Knowledge is the engine<\/p>\n
That drives man’s progress.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
And curiosity it’s fuel.<\/p>\n
A simple question can open<\/p>\n
The most complicated door<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A complicated question can<\/p>\n
Close the simplest of issues<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
And the dismissal of a sincere<\/p>\n
Question can forever turnoff<\/p>\n
The pistoling valves that pump<\/p>\n
Man’s journey…<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
So let us question the flat surface<\/p>\n
Of what is<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
With the hope that perhaps we can<\/p>\n
Dream and reach the lofty peaks<\/p>\n
Of what could be:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
G-d said to Moshe<\/i><\/p>\n
Come to Pharaoh<\/i><\/p>\n
For I have hardened<\/i><\/p>\n
His heart<\/i><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
How could Moshe’s coming<\/p>\n
To Pharaoh ever soften a heart<\/p>\n
That has been hardened by the<\/p>\n
Divine?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
How could the Divine, the most pure,<\/p>\n
The most soft, ever harden anything?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Of hard facts and soft words:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
At times it is hard being soft;<\/p>\n
Just as at other times it is soft<\/p>\n
Being hard…<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
At times it is hard to come…<\/p>\n
But it is precisely at those times<\/p>\n
That one must come to what is hard.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
False followers shrink away from hard places;<\/p>\n
True leaders come to them with reality and softness;<\/p>\n
But a softness not ignorant of the harsh realities, a<\/p>\n
Softness that is not a weakness but a strength, a<\/p>\n
Softness that says: Even in the hardest, most<\/p>\n
Difficult person, even in the hardest, most<\/p>\n
Difficult situation, with work, hard work<\/p>\n
One can reach the softness within…<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Pharaoh made callous choices so he became callous;<\/p>\n
He made insensitive decisions so he became insensitive \u2212<\/p>\n
To the extent that G-d, Reality, in whose eyes everything<\/p>\n
Appears as it really is without pretenses or coverups, hardens<\/p>\n
His heart. Once, the heart may have been innocent and pure, but<\/p>\n
As the dirt started to pile up, the heart itself became soiled, as<\/p>\n
The cuts started to accumulate the heart started to scar – you see,<\/p>\n
Every time one breaks something, a piece of one’s own heart \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Breaks as well<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The heart has become so hard, Pharaoh’s reality so distorted that<\/p>\n
Reality itself, a reflection of our own deeds, has begun to harden<\/p>\n
Around the already moldy crust and the possibility of change seems<\/p>\n
To be stuck between a rock and, well, a hard place…<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Come to Pharaoh<\/i><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But a hard place is only as hard as the person (with)in it<\/p>\n
Moshe: a faithful shepherd \u2212 a man who would come to a<\/p>\n
The hardest of places, Pharaoh’s heart, because he is a leader<\/p>\n
And leaders do anything to get theirs out of hardness…<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
G-d doesn’t tell Moshe what to do; only to come:<\/p>\n
How can Reality tell Moshe how to soften the hardness<\/p>\n
When the Reality itself seems to be hardening the heart?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But Moshe is beyond, he knows that through the process<\/p>\n
Of the final plagues, the hardness, seemingly insurmountable,<\/p>\n
Will begin to melt into a pliant, soft wax whose mold shapes \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Freedom<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
May our inner Moshe, our ability at pure redemption,<\/p>\n
Come to the inner Pharaoh, the impure coarseness,<\/p>\n
And turn it forever from Exile into Redemption!<\/p>\n