A few months ago there was an airplane flight from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Like many flights these days, there was a delay. To make matters worse, after the flight took off there was an unexpected stop in Sacramento. The flight attendant told the passengers they were permitted to exit the plane for 30 minutes. Everybody left the plane except one blind man.

He sat patiently in his seat with his trusty seeing-eye dog quietly beside him. This man was obviously a regular on that flight, and the pilot approached him by name, asking if he would like to get off and stretch his legs.

The man said "No," but then observed that probably his dog would like to stretch his legs. And now picture this: all the people in the gate area came to a completely quiet standstill when they looked up and saw the pilot walk off the plane with a seeing-eye dog. To make matters worse, the pilot was even wearing dark sunglasses. People quickly scattered as you can imagine, for they not only tried to change planes, they tried their very best to change airlines!

Sometimes we are misled by what appears to be the truth. We forget that in Life, appearances are often deceiving. Such confusion is easily found in this week's Torah portion. It seems at first glance, that Pharaoh appears to be God's puppet; that God is playing with Pharaoh. The pattern is familiar, isn't it?

As each further plague threatens, Pharaoh is given the choice to let the Israelites go. And each time we are told that God "hardens" Pharaoh's heart and so he refuses to relent. A casual reading of the portion suggests that Pharaoh is, as it were, "set up."

Some commentators through the ages have wisely pointed out that the appearance that Pharaoh had no free will to exercise was really quite deceiving. In reality, Pharaoh alone is responsible for his actions. As the commentators observe, during the early plagues, the Torah says that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. Pharaoh's free will becomes limited only after a pattern of stubborn and insensitive behavior develops. The Great Maimonides writes:
 

"We may conclude...that it was not God who forced Pharaoh to do evil to Israel...'For no' one forces, or preordains or impels one to take one path over another. Of our own free will do we incline to whatever way we wish to take. This is a fundamental principal of Judaism..."

Now what is Maimonides really trying to tell us here? Although it appears that God is controlling Pharaoh, the actual meaning of the Biblical story is this: Pharaoh makes enough bad choices so that eventually his path is evil. Eventually, the momentum of his recalcitrance and bitter hatred carries him along without his needing to choose. Life will choose for him.

The frightening implication of this lesson is that all of us can be denied our own choices in Life after we have made enough of the wrong choices period. For most of us don't decide one day upon awakening to become evil people. Nor, do I believe, that anyone is born with a hardened heart. But listen carefully - if we make enough of the wrong choices in Life, then our hearts slowly will become hardened. If we cultivate selfishness, arrogance and insensitivity, or even if we only mildly entertain such practices, we may not even be aware of how far we've moved from the ideals and expectations of our tradition.

People often ask me, "Rabbi, where was God in the Holocaust, in those terrible years of suffering and agony?" And my reply is: God was with the victims but the Holocaust was a human predicament, not a theological one. For I believe that the Holocaust was avoidable; that early on what it took was a degree of courage, discipline, insight, faith, and human compassion to raise a voice against an Austrian house painter whose words and solutions made no sense. But, alas, very few voices were raised and too many failed to take seriously the threat of this man who they concludesdwas a kook and who would amount to nothing.

There was a time when, had enough individuals stood up and denounced him and his few followers, Adolph Hitler could have been dispatched to the wastebasket of history without causing the deaths of so many worldwide. The German people allowed their own hearts to harden when month by month, and year by year, they followed orders and perpetrated the unspeakable and unforgivable.

There's a famous saying that "the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step." When it comes to softening our hearts, the most important thing we can do is to begin with a single act of kindness. The French theologian Phillipe Verneir offers this advice:
 

"Do not wait for great strength before setting out for immobility will weaken you further. Do not wait to see very clearly before starting: One has to walk toward the light. Have you strength enough to take this first step? ... You will be astonished to feel that the effort accomplished, instead of having exhausted your strength, has doubled it - that you already see more clearly what you have to do next."

The longer I live the more I come to understand that there is no such thing as standing still, ethically speaking. Either our hearts will harden, or they will soften. By taking on the small challenges of daily life, and by doing the right thing, we will prepare ourselves for the greater challenges that will present themselves in our lives, and you and I will be happy to make a better world. Pharaoh's heart was hardened by the pattern he himself had set. The plagues that may afflict humankind may yet be averted in our own day and in that of our precious children. And so may it be.