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Bo: Pharaoh and Macbeth

Our parashah begins: "God said to Moses: 'Come to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants in order to place these signs of mine in his midst.'" Indeed, this motif of the hardened heart already appeared in last week's portion and recurs nearly a dozen times in the context of the ten plagues. The problem, however, is this: If Pharaoh and the Egyptians were denied free will in their dealings with Moses, how can their subsequent punishment be justified?Maple Leaf and Olive Branch

Canada's desire to distinguish itself from the U.S. and UK sometimes led it away from the policy of "scrupulous impartiality" that it wished to adhere to in the Middle East.Academe Award

Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, Footnote is a work of serious philosophical inquiry, cloaked in winking academic gossip for those in the know.  (Here, an interview with the director.)      A Biographer’s Ethics

"Solzhenitsyn up close turned out to be a far less saintly figure than he had seemed from afar . . . [but] Koestler, who has always had a bad reputation for his character, grew in my estimation."Family Romance

In the Freud family letters, the figure of Jacob Bernays—classical philologist, Orthodox Jew, homosexual, and deep influence on his brother-in-law Sigmund—comes to light.Digital Davening

Smartphones have already begun to supplant traditional siddurim; but the potential of the digital revolution to transform the experience of prayer has barely been realized.Dividing the Waters

A new French report on water usage in the Jordan Valley allows political bias against Israel to mask the real challenges of water conservation facing every country in the region.Revisiting the Reich

William L. Shirer's 1960 history of the Third Reich remains the seminal account of the philosophical roots of Nazism and a stark warning of the dangers of mass political movements.The Original Kosher Jesus

150 years ago, Rabbi Elias Soloweyczk published commentaries on Matthew and Mark, aimed not at rejecting the Gospels but showing their concordance with the Talmud.