BOOK OF EXODUS - RADICAL BO - © 2014 J. Hershy Worch -
[email protected]
Mei Hashiloach Vol. I - Vaera
The first three occasions God told Moses the same thing are: 1.) God spoke to Moses saying, 'Come, speak to Pharaoh, King of Egypt that he send the Children of Israel from his land. (Ex. 6:10-11) 2.) Then the LORD said to Moses, 'Come to Pharaoh and say to him, "This is what the LORD says: Let my people go, so that they may worship Me."' (Ex. 7:26) 3.) Then the LORD said to Moses, 'Come to Pharaoh and say to him, "This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: "Let my people go, so that they may worship Me."' (Ex. 9:1)
Camille Paglia – Sexual Personae Cap. I
Shaar Hapsukim – Vayehsev: The Hebrew word פרעה - Pharaoh is also the word הערף – Nape of the neck.
There is a well known Midrash: God took the female Tanin - Dragon and killed it, so preventing the male and female from spawning more like them and thus destroying the world (Bava Batra 74b). The Zohar in this piece we have just learned also refers to the killing of the female Tanin - Sea Monster/Crocodile/ Dragon. Most people take it literally to mean that unless God had prevented the dragon from reproducing it would have destroyed the whole world like Godzilla, but that is an oversimplification. What R. Shimon is suggesting is that Egypt showed the way for humanity to develop Skygods, male, non-reproductive achievers, which presage our modern idols of invention and straight-line progress. Had the Chthonic, circular, self creating, female Earthgods not been smashed and crippled from the beginning, History would have a very different and much bloodier trajectory.
Ex. 12:12
Likutei M'horan Kama 56:4
ודע, שהתורה המלבש תוך ההסתרה שבתוך הסתרה, היא תורה גבוה דיקא, הינו סתרי תורה. כי מחמת שהיא צריכה להתלבש במקומות נמוכים כאלו, הינו אצל אלו שעברו הרבה, עד שנסתר מהם בהסתרה שבתוך הסתרה, על כן חשב השם יתברך מחשבות לבלי להלביש שם פשטי תורה, לבל יוכלו הקלפות לינק משם הרבה, ויהיה הפגם גדול מאד. על כן הוא מסתיר ומלביש שם תורה גבוה דיקא, סתרי תורה, שהיא תורת ה' בעצמה. כדי שלא יוכלו הקלפות לינק משם הרבה. בבחינת (שמות י"ב): "ועברתי בארץ מצרים, אני ולא מלאך, אני ולא השליח, אני ה' ולא" וכו'. כי בארץ מצרים ששם מקום הקלפות מאד, על כן שם דיקא מלבש ומסתר השם יתברך בעצמו הינו תורת ה' ממש, סתרי תורה. על כן דיקא מההסתרה שבתוך הסתרה, כשחוזר ומהפכה לדעת, נעשה ממנה דיקא תורת ה' ממש. כי שם נסתר תורת ה', סתרי תורה כנ"ל
Zohar Hadash - Yithro
MEME - Richard Dawkins's term for an idea considered as a replicator, especially with the connotation that memes parasitize people into propagating them much as viruses do. Memes can be considered the unit of cultural evolution. Ideas can evolve in a way analogous to biological evolution. Some ideas survive better than others; ideas can mutate through, for example, misunderstandings; and two ideas can recombine to produce a new idea involving elements of each parent idea. The term is used especially in the phrase "meme complex" denoting a group of mutually supporting memes that form an organised belief system, such as a religion. However, "meme" is often misused to mean "meme complex". Use of the term connotes acceptance of the idea that in humans (and presumably other tool- and language-using sophonts) cultural evolution by selection of adaptive ideas has become more important than biological evolution by selection of hereditary traits. Hackers find this idea congenial for tolerably obvious reasons. (From the Jargon File - 1996-08-11)
B(asic) I(nput)/O(utput) S(ystem)
See also: Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson 1992
Mechilta - Bo
Ex. 9:29
Kol Simcha - Bo
8
Who is Pharaoh?
Then the LORD said to Moses, 'Come to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these, My miraculous signs among them.' (Ex. 10:1)
R. Shimon said, 'Now is the time to reveal secrets which are connected above and below. Why does the verse say, "Come to Pharaoh," it should have said, "Go to Pharaoh." Why did God say, "Come"? (Zohar Vol. II 34a)
There are two kinds of darkness: one is the sort we create with our actions, mistakes and misdeeds, that darkness which comes of wickedness and sin. And then, there is the sort over which we have no control; the darkness which lies at the heart of humankind where, from time to time, the beast stirs and stabs and ravages and feeds and sleeps again. This is the darkness which is on the face of the abyss.
The seven plagues mentioned in the previous Sidra parallel the first type of darkness, that which we create with our rage, jealousy and resentment - which we fabricate with our seditious speech and petty character assassinations, our venal selfishness and our pride.
The three plagues in this week's Sidra represent the darkness over which we have no control, that from which we ourselves flee in fright and consternation. Those are parts of ourselves which horrify and disgust us as much as they terrify, whose source lies in the Unconscious, the Subconscious and mysterious workings of the hippocampus, the thalamus, the hypothalamus, the amygdale and the whole limbic system.
The Zohar on this week's Torah portion is long and complex. A full explication would be beyond the scope of this work, but it does need to be referenced to provide context for the narrative. The Zohar begins by asking why does God say to Moses, 'Come to Pharaoh'?
In fact, this is the fourth time in the Book of Exodus that God tells Moses to, 'Come to Pharaoh,' so why does the Zohar wait until now to reveal secrets not heretofore discussed?
The answer is simple. Each of the three previous times God told Moses to 'Come to Pharaoh,' there was a specific thing Moses had to say or do to Pharaoh in God's Name; either to command or warn Pharaoh about God's word and the Jewish People. In this instance at the opening of this week's Sidra no such thing is implied. God calls Moses to come to Pharaoh with no purpose in mind, as the verse states.
Then the LORD said to Moses, 'Come to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these, My miraculous signs among them. That you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed My signs among them, and that you may know that I am the LORD.' So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, "This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says..." (Ex. 10:1-3)
The Zohar astutely chooses this point in the narrative, when God seemingly avoids telling Moses what to do or say, to reveal the mysteries of the Great Serpent. And it is worth noting that the mysteries revealed in the Zohar at this juncture are in fact secrets, in the sense that long after we are told what they are, they remain impenetrable. According to R. Shimon there are sections of the Genesis-Creation Mystery which have never been properly taught or explained, even to initiates and students of the Merkava - Chariot.
On such occasions as I consider making a study of the holy Zohar, I skip directly to this section and remind myself both of how little of the text I understand, and how amazing are the depth of R. Shimon's insights into the working of the human mind, because that is what this section of the Zohar is about. R. Shimon begins the revelation thus:
He raised Moses and led him into rooms inside rooms, whereupon he reached a great and powerful sea monster from which many steps evolve and descend. What was it?
It was the secret of the Great Dragon!
Moses was afraid of it, and approached only those rivers that were his steps. But he feared the monster itself, and did not approach because he saw that it stemmed from roots in high places.
When the Holy, blessed One saw how Moses was afraid, and that all other celestial messengers dared not approach it, the Holy, blessed One said, 'Speak, and say: Thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, I am against you Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the great dragon that lies in the midst of his streams, saying, 'My Nile is my own; I made myself.'" (Ezek. 29:3).
The Holy, blessed One and no other, has to wage war with Pharaoh, as it is written, 'And all inhabitants of Egypt will know that I am the LORD.' (ibid. 6)
The mysterious wisdom of 'the great dragon that lies in the midst of his streams' was taught only to those masters of the Law who know the secrets of their Lord. (Zohar Vol. II 34a)
Obviously Moses is not afraid of any flesh and blood dragon, sea monster or crocodile. The Great Serpent is a metaphor, and even celestial messengers are afraid of a metaphor. What is this great mystery the Zohar hints at?
Imagine the Divine Light, if you can. Well, obviously you can't, no one can; it's the Infinite Ineffable. God designed the world in such a way that we humans can develop a method of comprehending the Divine Light by way of metaphor. Clearly the Divine Light is too big and strong and bright to even imagine looking at. Imagine instead a wall or barrier against the Light, so that all we know of the Light, is that it is hidden behind this wall, that were it to be uncovered we would go blind and be burned by it.
Now imagine a tiny pinprick of a hole in the wall. Without being able to discern everything about the light, we'd be able to see its color and intensity. And we would also become aware of the opacity and thickness of the wall.
Now imagine a human-shaped hole in the wall, with a stained glass window in the image of a human separating you from the light. The light passing through the wall is human-shaped and human colored, but it would have to be a very special piece of glass indeed, to fool you into not realizing it is there separating you from the light.
Now I need you to make a big leap of the imagination. Imagine that a human being; a flesh and blood person, the next man or woman you see in front of you is that very stained glass window onto the Divine Light, because that is what the entire thesis of the Torah is. We know what we know about God and the Divine Light by learning from other people about other people, that's all we have to guide and enlighten us. Every human being is transparent to God, or should be so.
But what then is the dark wall separating us from, and preventing us being burned up by the Light? What is it composed of, if the hole showing through it is made of human being? Well, unfortunately (or fortunately, as the case may be) the darkness preventing us from seeing or knowing anything about the Divine Light is also the human being. The wall is also the window; the messenger is also the message. It is we ourselves who are so opaque and dense, so impervious to the Light and invested in darkness. Humans raised without other people are steeped in darkness, and people left to wallow in their own thoughts see no light, because they can only see themselves. What goes on in our mind when we look at another human being, what image the other person evokes in us when we see them, what light they become transparent to and what god they convey to us, these are the things which shape us and our light. These are the things that define how we look to others.
Nowhere was this understood with more precision and insight than in Ancient Egypt, where we were forged in the blast-furnace of adversity into a People who could see God. We saw God by looking through the prism of Egypt, through their Pharaoh and all his illusory magical imagery. In Egypt we learned how to 'see' and we learned how to imagine what cannot be seen. We took an important step there, evolving into a people who can imagine God, not as an image of a thing but as an unspoken, ineffable Name of dread and power which rests inside us, animating us.
Pharaoh's genius was to manipulate the image in the minds of his subjects. The whole of Egyptian culture was built around a 'Pharaoh' who was not present in any tangible way except as an idea in the mind of subjects, citizens and slaves, who might live hundreds of miles away. Egypt invented the idea of Image in the sense that we have adopted it in modern culture, in magazines, billboards and the movies. The glamorization of the human image - turning a living individual into an idol - was an Egyptian invention and artifact.
We, Jewish People, have assimilated and perfected this skill, raising it to heights the Egyptians never dreamt of, for we have manipulated our own minds to have an image of God which is a non-image, a word, a sound of a word, a word that cannot even be pronounced, a pure intellectual meme.
It's relatively easy for us, with the enormous lexicon of English Language words at our disposal, to analyze the Egyptian genius and trace its evolution. Your common Egyptian peasant or artisan had a vocabulary of around a 1000 words; what makes perfect sense to us seemed like purest magical mystery to the Egyptian peasant.
The blackness of the wall - the density and opacity of it - is us.
Reach back behind your head and feel the nape of your neck: that's where the dragon Pharaoh of this Zoharic teaching crouches in his river. Your spine is the Nile from which rivers of nerves stem and flow downwards and outwards. At its head crouches Pharaoh on his throne of images and words. Beneath him scurry the priests and magicians of your Self, burrowing through your cortex, mining it for information about your condition, carrying messages to and from the deeper sanctuaries of the Mind into what can only be called Brain; through forebrain, midbrain and hindbrain to the spinal cord and down. All these processes are part of the dark from before Creation. We will never know them, for they speak no language the person understands. It is sufficient that the body comprehends the signals it receives from its government.
There, Pharaoh claims his sanctuary, there he grunts in the swamp; oozing life-sustaining fluids. 'Here,' he announces, 'no one is capable of acting on God or recognizing God. No God exists in this darkness because the dark separates and excludes God. That's its function, stupid. I reign here, this is my river, I made it. You can't kill me, Moses, because I am your life.'
God has led Moses onward, to the rooms inside rooms, into the rooms beyond rooms, into the inside of the workings of the human mind.
As Moses is led ever deeper into the workings of his own mind he finds himself less and less capable of wrestling the monster lurking there, where a smell may trigger a fugue-state, the sound of a voice or even a silence can induce a fight-or-flight reaction, while a single visual image prompts all the lustfulness, wanton, lewd and lubricious trappings of lechery. Moses is afraid to engage with the Pharaoh crouching in his river, because he who thinks in words cannot access God inside the dark. Moses cannot articulate his consciousness that Pharaoh, the dragon, is just another function of God in the animal body of a human being. How can humans reach that far into themselves to be able to 'know' that God is coddling and coaxing every sex- growth- and stress-related hormone carried down axons to the pituitary gland, commanding its release from there into the bloodstream to activate and organize distant body systems?
Our parents teach us to cover our instinctual nature with a coating of words, to distinguish among the safe and the unsafe, the stranger and the familiar, the 'us' from the 'them'. Mostly we are taught through stories what is acceptable and what is not, who is to be emulated and who is not, what is beautiful and what is not.
But we are not human by birth. We become human when we practice, over a lifetime of blundering and halting progress, copying those we admire and imitating their greatest achievements. A child brought up without stories and the education which comes from rubbing shoulders with other growing and evolving humans, will not be a human. Without language of any sort, we would not be us.
Egypt's architects and engineers, her sculptors and artists all worked for the idea of Image, the industry and commerce of Image, the Image which is intended not just to frighten or subdue, but to imprint itself upon the viewer, forever in the mind of every Egyptian: PHARAOH!
The art and genius of the Pharaohs was distilled into the essence of mental noise, the pitch and loudness of which guaranteed them their dynasties and privileges. An overwhelming bombardment of Image burned onto the retina of every Egyptian subject to keep the noise of Pharaoh loudest in their minds.
When Moses is invited to 'Come, grapple with Pharaoh,' he draws close and is appalled and terrified to discover that Pharaoh is indistinguishable from Image itself. All our 'human' feelings and thoughts can be manipulated, because they can be triggered with the right stimuli. Feelings can be nothing more than complicated chemicals, hormones activated and released into in the bloodstream, triggered by events and even by thoughts as they pass over us and through us.
************
When I look at another human being and I see through them to the Divine Light, when I realize that a person is nothing but a stained glass flesh-window on God, then the God I am looking at is inside me, not that other person.
Moses looking at Pharaoh realizes that the human mind is both angel and monster, dragon and cherub.
Words alone do not make a human being, because Pharaoh had all the words yet he was a monster. A person is also that part which is instinctual, reactive, dark and animal without becoming a Pharaoh.
Without Pharaoh's trick of manipulating the Image to create the idea, we would never make the transition from hominid to human to Jew, and it was the Jewish adaptation of that skill of image-making which we applied to words, that made us ready for God.
Pharaoh knew just who he was and what kind of explosive information he was sitting on, noting less that a jump in human evolution. It was the secret of the Ancients which had already kept his dynasty in power for a thousand years or more. He laughed at Moses because he knew just how deep his roots sunk into the source of human development, how parallel his progress with ours, how necessary his secrets to Jewish People-hood.
Which brings us to the crucial moment in this week's Sidra, at midnight on the night of Passover.
And Moses said, 'Thus says the LORD: "About midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt."
'And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first born of Pharaoh that sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts. And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more. But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that you may know that the LORD puts a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. And all these your servants shall come down to me, and bow down themselves to me, saying, Get you out, and all the people that follow you: and after that I will go out.' And he went out from Pharaoh in a great anger. (Ex. 11:4-8)
According to our tradition, it is important to acknowledge that what happened at midnight in Egypt was a revelation of the Divine Light – Giluy Shechina, when we saw God's Presence. It is an important part of our yearly celebration of Passover, as stated in the Passover Haggadah:
God brought us out of Egypt, not by an angel's hand, not by a seraph's hand, nor through a messenger.
The Holy, blessed One, did it in His glory, Himself!
Thus it is written, 'On that night will I pass through the land of Egypt. I will smite every first-born in the land of Egypt, from man to beast, and I will carry out judgments against all the gods of Egypt; I am God.'
I will pass through the land of Egypt – I, and not an angel. I will smite every first-born in the land of Egypt – I, and not a seraph. I will carry out judgments against all the gods of Egypt – I, and not a messenger. I, God - It is I and none other!
Elsewhere it is discussed how we are, individually and uniquely, animated by the Word of God that He puts in each of us; every man according to his need. The Divine Word shapes us as humans, each of us according to God's design. The word is also called Torah, and there are infinite varieties of Torah to suit every kind of soul. God never repeats Himself, and the Torah is always fresh and novel. God hides Himself, so to speak, inside that individual Torah each person expresses (Radical Nitzavim).
In Pharaoh, in Egypt, in the currents flowing up and down our spinal columns, through the dragon wallowing in its River Nile, crouching in its swamp, pulsating and grunting with Life and bursting out of the dark - the Divine Light is there, hidden in its purest, most pristine form. There are no complex word-forms, nothing but God.
According to our tradition, the commentators emphasize, had we stayed one moment longer in Egypt we would have passed through the Fiftieth Gate of Separation and would have become irredeemable.
There was something about the moment of Divine Revelation in Egypt that could have propelled us deeper into exile, through the last Gate of Separation toward a total loss of intimacy which could never be recovered. And yet, according to tradition it was at that very moment when God revealed Himself that we were redeemed, not because we had earned it or deserved it, but because it was imperative, it could not be delayed, for to have delayed would have meant there was nothing worthwhile and holy left of Israel to redeem. This seems like a heavy paradox, does it not? For what could have been more innocent and holy than the entire Jewish Nation sitting at a Passover Seder, singing God's praises, eating the Paschal lamb as commanded by Moses and speaking of the Greatness of God? What was it about that moment that was so spiritually dangerous, and how could Giluy Shechina have jeopardized the future of the world?
The Egyptians know how to manipulate human beings through the use and application of the Image. They have learned how best to feed images into people's minds, mainly through the eyes, to obtain their desired results which are fear and compliance, worship and loyalty. In the Zohar we read how Pharaoh's existence is a challenge to God, because Moses is incapable of fighting the Egyptians, since the evolution of Pharaonic thinking is part of our own narrative, part of the evolution of our own thinking. We evolved in Egypt. God became our God in Egypt, as the prophet declaimed: 'Yet I am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt, and you shall know no god but Me: for there is no savior beside Me' (Hosea 13:4). Not God who brought us out of Egypt to make us into His People, as described in the Ten Commandments, but God from the Land of Egypt.
The Pharaohs understood only too well how belief, faith, worship and trust can all be manipulated and violated. They saw the way humans are almost hard-wired to relate to massive and overwhelming power, and they saw what we today would call an opportunity to 'hack' the system, to insert a piece of malware in the form of a meme into the human mind. Some ideas are parasitical; the most powerful virus-like notion being Religion itself, the idea that God can be conceptualized by mentally combining all God's characteristics and particulars to construct a definition of Him. The Egyptians did it first and they did it best. Religious feelings, i.e. religion with a lowercase r, is basic to all humans, it is a crucial part of our toolkit for handing life. Religiousness may manifest in any of a number of behaviors: reverence, fervent devotion, piety, faith and worship, but they are not Religion, they are simply religious.
Today, Religion comparable to the Religion of Egypt is produced in Hollywood, Bollywood and the entire global image-making industry, using Egyptian discoveries of how humans can be 'hacked'. It is built on the premise that we are not entirely human all the time. Parts of us are much more primitive and responsive to sensory stimuli in predictable ways, triggering behaviors over which the human mind has little or no control.
************
Abraham and his descendents fought the tides and waves of ancient fashion and culture, persisting in the awareness that to be fully human is at least to know when you are being manipulated by others using images and memes to 'hack' your BIOS. Jews have persisted so long in our determination to remain aware, that we have succeeded in 'hacking the hack'.
We did this by allowing ourselves to be infected with the original Egyptian malware, but only after rewriting its code, as though we'd taken the virus and inserted another virus into it. As a result we have a trip-switch, an emergency shut-off that short-circuits whenever it is violated or penetrated by a stealthy meme be it written in the Christian, Muslim, renaissance, enlightenment, socialist or liberal code.
*********
How did we achieve cultural, religious and spiritual prophylaxis and how do we continue to hack the hack? Think about this, that which we call God has a Hebrew word, a Name, written יהו"ה – YHV"H. Bible scholars have translated it LORD, which is similar to the Hebrew ADON - Lord.
What do we do when we look at the word - יהו"ה? Well, we scan it with our eyes the way it is written but we pronounce it ADONAI with our mouths. We say ADONAI out loud. Why would we do such a thing? Why would we lie to our own minds about what we're reading with our own eyes? What's the purpose of telling myself, 'I am reading יהו"ה – I am talking to You, יהו"ה,' while calling Him ADONAI?
Imagine you walk up to someone who has a name-badge on their lapel saying, 'Hi! My name is Dick,' you point to their name-badge and say, 'Hi, Jane. Yes, I'm talking to you, Jane. It's nice meeting you.'
Every time a Jew talks to God - hundreds of times a day - he does precisely that. Points to God's Name written יהו"ה – YHV"H, scans with his eyes and says, 'Blessed are You, ADONAI.'
What are we doing to our mind when we split it this way with linguistic and audio-visual trickery? What have we done to our collective minds with 3500 years of such neuro-linguistic splitting?
The most important achievement we have attained with this mental trick is to avoid all attempts to make us into a Religion, to conceptualize God or succumb to Sumerian, Egyptian, Greek, Arabic, Russian or English malware.
**********
According to tradition, God did not want to manifest anywhere inside the Egyptian metropolis because it was disgusting, unclean and unfit, by way of being a place of idolatry. Even Moses made the point when he told Pharaoh 'As soon as I'm out of the city, I'll spread out my hands to the LORD in prayer…', as though Moses were telling Pharaoh that his capital city was too disgusting a location for a Hebrew to pray to his God in.
Now what exactly do we mean when we say that a human habitation is disgusting, unclean and unfit for the presence of God? Isn't it a trifle naïve to suggest that something we do could offend God? As though God had nostrils which our smells can cause to wrinkle in nausea, loathing, aversion or repugnance, the way toilet or mortuary smells affect us?
But the Torah is full of such expressions of God's pleasure and displeasure, as we read, 'And the LORD smelled the soothing aroma and said to himself, "I will never again curse the ground because of humankind."' (Gen 8:21)
It may best be understood thus: God wants to be known as God of Israel; that's the plan and ultimate goal of Creation (Radical Haazinu). Every event in history has to be interpreted in light of this thesis.
Every belief system and religion in the world gets its chance to project itself as God's Truth. All gods and goddesses get an equal chance to become the Face of God, for God agrees to assume the mantle and persona of whichever deity most humans believe in most strongly.
Now, for example, were God to speak with a child prophet in Mecca, Rome, Delhi, Lhasa or Los Angeles, there would have to be a manifestation and revelation of Giluy Shechina – Divine Presence in that location, and its ripple effects and echoes would continue to be felt by everyone in that place for some time afterwards. In effect God would be endorsing and boosting the honor and distinction of the local god, lending credence to its pretensions to represent the divine.
Which isn't to say that only the Hebrew Prophets were true, and that there was no authentic prophecy in ancient times besides Jewish prophecy; the oracles at Delphi, the Sybils, the Celtic runes and Chinese I-Ching etc. were equally reliable and authentic prophecies. But they did not purport to speak in God's name.
This explains why Ancient Egypt, as the most antithetical to Jewish values, was considered the most unholy and unclean place in the world, and why God did not desire to reveal Himself within its precincts.
At the moment of midnight when God revealed Himself in Egypt, we all experienced ourselves the way Adam and Eve experienced themselves in the Garden of Eden before eating of the Tree of Knowledge.
What did we know about God before we ate of the Tree of Knowledge? We knew the simplest truth, 'God was first.'
The revelation of God in Egypt meant that everyone and every sentient thing, even horses and cattle became aware of this simple truth, 'God is First – before me – God is First!' And while every first thing was swept up in that revelation of Firstness, every firstborn thing was gathered unto God, and died. Jews are also swept up into Firstness, to be the living Avatars of God Himself, as Moses (while still at the Burning Bush) was ordered to warn Pharaoh:
God said to Moses, 'When you go to return into Egypt, see that you do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in your hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go. And you shall say to Pharaoh, 'Thus said the LORD, "Israel is my son, my firstborn: And I say to you, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if you refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay your son, even your firstborn."' (Ex 4:21-23)
We are God's firstborn in that we are the Original Thought (Radical Balak) which existed before Creation, and we have always been swept up in God's Firstness.
The danger in that midnight moment was this: that we might begin to think of ourselves as God's First Thought objectively, instead of experiencing ourselves as such. Doing so would have recreated the original split which occurred in Adam and Eve when they went from a state of awareness to an awareness of their awareness. Had it happened to us at midnight in Egypt, we might have come full circle to recreate original sin, and intimacy might have been ruined forever.
Simple intimacy consists of the awareness that I am me and you are you.
Broken intimacy consists of the awareness that I am being me and you are being you, but another me and a different you exist.
