“I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, that I may multiply My signs and marvels in the land of Egypt.” (Shemos 7:3)

When we are in situations in which we are forced to do something we don’t want to do, we sometimes mutter to ourselves, “If I had my choice about this, I wouldn’t be doing it.” Whereas other times, we realize while we are doing it that it is actually to our betterment to do it.

Pharaoh didn’t want to let the Jews go, and Hashem hardened his heart to make sure that it would not happen. This was in order that Hashem could afflict Pharaoh with all 10 plagues. All the meforshim ask, “How could Hashem be so unjust?! Hashem Himself hardened Pharaoh’s heart, resulting in him not letting the Jews go! Why should Pharaoh suffer because Hashem wants to send more plagues?”

One of the most famous answers given to this question is that Pharaoh really didn’t want to let the Jews go, but if his heart had not been hardened, he would have been forced to let them go to end his persecution. Therefore, Hashem had to harden Pharaoh’s heart in order to keep Pharaoh’s free choice at an “even keel”.

The Beis Halevi (Yosef Dov Soloveitchik 1820-1892) takes this to another level, and he contrasts this concept with the famous Rambam in Hilchos Gittin, where the Rambam says that when halacha demands that the husband give the wife a get, yet the husband refuses to give it, he is beaten until he agrees to give her the get. The Rambam explains that although the get must be given out of free will, this is not called giving a get under duress because deep down every Jew really wants to do the right thing. It is just that this Jew’s yetzer hara got in the way, so by beating the husband we are weakening the yetzer hara and allowing his true underlying desire to do Hashem’s mitzvos to surface. Therefore, the husband is giving the get under his own free will, because deep-down all Jews want to do good.

As for a gentile like Pharaoh, we can now understand that his underlying desire was to oppress the Jews, and to force him to free the Jews would be a contradiction to his internal conscience. The hardening of Pharaoh’s heart allowed his true desire to be expressed, which was not giving the Jews the opportunity to leave. Therefore, Pharaoh truly deserved the punishment that he received.

When we are forced to do mitzvos, due to social pressure, or for financial or other reasons, we may wonder, “Is it really best for me to be ‘forced’ to do something that I really don’t want to do?”

My analogy for this is the device called an alarm clock: When the person is wide awake and is aware of what he has to do the next morning, he sets the alarm to the time that is necessary for him to get up. However, when the alarm goes off in the morning and he is still half asleep, he has millions of reasons to explain why last night’s decision was wrong and he should be going back to sleep. We all understand that those reasons are not borne out of logic; rather they are borne out of his desire to sleep. If he were to have all his faculties with him, he would instead be jumping out of bed.

The next time the yetzer hara tells you to do something, try to imagine how you would respond if you weren’t involved – for example, pretend that someone else was asking you for advice. You may find out that it is easier to listen to the yetzer tov than to the yetzer hara, for the yetzer tov’s position is usually borne out of logical thought, whereas the yetzer hara is just a desire of the moment.

May we all merit – no matter how difficult it is – to make the right choices.