Shabbat Vaeyra: Persuasion
This week, we read about the process through which Moses and Aaron try to persuade the pharaoh that he should let the children of Israel go.
After all, Pharaoh was the absolute head of the most powerful advanced state and civilisation of that era. He had every reason to feel confident in his assumptions. When he is faced with people who have no state, no power, and no authority and want him to change the way he runs his empire, of course, he is going to be sceptical and dismissive.
Initially, Moses and Aaron simply approached with an argument and a request. But when that was rejected, they began to use what we might look at as tricks, magic, to try to get him to change his mind. Which is strange given that magic comes to be specifically forbidden by the Torah.
Aaron, as the spokesman, starts the process by using Moses’s stick that had already in the earlier encounter with God shown to have magical powers. Aaron threw the stick down and it turned into a snake. Then Pharaoh called his magicians, or more accurately, necromancers, and they were able to do exactly the same thing. Except the snake Aaron threw down swallowed theirs, and Pharaoh was not persuaded. The next act was to strike the river so everything would turn into blood. Once again, the magicians were able to do the same thing. The plague of frogs was also replicated by the magicians. Only this time, they were not able to remove the frogs, which was something that Moses was able to achieve. But Pharaoh was still not impressed.
Aaron then strikes the ground turning the dust into lice. This time the magicians were unable to replicate this, and for the first time they admit that this is something more powerful, the Finger of God. The first crack. Even so, Pharaoh is still not persuaded. Then the plague of wild beasts which does not affect the Israelites but still no progress. The plague of wild beasts distinguishes between the Egyptians who were affected but not the Land of Goshen. At this stage, Pharaoh makes his first concession and allows them to go and sacrifice to their God. But when Moses asks that they leave Egypt for three days to avoid offending the Egyptians Pharaoh changes his mind. Still, there is some progress.
The next plague affects all the Egyptian livestock ( but not the Israelite herds). The following plague of boils struck the magicians down and this was the final nail in their status and powers. The plague of hail which again does not affect the Israelites. The Egyptians were given a warning so that they could protect their livestock. Some did. Others not. Divisions began to emerge amongst the populace. And this is the moment when Pharaoh begins to think about freeing them.
One is bound to ask why start with a series of signs that can be replicated and then some plagues that could too. Indeed why go through this whole process when it would theoretically be possible to send one huge big plague in one go? One answer lies in how one breaks down prejudice and gets people to change their minds. You rarely get somebody who has an entrenched point of view willing to concede. It is a process that takes time. Secondly, the basis on which Egyptians make decisions through magic or necromancy is non-rational and based on superstition. Most human beings are both non-rational and superstitious, so the first thing you have to do is to break down their certainties and magicians to promote an alternative way through God which should not be superstitious.
The plagues also had the effect of undermining all their certainties, or what we would call dogmas, about the physical world. On earth, living beings, and the air and sky.
I think of this particularly now when we have witnessed how over 40 years a whole generation of academics and teachers has been persuaded by a long well-planned campaign to turn against the Jewish State. It started slowly and imperceptibly with contributions to universities to set up departments that would present a specifically anti-Israel narrative and appoint staff in other areas who would share such an agenda until it became the accepted narrative. And put billions into setting up an infrastructure of ideological hatred. All under our noses in full view while we carelessly let it happen. As a result, there is so much prejudice across Western societies and unwillingness to hear other points of view.
Pharaoh was never convinced he was wrong. Let us hope that this time it might be different. We were commanded in the Bible not to hate the Egyptians for their destructive policies. However, we were encouraged to establish an alternative narrative. And that remains true to this day.
Exodus 6:2-9:35
Rabbi Jeremy Rosen lives in New York. He was born in Manchester. His writings are concerned with religion, culture, history and current affairs – anything he finds interesting or relevant. They are designed to entertain and to stimulate. Disagreement is always welcome.
