Parshat Bo
Rabbi Menachem Schrader
Founding Director of JLIC and Director of Overseas Program at Nishmat.

I would like to share with you a psychological insight revealed to us by Moshe Rabeinu in this week's Torah portion.

Moshe explains to Pharaoh that he knows Pharaoh will withdraw the permission granted to leave Egypt after the plague of Barad, Hail.

"The flax and the barley were struck, for the barley was ripe, and the flax was in its stalk. But the wheat and the spelt were not struck, for
they ripen later."

True, while Pharaoh is directly under the pressure of the hail, the world is black, and he will promise anything to stop the downpour. But once it has ceased, the opportunity for "balanced" thinking appears. Has the world truly fallen apart? Are things really that bleak? Our economy has been hurt by the losses in flax and barley, but will we starve as a result?

Certainly not! On the contrary, the wheat and spelt have been spared, and they are superior grains for people. If we will not wear linen from our flax this year, we will wear wool! After the harm the hail did do the country, shall I further damage the economy by letting the Hebrew slaves escape?

Our tendency to justify holding on to our "investments" well beyond the warning signs of collapse is human nature. We prefer not to enter a crisis mode as long as any other option appears possible. We risk everything in order to maintain our status quo top whatever extent it is still available.

Pharaoh's realization that the time had come to let the Hebrews go was a momentary epiphany of sense within his general denial of the reality around him.

Many of us have "moments of truth" that rise up in our minds, clarifying for us directions we should pursue and actions we should take, only to let them be crowded out by a dense plastic reality that prevents that light from shining through.

We must succeed where Pharaoh failed, and allow our minds to embrace what is right, and allow it to shine beyond the limitations of the moment.

Shabbat Shalom,
Menachem Schrader