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There’s an old joke they tell future rabbis (and perhaps clergy of other faiths as well). How do you eulogize a terrible man, who lied in business, was unfaithful to his wife and was estranged from his children? Start by saying, “Well, his father was worse.”
When we sit down to the seder every year, we of course come across a strange passage about someone being “worse” than another villain. The haggadah informs us that Laban, Jacob’s antagonist, was “worse” than Pharaoh because Pharaoh attempted to kill only male babies, while Laban tried to “uproot everything,” or oppress everyone. It’s a difficult passage, but let’s also be honest – both Laban and Pharaoh are arch-villains, and both are “better” only when compared with, say, Haman.
It is instructive that our sages actually did find ways to make Pharaoh even more cruel than it would seem at first blush. Consider this passage in today’s reading, portion Shmot (Exodus 1:16) “When you deliver the Hebrew women, look at the birthstool: if it is a boy, kill him; if it is a girl, let her live.” Our sages, ever careful readers of Scripture, were not only sensitive to what the text said, but also to what it omitted. Consider this passage in the 9th century Midrash Tanchuma (Vayakhel 4:9):
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Why were the midwives Shifra and Puah commanded to kill male babies? Because the astrologers had told Pharaoh: “The redeemer of Israel will be born on that day, but we do not know whether he will be born to an Egyptian woman or an Israelite.” At the time Pharaoh assembled every Egyptian and said to them: “Loan me your sons for a day,” as is said: Every son that is born you shall cast into the river (1:22). It does not say “every child of an Israelite” but rather: Every son that is born, whether Egyptian or Israelite, you shall cast into the river.
In other words, Pharoah, in this retelling, is willing not only to sacrifice the lives of Hebrew baby boys, but also the lives of Egyptian baby boys. Whether this rises to Laban’s level of “uprooting all” or not can be debated, but clearly both men are even worse than we originally envisioned.
There is a profound truth in the observations of Tanchuma. Hatred tends to have a “boomerang” effect. We may start off with hatred against another group, but we rarely stop before we find ourselves also despising members of our own group.
Whether Pharaoh’s father, or Laban’s, was worse, is anybody’s guess.
- Rabbi Scott Hoffman
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