We Decide Our Future

By Rabbi Moshe Krieger, Yeshivas Bircas HaTorah

Before bringing on the eighth plague, locusts, Hashem instructs Moshe: “Come to Pharaoh, because I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his servants in order to put My signs in his midst” (10:1). Rashi says that Moshe was sent to warn Pharaoh about the upcoming plague.

The Sages explain that until this point Pharaoh had hardened his heart on his own, stubbornly refusing to release the Jews. After five plagues, however, Pharaoh would have relented, only Hashem hardened Pharaoh’s heart and he held fast in his refusal (Rashi 7:3).

The question is, the above verse seems illogical. Moshe should go to Pharaoh because Hashem hardened his heart? That should be a reason not to go to him! Why bother warning a person who has been programmed not to listen?

Furthermore, the Medrash (Shmos Rabba 13:3) says that this seems to give sinners an excuse! Once a person becomes mired in sin, Hashem hardens his heart and doesn’t let him do teshuva. “So you see,” claim the sinners, “it’s not our fault!”

The Medrash answers that such cases arise only after a person receives three warnings. After that point Hashem “locks” a person’s heart.

However, the question remains. After three times, the sinners still have their excuse. “I failed to heed Hashem’s three warnings, so teshuva is off limits for me. I might as well keep sinning.”

Lev Eliyahu answers says that neither the verse nor the Medrash means that Hashem ever takes away a person’s free choice. A heart, even if locked, remains in a person’s possession. If he wants he can break the lock, reclaim his heart and change his ways. Pharaoh could have listened to Hashem had he really wanted. “Hardening his heart” gave Pharaoh the strength not to be forced into submission, because that wouldn’t be a sincere teshuva. Therefore, there was reason to send Moshe to Pharaoh. Pharaoh, precisely because his heart was hardened, now had the possibility of recognizing Hashem’s mastery of the world out of free will.

The Medrash describes what happens to sinners like Pharaoh as the “locking of the heart.” Lev Eliyahu explains that such a strong term is used because this is how the sinner feels. After yielding time after time to sin, he is so habituated to sinning that it’s nearly impossible for him to do teshuva. This is what happened to Pharaoh. At the beginning he sought the Jews’ welfare out of gratitude to Yosef, but little by little he became such a ruthless dictator that he could not fathom letting his slaves go free, even after suffering so many plagues.

The lesson for us is that every person decides who he will become. If he embarks on a path of evil and gets accustomed to this way of life, Hashem will not stop him. If he embarks on a path of good and sticks to it, Hashem will assist him. Every single act we do plays a major role in deciding our direction in life.

Pirkei Avos (4) states: “One should always run to do [even] a light mitzvah and flee from a sin, because a mitzvah leads to a[nother] mitzvah and a sin leads to a[nother] sin; the reward of a mitzvah is a mitzvah and the reward for a sin is a sin.” We see that just one mitzvah, even a “light” one, draws a person further in a positive direction, and the same is true with negative behavior.

Rabbeinu Yonah notes that this Mishna sounds repetitive. When the Sages say that the reward of a mitzvah is another mitzvah, they clearly mean what they said at the beginning, that one mitzvah leads to another. What does the second statement add?

Rabbeinu Yona says that the Mishna is teaching two distinct lessons: First, doing one mitzvah changes a person, making it easier for him to go on to another mitzvah. If a person pushes himself to make it on time to Shacharis, or to his learning seder, the following day it will be easier. Likewise, a sinner will unfortunately find it easier to sink deeper into sin.

“Reward” for a mitzvah refers to a new dimension. When a person sets out to do a mitzvah, who says he will succeed? There may be obstacles in his way. When a man pushes himself to make it on time every day to Shacharis, on a morning that he does not have strength to get up, Hashem gives this to him. Behind a thin veneer of “nature,” Hashem provides hidden channels of assistance.

Many think that a person’s achievements in life are severely limited by a host of circumstances beyond his control, such as his level of intelligence, his social standing, where he was born and raised and so on. This Mishna teaches the opposite. We each control our own destiny. What it takes is to resolve which course we intend to follow, that of mitzvos or, chalila, the opposite. Whatever we choose will determine how Hashem directs the future events of our lives.

In the times of the Chazon Ish, there were two brothers who grew up in Bnei Brak whose story people found inspiring. Since their childhood, each brother had a specific plan about what he wanted to become. One wanted to be a rosh yeshiva, and the other wanted to produce sefarim full of deep insights in Talmudic analysis. In addition to years of diligent learning, they both davened fervently to achieve their respective goal. When they reached adulthood, each brother achieved exactly what he had worked for all along; one became a rosh yeshiva and the other, an author of deep Talmudic sefarim!

When people related this to the Chazon Ish, he commented: “Look how much responsibility each of us has for deciding the course of our lives. Whoever really wants to become a rosh yeshiva becomes one! Every one of us can determine who he will be! ”

May we successfully decide the course of our lives!