“The Darkness of the Heart”

  The last two plagues – darkness and the death of Egypt’s first born – were the straw that softened the heart of Pharaoh. Well, softened isn’t the right word inasmuch as he sent his soldiers after us, dismissing his personal directive to let us leave Egypt. Having his own first-born die must have been the ultimate punishment; for the Egyptians in general, having their first born die prompted them to protest against Pharaoh’s stubbornness….” Let them go already!”

  But there are some who say that even worse than this last plague was the darkness that permeated the nation, that the Egyptians could not see anything even their hand when held directly in front of them. There’s a commentary that says the “darkness” might have been what we associate with the word, but in fact it was not the darkness of the eyes but the darkness of the heart. The Egyptians didn’t care about anyone, even family members, and ironically it was that last plague that lifted their blindness…their children were dying.

  How that fits into the ultimate refrain found in the Torah, to care about others “for you were slaves in the land of Egypt”! It appears thirty-six times, more than any other. The experience of slavery followed by Divine laws outlining the path of life stressed a consciousness of interdependence that we were to internalize not just at Sinai, not just in our continued wandering, and not just in our entrance into the Promised Land. Every generation – ours included – must respond to others’ needs. Having the “darkness of the heart” is one of the most egregious violations of the Torah, and while as Reform Jews we are free to interpret for ourselves so many mitzvot, we are not free to do so with those tied to deeds of lovingkindness.