We are going to read through the Torah’s recounting of the plagues, and as we do, we will pay special attention to some of the nuances we talked about earlier—the “power” and “precision” of the plagues, as well as the words the Torah uses to characterize Pharaoh’s response to them: chizuk halev and kibbud halev, the “strengthening” and the “hardening” of Pharaoh’s heart. We will regard “strength of heart” as a synonym for courage, and “hardness of heart” as a synonym for stubbornness.[33]
