Cytowanie Komentarza do Wyjścia 9:27

כי אני הכבדתי, even though Moses had said; “I know that you do not yet relate with awe and reverence to G’d,” (9,30) he thought that even if he does not humble himself to G’d because of G’d’s greatness, at least he should do what G’d says seeing that he has no choice, and can no longer withstand the cumulative effect of the plagues. He had arrived at this conclusion when he noted the words ה' הצדיק, “the Lord is the Just One.” However, when he found out that all these pious words notwithstanding Pharaoh continued to oppose G’d’s will in spite of the fact that he found it impossible to cope with the plagues, Moses had come to the conclusion that warning Pharaoh of an impending plague was an exercise in futility. This is why G’d had to tell him at this stage that already during the sixth plague (9,12) He had stiffened Pharaoh’s heart so that ordinary rules of psychology could no longer be applied to this man. The purpose was to enable G’d to demonstrate more miracles so that maybe some Egyptians would be moved by what they experienced to become penitents. If so, the Israelites in the future would be able to tell their children of the greatness of G’d’s miracles. This in turn would convince mankind that G’d loved His creatures and was very patient with them, giving them opportunities to mend their ways. This is why the warning to Pharaoh was in place although it would prove ineffectual. G’d’s plan was

And warn him. [Rashi knows this] because it is written, “ כי (for) I have hardened his heart.” Every כי that appears in Scripture comes to give a reason for what preceded. And if “Go in to Pharaoh” did not mean “and warn him,” how would כי be giving a reason for what preceded? This is what Hashem was saying to Moshe: [It is true that] warning Pharaoh will surely have no effect, since he did not send out the B’nei Yisrael in spite of his confession, “This time I have sinned” (9:27). Thus our verse explains: “For I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his servants.” In other words, the warning is necessary for his servants, whose hearts had not yet hardened [and they rebelled in the plague of hail only because Hashem hardened their hearts]. The reason Hashem did not harden their hearts sooner [but He waited for the plague of hail to do so] is that the verse states there, “he that feared the word of Hashem . . . made his servants and his livestock flee. . .” (9:20). If Hashem had not hardened the servants’ hearts at that time, they would have insisted that Pharaoh release the B’nei Yisrael. Thus He hardened their hearts, “So that I will be able to set these signs in their midst.” Although [with the coming plague of locusts] Pharaoh’s servants said, “Send the men out” (20:7), their repentance was not wholehearted [and they deserved the ensuing punishment]. For they said to send only the men [and not the entire nation], as Pharaoh himself said, “The [adult] men should go.” (20:11) (Nachalas Yaakov, see further elaboration there)

The first, that he laid the corner-stone (Job 38:6) to prove from the suffering of the righteous that personal jurisdiction is not administered by the righteous Lord (Exodus 9:27), for He has handed Governance over to the Cosmos. He had based this conviction on the following argument:
, Since no injustice or deficiency can be attributed to God, and the undeserved suffering of a righteous person is either unjust or improper, it cannot originate from God but from the ruler He has appointed to govern the world: to rule by the laws of Nature which do not distinguish between righteous and wicked persons. And this does not constitute an injustice, since as a consequence of the natural governance of the becoming and demising world, individuals must perish. Even were the Earth to be wiped out, this would not be an evil on the scale of the existence of the Universe, relative to which the Earth is like a grain of sand, as we explained at length in the introduction to the Fifth Oration.

תבלעמו ארץ THE EARTH SWALLOWED THEM — From this it may be gathered that they received the privilege of burial as a reward for having said, (Exodus 9:27) “The Lord is righteous” (Mekhilta).