Drive Down Easy Street

“Go to Pharaoh in the morning; behold, he is going to the water, and you should stand opposite him on the bank of the Nile….” (Shemos 7:15)

R

ashi quotes the Midrash explaining that Pharaoh would go out to the water early in the morning to relieve himself, for he had deified himself, claiming he had no physical needs. Friedrich Nietzsche, a philosopher in the 1800s, introduced the term Übermensch (superman) describing such a person as “the ideal superior man who could rise above morality to create and impose his own values.”

The Midrash goes on to enumerate four biblical characters who went even beyond this concept of Übermenschen, and considered themselves gods: Chiram, Melech Tzor; Nevuchadnetzar, Melech Bavel; Pharaoh, Melech Mitzrayim; and Yoash, Melech Yehudah. All met defeat and degradation.

How could four intelligent men delude themselves like this? (Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, OU Parshah)

Not far from where my in-laws live is a stretch of highway called A1A, which runs along the coast of Florida. One year, visiting before Pesach, we figured we’d be most helpful by keeping our toddlers out of my mother-in-law’s way. So we got into the car and headed up this highway for a scenic drive along the sea.