IJII

      Exodus 10:1 has a curious statement: “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials, so that I may perform miraculous signs of mine among them.’”

      We read these words and wonder if they are reasonable? Can we accept the idea that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, grasped control over his thinking and forced him against his will and better judgment to reject Moses’ plea to release the Israelites from dehumanizing Egyptian slavery? Isn’t this counter-intuitive to the basic notion that humans have free will? This is surely a bizarre idea, since by hardening Pharaoh’s heart God caused innocent Israelites to suffer additional enslavement, torture, and perhaps even death?

      These are ancient questions. Maimonides addressed them. Unfortunately, it is possible that some people misunderstand him.

      It is generally recognized that Maimonides contradicts himself. He states in Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Teshuva 5 and Guide of the Perplexed 3:32 that every human has free will. Yet in his Shemoneh Perakim 8 and Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Teshuva 6:3, he writes that God deprived Pharaoh of free will so that he would not repent and release the Israelites from slavery, and by not repenting he could be punished for brutally enslaving the Israelites for centuries.

      The generally-accepted explanation for the Maimonidean conflicting statements is that Maimonides felt that Pharaoh’s situation was an exception to the general divine practice of allowing free will. Based on a misunderstanding of some Midrashim, people explain that God sometimes acts with justice and at other times with mercy. Maimonides, they say, is stating that God needed to act with His “attribute of justice” because Pharaoh behaved so egregiously that justice mandated that the ruler be punished and not be allowed to repent and, thereby escape punishment. Thus, despite God usually allowing humans free will, He could not do so with Pharaoh.

      There are several problems with this interpretation of Maimonides. First, the midrashic statement that God sometimes acts with mercy and at other times with justice was certainly not meant to be taken literally; it could not mean that God changes. The Midrash is stating that sometimes people view God as acting with mercy and at other times, from the human perspective, God acts with justice. But God Himself never changes.

      Second, and more importantly, this explanation fails to answer our initial questions. Would we for a moment imagine, for example, that God would step into the holocaust and disallow Hitler from repenting and force him to continue to murder millions of Jews so that he could be punished for his initial murders?

      Another interpretation of Maimonides, based on his methodology, is possible and is certainly more reasonable. This is the explanation of Joseph ibn Caspi.

      Joseph ibn Caspi was born in Provence, France, in 1297, ninety-three years after the death of his role model Moses Maimonides. He was an ardent follower of the philosophy of Maimonides and his method of understanding Scripture. He incorporated the rational ideas of Maimonides in many of his writings. He lived a short but productive life, dying at the age of forty-three in 1340. He wrote many books, including a commentary on the Torah and on Maimonides’ Guide.

      Caspi noted that Maimonides frequently makes intentional contradictions, not only here. Maimonides wrote in his introduction to his Guide of the Perplexed, item seven of the reasons for apparent discrepancies, and in 3:28, that he composed his books for two audiences - for the common people and for the more educated. Thus when two statements contradict each other, as they do here, Maimonides states that his reader should realize that one statement is for the uneducated majority and the other for the philosophically-minded educated few.

      An example is Maimonides’ discussion of prophecy. In part 2 of his Guide of the Perplexed 32-48, Maimonides states that prophecy is not a divine communication, but the use of a highly developed intelligence. Yet, he also says that Jews believe that God can interfere and stop the prophecy. These statements, ibn Caspi notes, conflict; if God is not involved in prophecy, He does not stop it.

      Caspi explained in his commentary to the Guide that the conflict can be understood by reference to 3:28 and 2:48. In Guide 3:28, as he stated, Maimonides tells his readers that he writes for two audiences. The statement about God stopping prophecy was written, according to ibn Caspi, for the average person who prefers to see God involved in prophecy. Maimonides’ true view, he writes, is that God is not involved.

      However, even the educated reader of Maimonides can find a reasonable explanation of his statement that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. How? Ibn Caspi writes that Guide 2:48 explains it. Section 2:48 states that when Scripture says that God does something, it means that God is the “ultimate cause” of everything that occurs on earth because He created the laws of nature. However, God is not the immediate cause; the immediate cause is the laws of nature.

      An example is when Joseph tells his brothers in Genesis 45:7, “God sent me [from Canaan to Egypt] before you.” According to 2:48, this verse should not be understood to mean that God interfered in the lives of Jacob’s children, took control of their thoughts and actions, and compelled them against their will to sell Joseph to merchants. It also does not mean that God took over the lives and intentions of the merchants and forced them like puppets to outlay money, buy Joseph and transport him to Egypt. Both the brothers and the merchants had free will and made their own decisions. The statement about God, Maimonides explains, reminds the reader that God is the “ultimate cause.” He gave the brothers and the merchants the free will to make their own decisions.

      Thus, when Maimonides states that God can interfere and stop a prophet from prophesying, the intelligent reader should understand the Guide, as the Bible, saying as the talmudic sages say elsewhere, that no matter how intelligent a person is, physical impediments can stop his prophecy. The impediment may be as a strong feeling of sadness or depression.

      The same Caspian solution can be used here. It is arguable that Maimonides’ true position is that humans have free will and, as he writes, God never interferes with it. How then should the statement that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart be understood? It was the laws of nature, Pharaoh’s own personality, his long-standing wrong-heated habits, his own high concept of self and his dismissal of the worth of other humans that hardened his heart. Pharaoh had been raised to think in such a high-handed manner that he had no second thoughts about behaving cruelly, and it was psychologically difficult for him to act humanly and reasonably.

      Thus, the Maimonidean methodology as understood by Joseph ibn Caspi reveals that the Torah is describing God telling Moses to speak to Pharaoh since he was adamant in his refusal to release the enslaved Israelites. And God assures Moses that despite the ruler’s firm decision, he will be forced to change his mind.  
 

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