punishment for Pharaoh's refusal to heed the warning; G-d had hardened his heart so that he would be unable to agree to free the Jews. But if such is the case, isn't it unjust for G-d to punish Pharaoh with a plague, when G-d Himself prevented him from acceding to Moses' demand?
The commentators explain that during the first five plagues Pharaoh had free will; he could have allowed the Jews to leave. It was only after Pharaoh rebelled against G-d - "Who is G-d that I should listen to His voice?" - that his free will was taken away. This punishment clearly fit the crime: Pharaoh questioned G-d's authority and boasted of his own might, so he was shown that he did not even have the power to make his own decisions. Pharaoh was thus fully subjugated to the will of G-d.
Furthermore, Pharaoh's behavior during the plague of locusts underscored his impotence. When even his servants begged him to free the Jews - "Let the people go... Do you not yet know that Egypt is lost?" - Pharaoh immediately agreed and declared to Moses and Aaron, "Go worship your G-d." But at that very instant G-d hardened his heart and Pharaoh was forced to renege on his promise.
Even with this explanation we are still left with a philosophical problem. Why did Moses and Aaron have to go through the motions of issuing a formal warning if they knew that there was no chance that Pharaoh would agree to their request?
It is explained in Tanya, the central work of Chabad Chasidic philosophy, that even a person who is so sunken into evil ways that "he is not provided with a means to repent," even he can overcome and find his way back to righteousness. Even the most corrupt and abominable sinner can return to G-d.
If Pharaoh, totally self-centered, wicked and deprived of his free will, could have prevented the final plagues from befalling his nation by exerting supreme effort to overcome the hardening of his heart, how much more so is it possible for every Jew to overcome his negative character traits.
A Jew's G-dly soul is called "an actual part of G-d," and is in his possession always; the soul remains faithful to G-d even if the body commits a sin. A Jew always has the power to do teshuva, to return to G-d and live in harmony with his true essence. G-d awaits the return of every single Jew, for he can only sin externally, as his internal nature is untouched and holy.
Reprinted from the Parashat Bo 2003/5763 edition of L’Chaim, a publication of the Lubavitch Youth Organization. Adapted from the works of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
