[Avodah] free will

[Liron Kopinsky]

On Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 10:29 PM, Eli Turkel <eliturkel at gmail.com> wrote:

> In the beginning og this weeks parsha, Bo, It says that G-d hardened the
> hearts of Pharoh and all his servants.
> I understand Pharoh in that he had a chance to repent until now and so
> he has "gone over the edge"
> However, it is harder to say that the all the servants of Pharoh were on
> such a low level with no exceptions
>

I hear a pshat last year that part of the Makkot was to teach the Egyptians
that all of their gods are worthless. Since Pharoh made himself into a god,
his free will had to be removed as part of the plagues - even when all
common sense said otherwise - to teach the mitzrim that he too is subject to
Hashem.
This doesn't answer the servants. but shows how Pharoh didn't necessarily
even need to go over the edge.
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