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Hope Sickens While Pharaoh Hardens His Heart

The Egyptian knelt at the river and drank blood. The Israelite beside him drank water. That night people in Goshen believed it was over.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. Two Men at the Same Stretch of River
  2. The Grammar of Almost
  3. The Water Chose a Side
  4. See, I Have Begun
  5. What He Told Them About the Jordan
Hope Sickens While Pharaoh Hardens His Heart Click for full size

Two Men at the Same Stretch of River

They knelt an arm's length apart on the same bank of the Nile and put their jars into the same water. The Egyptian lifted his and it was blood, thick, already going dark at the rim. The Israelite lifted his and it was river water, and he drank it in front of the man who could not.

That was the first sign, and word of it went through Goshen before the day was over. Every one of the plagues after that ran through the same element. Whatever God did for Israel, he did with water.

That night people in Goshen let themselves believe it was finished. Some of them said out loud that they would be gone by the new moon.

The Grammar of Almost

They were not gone by the new moon.

Moses came and went, came and went, and each time he came the sky or the ground or the livestock did something impossible, and each time Pharaoh's face closed again. Frogs, and then no. Lice, and then no. Hail that came down burning, and then no. Darkness so thick that a man could not lift his arm through it for three days, and then no.

Waiting like that sickens people. Not as a figure of speech. Mothers counted the days between signs the way the sick count the hours between fevers. Children learned not to cheer at the first crack of thunder. A heart can only be lifted and dropped so many times before it stops going up.

Hope kept deferred does that. The generation that finally walked out of Egypt carried the scar of it into the wilderness, having been taught ten separate times that a door opening means nothing.

The Water Chose a Side

At the sea it stopped being subtle.

The water saw something and ran. One account says it saw the Name of God cut into the staff Moses was holding. Another says it saw the hand of the Holy One itself and bolted like an animal. Either way the sea broke open and a nation walked through on ground that had been sea floor an hour earlier.

Three days later they came to Marah and the water there was bitter, and they said so, loudly. God showed Moses a tree and Moses threw it in and the water turned sweet. At the rock, water came out when it was spoken to. At the well they stopped complaining long enough to sing.

See, I Have Begun

Forty years on, the children of those slaves stood in front of Sihon, and Sihon had walls and a standing army and a country.

There was no theater this time. No going back to the palace ten times. No plague, no negotiation, no morning that looked like freedom and evening that looked like brick.

God said to Moses, "Look. I have already knocked down the one who guards him. He is tied up in front of you. Do to him whatever you want."

It was the difference between a father who makes his son wait for justice and a father who drags the enemy into the room by the collar and hands over the rope. Sihon fell. Og fell after him. The whole thing took less time than one of the plagues had taken.

What He Told Them About the Jordan

On the far bank, with the Jordan running between them and the land, Moses stood in front of a generation that had never seen the sea split and told them what he wanted them to carry across.

Every miracle, he said. Every single one. The river in Egypt that gave you water and gave them blood. The sea. The bitter water at Marah. The rock. The well. All of it came through water, and when you cross the Jordan, it will happen there too.

He was a hundred and twenty years old and he was not going over with them. He said it anyway, standing at the edge of a river he had been forbidden to enter, telling other people what the water was going to do for them.

PharaohPlaguesHopeMosesExodusWaterSihonRed Sea
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From the tradition

Sources

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The texts behind this telling. Some cards carry a translation of the source; others are our own retelling of it, and each card says which. Every card links out to the original.

Devarim Rabbah 1:23Devarim Rabbah

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.The Sefaria Midrash Rabbah, 2022 · CC-BY

The Book of Proverbs nails it: "Expectation deferred sickens the heart" (Proverbs 13:12). But what does that really mean, especially when

Devarim Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of Deuteronomy, uses this very verse to explore the pain of delayed hope, and the joy of finally seeing a promise fulfilled. And it all starts with the phrase, "See, I have begun..."

Rabbi Azarya suggests that this verse speaks directly to the Jewish people’s longing for salvation. Soon, I will shake the heavens and the earth!" (Haggai 2:6). Each time, hope flares, only to be extinguished by continued hardship. "Expectation deferred sickens the heart," the people would sigh. But then, finally, the prophet proclaims, "Behold, your Savior has come!" (Isaiah 62:11). That’s when "desire realized is a tree of life" (Proverbs 13:12). That yearning, finally quenched, brings forth vibrant, flourishing life.

It's not just about grand, sweeping salvation. The Rabbis find other examples in the Torah. Think about Pharaoh. With each plague that Moses brought, the Israelites must have believed, this is it! We're finally free! But Pharaoh would stubbornly refuse. Again and again, "expectation deferred sickens the heart."

And then, a complete contrast: the wars against Siḥon and Og. Remember them? These were powerful kings who stood in the way of the Israelites entering the Promised Land. But this time, God says, almost immediately, "See, I have begun delivering before you." No agonizing wait. No soul-crushing disappointment. Just swift, decisive action. “And desire realized is a tree of life.”

There's one more interpretation of "See, I have begun" that I find particularly striking. Rabbi Abba bar Kahana offers a powerful image: God, in effect, tells Moses, "See, I have toppled their guardian angel!" It’s like a king who captures his son's worst enemy and says, "Here. Do with him as you wish." The divine protection has been removed. The path is clear. It's not just about military might or political maneuvering. It's about removing the spiritual obstacles that stand in our way. The malach, the angel or spiritual force, that protected Siḥon and Og was no longer there. Their power was an illusion.

So what does this all mean for us today? Perhaps it’s a reminder that the waiting can be agonizing, but the eventual fulfillment is all the sweeter. Maybe it's an encouragement to look for the "guardian angels" – the unseen forces – that may be blocking our own paths, and to trust that, in time, they too can be toppled. Or perhaps it’s just a comforting thought that even in the midst of uncertainty, the Divine is saying, “See, I have begun…” even when we can't see it yet.

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Devarim Rabbah 3:8Devarim Rabbah

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.The Sefaria Midrash Rabbah, 2022 · CC-BY

"Hear, Israel: you are crossing the Jordan today.. A promise, a challenge, a moment of immense transition. But what does it really mean?

Our sages, ever eager to examine the layers of meaning within Torah, find echoes of this crossing everywhere. Devarim Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of Deuteronomy, uses this verse as a springboard to explore a profound connection between Israel's redemption and. water.

You might be thinking, "Water? What's so special about water?The text begins with a seemingly unrelated halakha, a point of Jewish law. It discusses the proper blessing to recite after drinking water. Most of us say, "Blessed.by whose word all things came to be – shehakol nihya bidevaro." But Rabbi Tarfon suggests a different version: "Who creates the many forms of life and their needs – boreh nefashot rabot veḥesronam." What's the connection?

The Rabbis then explain: “Come and see: All the miracles that the Holy One blessed be He performed on behalf of Israel, He performed only through water.” That's quite a statement! The text emphasizes that the miracles performed on behalf of the Israelites were done through water. This is why, the Rabbis suggest, we recite a blessing over water.

Consider the Exodus from Egypt. As Rabbi Yitzḥak points out, even during the plague of blood, the Egyptians drank blood while the Israelites drank water. It was a stark visual representation of divine favor. Then there's the parting of the Red Sea. What made the sea split? Rabbi Nehorai says it was the ineffable Name of God inscribed on Moses' staff. Rabbi Neḥemya suggests it was the very hand of God, as (Psalm 77:17) says: “The waters saw You and were frightened.” According to Ginzberg's retelling in Legends of the Jews, Moses lifted his staff at God's command, the east wind blew all night, and the sea became dry land.

And the miracles didn't stop there. At Mara, the bitter water was made sweet. As we find in (Exodus 15:25), God showed Moses a tree to cast into the waters. At the rock, water flowed forth to quench the Israelites' thirst, as (Numbers 20:8) commands: “And speak to the rock…and it will provide its water.” And at the well, the people sang a song of gratitude (Numbers 21:17).

So, what’s the takeaway? Moses, in this midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), is reminding the Israelites that the same God who performed miracles through water in the past will continue to do so when they cross the Jordan to take possession of the Land. The crossing of the Jordan, therefore, isn't just a physical act; it's a symbolic one, a continuation of the miraculous journey begun in Egypt.

This isn't just about water, of course. It's about recognizing God's presence in the everyday, in the very things that sustain us. It’s about seeing the miraculous in the mundane. Next time you take a sip of water, remember this story. Remember the journey from Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, the sweetness at Mara, and the promise of miracles to come. Maybe, just maybe, you'll taste something a little bit more than just water.

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