extremes. The bitter herbs manifested a psychic migration from passion to impassivity and from wickedness to virtue. For, Philo taught, those who naturally and genuinely repented became bitter toward their former way of life, lamenting the time that they had given over to the seductive and deceitful mistress of desire, being deceived by desire when they ought to have renewed themselves and advanced in the contemplation of wisdom toward the goal of a happy and immortal life. And so, those who desired repentance ate the unleavened bread with bitter herbs; they first ate bitterness over their old and unendurable life, and then ate the opposite of boastful arrogance in meditation on humility. For, Philo concluded, the memory of former sins caused fear, and by restraining sin through recollection, brought profit to the mind. In classical rabbinic interpretation The parashah is discussed in these rabbinic sources from the era of the Mishnah and the Talmud: Exodus chapter 10 Reading , , and , a Midrash taught that in 18 verses, Scripture places Moses and Aaron (the instruments of Israel's deliverance) on an equal footing (reporting that God spoke to both of them alike), and thus there are 18 benedictions in the Amidah. A Midrash taught that in , God begins with the word "Come (, bo)," instead of "Go (, lech)," to teach that the Glory of God fills the whole earth, including Pharaoh's Egypt. Rabbi Johanan asked whether God's words in , "For I have hardened his heart," did not provide heretics with ground for arguing that Pharaoh had no means of repenting. Rabbi Simeon ben Lakish (Resh Lakish) replied that the mouths of the heretics should be stopped up. For, as teaches, "If it concerns the scorners, He scorns them." When God warns people once, twice, and even a third time, and they still do not repent, then God closes their hearts against repentance so that God may exact vengeance from them for their sins. Thus it was with the wicked Pharaoh. Since God sent five times to him (in the first five plagues) and he took no notice, God then told Pharaoh that he had stiffened his neck and hardened his heart, so God would add to Pharaoh's impurity. The Midrash taught that the expression "I hardened" (, hichbad'ti) implied that God made Pharaoh's heart like a liver (, kaveid), which stiffens (and becomes unabsorbent) if boiled a