January 23, 2010 | 8 Shevat 5770

You know that bumper sticker I’m sure you have seen?  ‘S_____ happens!’

I have often wondered if that is meant to be taken as an ideological statement…as in, no matter what you do to prevent it, bad things will inevitably occur. Is it meant to be a philosophical statement about the presence of deserved and undeserved suffering in our world? Or is it just a plain statement of fact – bad things, troubling things occur every day?

To the extent that bumper sticker is meant to convey a simple fact, I have always been tempted to append a couple of words onto it – “Now what?”

So it would read, “Stuff (we’ll call it “stuff” here in the sanctuary) happens…Now what?” If only the bumper sticker said that, you know, it would teach Torah. Yes, that’s right, these past two weeks in Parshat Va’era and again today in Parshat Bo, we see Pharaoh’s response to that question “Stuff happens…Now what?”

As one plague after the other befalls the Egyptians, confounds Pharaoh’s magicians and causes progressively greater heartache, Pharaoh answers the question “Now what?” by digging his heels in deeper and deeper. Either God hardens his heart or he does so.

I often think we err when we focus on the morality of God hardening Pharaoh’s heart in this story. We take the words too literally. The Torah wants to convey God’s progressively greater control over Pharaoh. But the reality appears to be a simpler one.

Instead of alleviating the terrible burden his people is suffering, Pharaoh responds to the horrors of each plague with a “hard heart.” He exacerbates the situation through his actions and makes things only more difficult.

As I read this story it feels like each of the ten plagues is followed by another “miniature” plague, the plague of Pharaoh’s hardened heart.

In some powerful ways, as I have watched the continuing media coverage of the earthquake in Haiti and its seemingly unending reverberations, I have that same feeling even though the circumstances differ markedly from what we have been reading in the Torah.The earthquake that struck Haiti more than a week ago was not a willful divine act. Contrary to the perverted theology espoused by Reverend Pat Robertson that the earthquake was God’s payback to the people of Haiti for their 19th Century deal with the devil, the earthquake was not a divinely-inspired plague.

It was simply an inevitable product of nature as we have come to understand the phenomenon of earthquakes. But unfortunately we have seen Haitian examples of “Pharaoh’s hardening heart”…instances in which the agony of Haiti’s people has been prolonged and made even more painful due to what appears to be ineptitude and insufficient infrastructure.

Did you see the headline earlier this week on the front page of the Atlanta Journal Constitution? In three tiers it screamed: “Hard to give away food”… “The hungry become more desperate”… and finally, “Red tape, logistics, looting and violence create bottleneck”

Earlier this week the U.S. military, frustrated by its inability to land in Haiti, began to drop supplies from the air. The provision of much-needed medical services was equally ineffective.

On Monday evening a Doctors Without Borders airplane that was transporting a portable surgical theatre was turned away from the Port Au Prince airport. Earlier that day the same thing happened to another similarly-equipped Doctors Without Borders plane. It was forced to land in the Dominican Republic. At least half a day, maybe more, was simply lost transporting its surgical theatre over land routes.

Just the other day we learned that as many as 20,000 Haitians may be dying each day from the lack of food, medicines and medical treatment! The ultimate insult and pain of this “hardened heart” was evident in a New York Times article on Tuesday, with the headline “As the Haitians Flee, the Dead Go Uncounted”. Literally countless numbers of bodies have been buried in mass graves. Bodies, detached from their personhood, now without recognition of their unique identity forever. Bodies placed in their “final resting place” that will neither bring rest to them nor comfort to their surviving loved ones.

Yes, it is true.  We can celebrate heroic acts and daily miracles – the saving of an American student six days after the earthquake…pulling out an elderly woman and then a young child a day or two later… And, by all means, let us hold up the tremendous example of our Israeli brothers and sisters who serve as a “light unto the nations” as they carry out our tradition’s highest value and mitzvah, saving life, pikuach nefesh.

If you have not seen or read about the valiant efforts of Israelis, first on the ground and first to set up surgical theatres in Haiti, well you haven’t been paying attention. But the glow of that outstanding example of caring action will soon ebb in the eyes of the world and probably even in our own. And what will likely be left is a broken country and a suffering people.

Have natural disasters triggered so much destruction, death and suffering previously?  I’m sure they have. Has there been an earlier instance in which these horrors have been followed by such ineptitude and struggles to overcome human barriers to recovery?  I’m not certain, but probably so.

However I don’t recall a time when the media has projected the degree of continuing misery and worse that results from those overwhelming problems.

As time goes on, I fear that our hearts will become hardened. It won’t happen as a result of God’s actions or even our own conscious decisions. Just rather naturally, when the media eventually departs Haiti to move on to the next story, our concern will dissipate and our attention will wane. And again, what will be left in Haiti will likely be a broken country and a suffering people.

We need to intentionally “soften our hearts.” As individuals, we need to fight against the natural tendency I have just mentioned to move on from this continuing tragedy. If God does not cause the earthquake in any willful or purposeful manner, the Holy One does endow each of us with healing capacities. We need to continue to offer those means for recovery as long as they are warranted and used for the purposes we intend. But a “softened heart” means more than individual acts of tzedakah.

I am a rabbi.  I am neither a geo-political expert nor particularly knowledgeable about Haiti. But this I do know – natural disaster will strike Haiti again and then again. Can the United States and other countries help Haiti’s government to develop the resources to better manage the next crisis? Can world powers seek to help Haitians reconstitute their sovereign state in a healthier, more stable manner?

Are those tasks very difficult?  Undoubtedly so! Am I naïve to even suggest them?  Probably so! But a “soft heart,” one that is committed to a vision of tikkun olam, of a world moving ever closer to healing and wholeness, asks those questions and continues to hold up those possibilities. That is our continuing challenge now.

Once upon a time, Pharaoh looked throughout Egypt and saw that “stuff happened.” His people were suffering unrelenting pain, and his country was near shambles.

His answer to the question, “Now what?” was a hardened heart…an attitude and an orientation that only exacerbated his people’s misery.

Today, after a devastating earthquake, much of Haiti lies in ruins and too many of its people continue to suffer.

Let us pray for “soft hearts”… individual hearts that will continue to offer healing acts as long as they are needed and effective, and collective hearts of countries that will help Haiti to rebuild and strengthen itself as it seeks a better and more stable future for its people.

Amen.