Spiritual Matters

Pharaoh had a problem. It doesn’t seem too serious, but it has the potential to explode. Moses arrived with Aaron to demand; “Let My people Go!” The people in question are not there. Oh! They set out with Moses and his brother to confront Pharaoh, but they dropped off, one by one, and by the time the two brothers arrived in front of the king; they were alone.

Pharaoh wants to make sure that hip nips this in the bud, so he increases the workload, retracts the day of rest, and demands that his slaves no gather the straw to make bricks without cutting down on production.

Most of us understand that Pharaoh wanted to create dissension between the people and their newly self-appointed leader, so he made things worse. But Rashi sees things in a different light. He understands that Pharaoh actually has no need to worry about the people following Moses; they couldn’t even muster the courage to confront the king. But Moses was still a concern; “let them not pay attention to false words,” Rashi explains that this means that Pharaoh did not want them to have an opportunity to even think about spiritual matters. The king understood that once they would focus any of their attention on the spiritual, he, Pharaoh, would lose, even if they didn’t have the courage to confront him. They would.

This evil king understood that just to begin considering spiritual matters would open the dam and they would change.

Our first challenge is just that; to start considering our spiritual lives. Who knows what will develop?

Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, The Foundation Stone