Bo

And God spoke to Moses saying; "Come to Pharaoh; I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I might display my miraculous signs among them." - Ex 10:1

When they first met amongst some conflagrated foliage, God had used the seemingly appropriate term "לכה" (lecha), which means "go", when He commanded Moses to visit and reproach Pharaoh, as in: "go to Pharaoh and say..." But now things change. The word "בוא" (bo) means "come". "Come to Pharaoh and say..." is what God now orders the Jewish leader. Why the sudden switch of terminology?

There is a scholastic opinion, apparently the dominant scholastic opinion, that early Judaism was more of a monolatry than a strict monotheism; the god of the Hebrews is not the only power in the sky, he's just our power in the sky. This view fascinated and enthralled me when I encountered it; suddenly, verses like "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:3) and "Who is like You among the gods, O Lord"(ibid 15:11) made a whole new kind of sense. I must confess my bias in this regard: I was a huge fan of Age of Mythology, so the idea that my people have essentially been playing a macroscopic version of the game for thousands of years really appealed to me.

Last week's duel between Moses and the Royal Magicians of Egypt, now takes on an interesting light. This is no longer just sound and fury, signifying nothing; suddenly the might of Ra and Osiris and Thoth are set against the tenacious underdog, Yahweh, Who somehow comes from behind to absolutely school the incumbent pantheon in the art of miracle-working. "You call that a serpent?" you can hear Him ask, with an oddly Australian accent. "THIS is a serpent. And in case he gets hungry, here are a few million frogs to go with."

Yet with the dialogues and interactions between God, Pharaoh and Charlton Heston, we glimpse a different sort of God at work - a God far more in line with the modern omni-everything comprehension of a deity. It goes something like this:

1) God tells Moses the plan.

2) Moses orders Pharaoh to set the Jews free.

3) Pharaoh refuses to set the Jews free.

4) Moses says "wingardium leviosa", and a plague of frogs/blood/locusts/hail/lions-and-tigers-and-bears-oh-my descends upon Egypt.

5) Pharaoh agrees to set the Jews free.

6) God steps in and "hardens Pharaoh's heart".

7) Pharaoh refuses to set the Jews free.

8) Go to (1).

This happens over and over and over again until the Egyptians are well and truly smitten. After the first couple of times, God quits pretending that it's us-against-them. His use of the phrase "come to Pharaoh" is a concession of this - I'm not just over here with you, writing your Emancipationy-Proclamationy speeches for you and raining hellfire upon your enemies; I'm also hovering above Pharaoh's head, pulling his strings so that he'll keep being stubborn and I can keep burning his subjects to death. That'll learn em!

So perhaps this parashah constitutes a riposte against the proponents of a monolatrous Judaism. God is not merely a partisan force; He is a Divine Puppetmaster, and He is always playing both sides of the field. A bit like Emperor Palpatine... although I gotta say: God's apprentice didn't turn out to be anywhere near as cool as old Palpy's.