Bo - Exodus 10:1-13:16

The Trouble With Gods

The common issue that atheists and theists have with Gods is that we all live in the 21st century with sophisticated views of the supernatural, and the views of the -10th century we quit simple.

For most modern theists, God exists outside of time and space, is omnipotent, omniscient, omni-benevolent, and has a plan for the entire Universe, the entire Earth, and for all peoples.

However, when the God in the -10th century stories is none of those things, both atheists and theists agree "THAT isn't a real God!".

For the theist, that God gets reworked and the text gets reinterpreted to being Him up to date. For the Atheist, that God gets dismissed as but a badly written character in a myth.

Let's take one example: God being a Jerk.

In ancient times, they had no problems with this sort of behavior. Let's take this poem from the Ugaritic text that was written about the time when Abraham supposedly existed. In it, Anat, who is a goddess of hunting and warring, wants permission from her father, El, to kill a human, the son of El's favorite servant, Danel, because he has a better bow and arrow set than she does. The young man, Aqhat, refused to give them to the Goddess, so she wants to kill him and take them. The irony, is that at the end of the story, after she kills him, the objects of her desire are broken.

Here is Anat interacting with her Dad:

Such are the ways of the Gods, at least, in the "good old days" when they used to walk the Earth.

YHVH is sometimes a Jerk

In this weeks parashah the first two sentences tell us a lot about YHVH's character. Most translations don't do it justice.

First, let me show you the Rabbinically approved Aramaic Targum of those two verses. The Targumist was very uncomfortable with the Hebrew text, and so I will highlight the area that got changed:

(1) "And YHVH said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants so that I shall place these, My signs, among them. (2) and so that you may recount before your son and your son's son the miracles that I performed in Egypt and My signs which I placed among them, so that you will know that I am YHVH,"

The best, and yet still ideologically tweaked translation that I have found is in Artscroll's Saperstein Edition of the text. I will highlight where they went off track, but italicize where they kept to the Hebrew:

(1) "And YHVH said to Moses, "Come to Pharaoh, for I have made his heart and the heart of his servants stubborn so that I shall place these signs of Mine in his midst; (2) and so that you may relate in the ears of your son, and your son's son, that I have amused Myself with Egypt and My signs that I placed among them - that you may know that I am HaShem". ("HaShem" is used by religious books that don't like to write a word for God).

You can see a couple of issues right off. One is that the Targum has God performing miracles, while the other has God amusing Himself with the whole thing.

There are several translation points that need to be addressed. The first one is not that important.

Come/Go: In Biblical Hebrew, you will usually go to a place, and come to a person. There are lots of interpretations that make a lot out of why "come" is used instead of "go", but that's all there is to it.

Recount/Relate: The Hebrew word לספר means "to tell a story". This is the verse commanding Moses that all of this should be told from generation to generation as a form of oral storytelling. A Storyteller is called a maggid, and this word shares the same root as used in haggadah, which is what Jews use on Passover to read from and tell the story of Exodus, from father to son to grandson. To use "recount" and "relate" loses that story-telling action that the Hebrew word indicates, to create an oral tradition of passing on these tales to the next generation.

Hardening Heart. Of course, we are not talking about the physical heart here. "Heart" was what you thought with (they had no concept of what the brain was for). The word translated as "harden" is in the causative form, and it means to make something heavier, a burden, to become worsened, an aggravation. While "stubborn" doesn't seem bad, it falls apart in context. Because right after that, Moses gives his ultimatum, the servants of Pharaoh whose hearts were "hardened" were begging Pharaoh to let the Hebrews go (10:7), and Pharaoh, whose heart was "hardened", agreed (10:10-11).  The fact that YHVH and Moses ignored Pharaoh is irrelevant. So I will go with the simple meaning of "heavier", as in "unhappy thoughts", or "regretful thoughts" etc., which goes counter to the typical translation.

So That. The Hebrew word למען means, "for the sake of" as in "the reason that I am doing this". The English translation into "so that" is a bit low key for this and doesn't really show "I am doing all of this stuff to Egypt so that I can place My signs, and so that you will tell stories about Me." YHVH's intent was not for the Hebrews to be set free (which is a secondary benefit), but so that stories can be told through the generations about YHVH. ("I make the greatest plagues!")

Signs. Saadiah renders "signs" as "plagues" in his interpretation, and I tend to agree.

Amused Myself. The word להתעלל can best be summed up by the image of a big brother, laughing while he has his younger brother beneath him, refusing to let him up, even though the younger one is begging him to stop, and having fun at the other's expense. It is a bullying, but not out of hatred, but out of enjoyment and a lack of empathy for the other. It can also refer to verbally bullying at another expense in the same way, or "mocking".

This was the type of amusement that YHVH was involved in "I amused myself bullying Egypt as her expense and with my plagues that I put among them!"

So here is my translation:

(1) "And YHVH said to Moses, "Come to Pharaoh, for I have made heavy, his heart/thoughts and the heart/thoughts of his servants in order to place these signs/plagues of Mine in [Pharaoh's] midst [to be all around him]; (2) and for-the-sake of, [so that you may] tell-the-story in the ears of your son, and your son's son [telling them] that I amused Myself, bullying Egypt at her expense and [with] My signs/plagues that I put among them so that you may know, because I am YHVH".

It's really a great image of YHVH, having fun, bullying another country, causing them pain and suffering with His plagues. And when, in a few verses, Pharaoh asks Moses to stop and gives in to his demands, YHVH continues anyhow. (Granted, Pharaoh slips in an insult in the midst of telling them to go, but still, he was willing).

Summary

The beginning of this week's parashah is YHVH telling Moses that he's been having fun with his plaguing of Egypt, and that he intends to continue so that the Hebrews will have stories to tell for generations. He has caused a heaviness in the thoughts of the people of Egypt who beg this to stop, and when Pharaoh says, "OK", God just isn't quite done yet.

It's a fun bit of pantomime from an ancient author.