God Is an Accelerationist
At shul today, my eight-year-old daughter Carol asked about the parsha we were reading, from Exodus 10-11, which details the last of the three plagues before Pharaoh lets the Jews go. Up until that final moment, God is “hardening Pharaoh’s heart,” stiffening his tyrannical resolve so that he won’t let the Jews go. Which prompted this exchange:
Carol: Why does God harden Pharaoh’s heart? Why doesn’t He soften it?
Me: I have no idea. Why do you think?
Carol: Maybe if He did, the Jews would get too comfortable and wouldn’t want to go.
Me: That’s what people call “heightening the contradictions.”