During a Passover Seder most Jews remove a few drops of wine from their goblets at the mention of each of the ten plagues that struck the Egyptians; thus symbolically reducing the joy of our celebration of our people’s liberation from slavery in Egypt. Sometimes freedom must be purchased with suffering, and even bloodshed. This may be necessary, and even good; but we should not overlook the suffering of others, even our enemies, that was a part of our liberation, and is included in modern Haggadahs.

The Hebrew Scriptures states, “Do not rejoice over the downfall of your enemy, and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles; for the Lord will see and be displeased, and will turn His anger away from him.” (Proverbs 24:17-18) The same lesson is also taught in the Talmud in two different places. (Megillah 10b, and Sanhedrin 39b) When the Egyptians drowned in the Red Sea, God prevented the angels from singing songs of praise, since “God’s handiwork drowned in the sea.” The Egyptians also are God’s children.

The suffering of the Egyptians is especially problematic since it is Pharaoh alone who has the power to let them go free. The Egyptians believed that Pharaoh was the Divine Son of the God Ra. After living in Egypt for many generations, every Jews knew that this belief was official state policy, as well as the religious belief of the Egyptian people. To empower the people with enough trust in the God of Israel, who had not down anything for them since they had become slaves many decades before, ((Exodus 6:9) it was necessary to publicly defeat and humiliate the Divine Pharaoh himself.

This is why the Torah says more than a dozen times that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that he could be knocked down again and again. Each time Pharaoh is defeated the Jewish people, and many Egyptians too; become committed, and........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)