I sometimes come across people who belong to a loosely knit group who could be called the Poor Pharaoh Society. Jews sometimes feel sorry that Pharaoh had his heart hardened by G-d and was therefore unable to choose to change his mind and free the Jews.

In last weeks sedra, we wrote about the Alshich's insight into Moshe's inevitable confusion about being told to go again to confront Pharaoh.....

"If Ha-Shem has hardened pharaoh's heart then surely that contradicts our understanding of G-d. He is said to always extend a hand to those who have sincerely regretted their mistakes."

By analysing the text we were able to demonstrate that regret is exactly what Pharaoh had failed to feel; despite his claims to the contrary.

The Alshich showed that Moshe was then reassured. HaShem never forces someone to commit a crime and then punish them for it.

In this weeks Sedra Moshe is told to retreat from the Sinai desert and return towards Egypt. They are to camp by the Red Sea. Pharaoh will see this and conclude that the Jews are lost and confused and Chpt.14 Vs. 4..................

" And I will strengthen the heart of Pharaoh and he will run after you and I will be honoured through Pharaoh and through all his army and Egypt will know that I am HaShem and it he did so."

This would seem to invoke the Alshich's concern from last weeks Sedra. Would G-d really force someone to commit a crime and then punish him for it?

Verse 5 seems to make no sense whatsoever..............

"And it was told to Pharaoh ( by the spies whom he had sent to accompany the Jews) that the people had fled. And Pharaoh's heart was changed as was that of his people, towards the people and they said, What is this we have done, that we have sent Israel from our slavery?"

Imagine the head of the CIA appears after the second inauguration of President Bill Clinton to impart some urgent news. "Mr President....we have just learnt that, the Vietnam war is over!" instead of asking his Spy-master if he has been visiting a distillery, Mr Clinton starts to plan what to do to meet the new situation. You might think they had both been visiting a distillery!

Doesn't Pharaoh know that the Jews have fled? Didn't he send them out himself? What are his people saying, " What is this that we've done etc."

Don't they know exactly why the Jews were freed? It was something they had been pleading with Pharaoh to do long before the last and worst plague.

Pharaoh's reaction is stunning. He is so moved by his spy's report that he goes and prepares his chariot himself. and then at the end of verse 6. He takes his people and gathers a large army to pursue the Jews.

Imagine someone from the "Times of London" were to come to interview Pharaoh after the tenth plague. He might ask him where did he go wrong? what mistakes did he make that had led his empire to collapse and ruin?

Pharaoh could identify two inevitable answers. " I insulted Ha-Shem when I said Who is G-d and I insulted G-d by refusing to let his people go"

Now however in B'Shalach he and his people see things differently. When the spy returns to report that the Jews have fled; he means to report that they have fled from the entrance to the desert and freedom. They are lost and direction-less. When Pharaoh hears this he realises his "miscalculation". He now thinks that he was mistaken to think that G-d cared about the Jews. As soon as they are free then G-d has abandoned them. His only mistake was in insulting G-d. The Jews were mere pawns in the game in which G-d was telling him to obey his commands. In their own right they are not special to G-d. This is why they have fled from the desert, G-d no longer leads them.

On realising this then, he and his people think that they needn't have let the Jews go....more than that, they can get them back again. The slave masters reach again for their whips.

Only after they have made this choice and put it in to action does the Torah say in verse 8..........

" And G-d hardened Pharaoh the king of Egypt's heart and he chased after the Jews"

G-d never makes someone commit a crime and then punishes them for it. He may allow or force someone to complete an evil plan they've already started. Then the criminal would have to admit that really it was he who commissioned the crime, not G-d.