In 1959, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave a sermon called “A Tough Mind and an Open Heart.” He taught that the cultivation of a tough mind was crucial in order to ask good questions and to seek out Truth which would lead us to Justice. It’s soft-mindedness, he taught, that leads people to fear change and keeps them from seeing what the reality in front of them calls for in the moment. And it’s closed-heartedness that keeps us from seeing humanity.
The Pharaoh that we read about this week, in many ways, had a soft mind and a closed heart. Dr. King warns us about these traits. In this week’s parashah of Va’era we find Moses and Aaron in front of Pharaoh with the plea we know well. He ignored their plea and could not see their humanity. He offered them and their people no dignity. King wrote, “The hard hearted individual never sees people as people. They become objects and impersonal cogs in some ever turning wheel.”
Pharaoh’s heart was hard; the rigidity of his heart is what led him to deny them freedom. At first, the text indicates that he hardened his own heart. He was so concerned with his own power, his own reputation, his own gain, that he purposefully acted in a way that closed off any possibility of treating the Israelite slaves with empathy and compassion. But an interesting pattern emerges: after the first five plagues we are told that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, it wasn’t of his own doing.
Pharaoh had gotten himself so deep into a cycle of hatred that he couldn’t pull himself out. He had already made decisions for his future self, choices dictated by his already hardened heart. He could no longer see the need for change, he could not see Truth and Justice and he could not see other people as human beings. While Pharaoh is the archetype of a villain, there are moments where we, too, harden our hearts, moments where others may become objects. Our job is to keep opening our hearts regardless of the forces that may try to harden it.
This past week and this coming week are of deep significance for our country. A president was impeached and a new one will be taking office. We are at a moment not just as individuals but as a nation collectively with the choice to open or close our hearts. We can choose to be closed off to others, those who disagree with us, or we can choose to come together with open hearts and tough minds, ready for change, truth, justice, with compassion. This coming week, as I remember King and his legacy, I know that we will not move forward without the combination of tough-mindedness and tender-heartedness. I pray that our tough-mindedness will keep us focused on Truth and Justice, and I pray that our tender-heartedness keeps us in that pursuit with love.
Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Sarit
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