Chasidut su Esodo 10:1

Exodus 10,1. “G’d said to Moses: ‘come to ‎Pharaoh for I have hardened his heart, ‎etc.;’” It is appropriate to examine why in this ‎case G’d tells Moses to ‎בא אל פרעה‎, “come to Pharaoh,” ‎whereas elsewhere He told him; ‎לך אל פרעה‎, ”go to ‎Pharaoh.” Another change in nuance which has caught ‎our attention is that in conjunction with the plague of ‎locusts G’d describes Himself as “I have hardened the ‎heart of Pharaoh.” In order to account for these ‎expressions, we need to remember that there are two ‎classes of miracles. One reason for G’d having to ‎perform miracles is in order to punish those who have ‎been persecuting His people, and to persuade them to ‎refrain from doing that. The second class of miracles is ‎intended to bring about a complete change of heart ‎among those who persecute us, and to encourage them ‎to deal kindly with us instead.
When we examine the Purim story we are struck ‎by the fact that whereas Haman was punished, ‎Achashverosh was not punished, but that G’d caused ‎his heart to undergo a revolutionary change and he ‎became friendly to the Jews. According to Sh’mot ‎Rabbah 9,12, we find an allusion to this in the ‎Torah where we are told that each of the plagues ‎‎[except the killing of the firstborn, of course, ‎Ed.] lasted for a month of 31 days including ‎one week after the warning which gave the people a ‎chance to repent. The plague of the killing of the ‎firstborn occurred in the middle of the month of ‎Nissan, so that the plague of hail occurred in the first ‎half of the month of Sh’vat, a month before Purim. This ‎is alluded to in the words ‎כי אני הכבדתי את לבו‎, i.e. that ‎‎“Achashverosh’s heart had become captive to Me.” ‎According to the Talmud Sotah 11, based on ‎the previous Mishnah, G’d repays sinners in a manner ‎that corresponds to their sins, whereas He rewards ‎people who have done something good in a measure ‎that even exceeds merits earned for the good they ‎have done. If Achasheverosh had been dealing kindly ‎with the Jewish people, then G’d, as an act of ‎compensation would also cause his ministers and ‎servants to display a positive attitude towards the Jews. ‎Since Jews are in the habit of studying the ‎commandments and rules pertaining to the proper ‎observance of the Passover festival for 30 days prior to ‎the festival itself, (Pessachim 6) G’d will ‎compensate them for this generously. If G’d could turn ‎a stubborn King’s heart, He could do so more easily ‎with the hearts of his servants and ministers.‎‎

[Regarding] the statement in the Holy Zohar, “Come to Pharaoh (Ex. 10:1) – it should have said ‘go to Pharaoh!’” (cf. Zohar Bo, 2:34a), as well as the question posed by the commentators, which I wrote above – the miracle of the Exodus from Egypt was that the Awareness was in exile with wicked Pharaoh in Egypt; and therefore Israel was exiled there to bring the Awareness from there. And the difficulty of the servitude made it whole, as is stated in Tikkunei Zohar: “And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve… in mortar [be-homer] (Ex. 1:13-14), that is [the logical argument of] ‘…and certainly…’ [kal ve-homer]; and in brick [oo-vil’venim] (Ex. 1:14), that is the heating [libbun] of halakhah; and in all manner of service in the field (Ex. 1:14), that is the external sources; in all their service, wherein they made them serve with rigor [b’farekh] (Ex. 1:14), that is argumentation [pirkha]” (Tikkun 9, Supplement 147a), which is to say that all of this was in exile in Egypt. And through their servitude they took the Awareness, which is the Torah, out of the exile. When they served in mortar they brought [the logical argument of] “…and certainly…” out of the exile, and so on for all the other servitudes as we have stated. And therefore when Moses our Teacher, peace be upon him, said, Behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me [ – How then shall Pharaoh listen to me] (Ex. 6:12), and Rashi explained, “This is one of ten ‘…and certainly…’ [arguments] in the Torah,” that is to say that when [Moses] said this “…and certainly…” [argument] he brought the “…and certainly…” [argument] in the Torah out of the exile. For the all of the Torah was in the Egyptian exile, since the Awareness was in exile; and the Awareness is the Torah. Now, the Torah begins with [the letter] bet, In the beginning [God] created etc. (Gen. 1:1); but why didn’t the Torah begin with aleph, which is the first of all the letters? Because [if that were the case] the world would not be able to exist for even one hour, and would be nullified from existence because of the letter aleph’s great brightness, since it alludes to the Champion [aluf] of the World, who is Blessed God in [God’s] Glory and [God’s] Essence, as if it were possible. But because the LORD God is a sun and shield (Psalm 84:12) – which is to say just like one can not look at the sun because of its great brightness, only by way of a shade or a shield can one look at the sun’s light – so too, as if it were possible, with a thousand thousands of thousands of distinctions without end or boundary, would it be impossible to exist because of the letter aleph’s great brightness, since it is the Champion of the World. Only by way of a shade or a shield, which is the letter bet – [only] through it does it become possible to constrain the letter aleph so that it can also be in the Torah. For after the letter bet in bereshit we find several alephs, in the word bereshit and in the words bara elohim, once it was constrained by the letter bet. And that is [the meaning of] Come [בא] to Pharaoh, which is to say through the bet the aleph will be in the Torah. And since now the Torah is in exile, therefore I have hardened his heart and [the heart of his servants] (Ex. 10:1) so that Israel will serve in mortar and in brick (Ex. 1:14) to bring the Torah out of exile. And as is stated in Tikkunei Zohar, “… in mortar [be-homer] (Ex. 1:13-14), that is [the logical argument of] ‘…and certainly…’ [kal ve-homer],” as we said above – through this they brought [the argument of] “…and certainly…” out of the exile, and so on for the other servitudes. And that is [the meaning of] that I may show these signs [otot] of mine among them (Ex. 10:1), that the letters [otiot], which belong to the Torah, must be taken out of exile. And the verse concludes, that you may tell … how I have toyed (Ex. 10:2), which is to say that I made Myself small since the Awareness was in smallness. And now you may know (Ex. 10:2), as was stated above.