Parashat Bo--Myers-Briggs

In the opening verse of this week’s Torah Portion, Parashat Bo, we learn again of the phenomenon of Pharaoh’s “hardened heart” when it comes to the Israelites and their situation (Exodus 10:1). This idea of a “hardened heart” is repeated no less than 20 times in Exodus: half of the references referring to Pharaoh having a hardened heart and half of the references referring to God hardening Pharaoh’s heart (Etz Hayim 335). This repeated phrase begs a couple questions:

• In the context of Torah, what is the role of the heart and what does it mean for a heart to be hardened?
• How can we learn from this lesson of a hardened heart today?

The role of the heart
As far as the Torah is concerned, the heart functions “as the seat of the intellectual, moral, and spiritual life of the individual” (Etz Hayim 335). Said differently, the biblical heart is understood in much the same way as our mind functions today (the role of today’s heart, the emotional center, is found in the biblical kishkes or gut).

Hardening of the heart
We come to see then that what happens to Pharaoh is not an emotional hardening, but rather an intellectual and spiritual hardening. When the Torah says that Pharaoh’s heart is hardened, it signals to us that Pharaoh has become increasingly entrenched in his own thoughts, beliefs, and assumptions. Pharaoh becomes so convinced he is right, so convinced in the unjust social order of his day, and so sure in his own reasoned justifications that he becomes unable to hear the voices of others, to see their suffering, or recognize injustice.

Lessons of today 
In studying these verses this past week, I was reminded of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (or personality test), which I first completed as a professional development tool while studying at the Hebrew Union College. One of the preference pairs on the test helps the test-taker to understand how s/he likes to make decisions: by Feeling or by Thinking. People who make decisions by Feeling “believe [they] can make the best decisions by weighing what people care about and the points-of-view of persons involved in a situation.” People who make decisions by Thinking “like to find the basic truth or principle to be applied, regardless of the specific situation involved.” As my professor explained it to me, for a Feeling decision-maker the feelings of the other person are more important than being rational and right, and for a Thinking decision-maker being right and rational is more important than sparing the feelings of others or his/her own self.

This Test comes to mind today because I see in its carefully laid-out boundaries the lessons of Pharaoh’s heart. When we harden our hearts, we allow ourselves to exist in the extremes of decision making. For the Feelers amongst us, we allow ourselves to ignore the moral universe in service to the individual in front of us. For the Thinkers amongst us, we allow ourselves to ignore the realities of the individual in service to what we have labeled as moral certitude.

The lesson of Pharaoh is this: We are responsible, always, for justice and compassion; for morality and empathy; for being right and for being kind. This dual-responsibility is what Torah, mitzvot, and Jewish ethical living are all about.  Our tradition asks us to rise above are most basic instincts.

Tests like Myers Briggs are helpful for understanding ourselves, the ways in which we make decisions, and our own tendencies toward action and reaction in this world. They are not, however, excuses to live in extremes and harden our hearts. We are reminded this week not to decide in the image of Pharaoh (who sees neither justice nor compassion), but in the image of God (who seeks always to embody both).