Parashat Bo: Freeing the Hard Heart

I know it might not sit well to look at Pharaoh this way; it feels too sympathetic toward the arch-villain of our collective imagination as he holds firm against the inevitable tide of emancipation. But the parashah seems to invite it. After all, it opens with bo el-Par'oh, - "come to Pharaoh," not lech el-Par'oh, "go to Pharaoh." The vantage point is Pharaoh's; he is the fixed point and Moshe - and we - are being invited into his world.

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