A vort from the Rebbe on this week's parshah, Parshat Vaera. When the Aibershter sent Moshe Rabbeinu to warn Pharaoh about Makkat Dam, the first makkah, first the Aibershter said to him these words, like the Torah says, \"ויאמר השם אל משה כבד לב פרעה.\" Hashem said to Moshe, \"The heart of Pharaoh is heavy.\" And Rashi says it means תרגומו יקיר, really is יקיר, the word כבד means it is heavy, it's a noun, it's heavy, and not a verb that it's getting heavy so to speak. And Rashi gives an example where where else we find this expression כבד. This is when Yitro spoke to Moshe Rabbeinu that he should set up different people to judge the Yidden, and he said otherwise, \"כי כבד ממך הדבר,\" that the thing is כבד, is heavy, too hard for you. So the Rebbe explains al derech hachasidut a remez in this Rashi, why Rashi brings an example to when the Torah says that כבד לב פרעה, ממילא he will not let the Yidden out, that we also find the same expression by Moshe Rabbeinu the word כבד. So there is a remez here, and the Rebbe explains like this: when it says here \"כבד לב פרעה\", which means the heart is heavy, what he means really is he's stubborn, that he decides to when a person decides to do something and he makes a strong decision to behave in a certain way, not to care about anything else, in spite that it doesn't make sense, in spite that it doesn't have a connection to any feeling, it is logically very wrong, nevertheless, you're an akshan, it's stubbornness, you are stubborn and that's what you're going to do and you're going to not care whether the sechel or the middot are opposite, you will do what you decided. And that's the very bad middah of Pharaoh, but Pharaoh decided he had this akshanus, he had this stubbornness against the Aibershter, not to let the Yidden out.

Now we know that every bad middah has the same type of middah on the other extreme in the good side. As the lashon is, \"זה לעומת זה עשה אלוקים,\" Hashem made one side against the other, parallel to the other, so whatever middah we have which is a bad middah, we have the same middah which is a good middah. So this middah that Pharaoh had, that no matter what, not caring about sechel, not caring about middot, just the stubbornness of doing something wrong, the same thing we have in the opposite. We have a person that is able to overcome the sechel and middot that might say to him not to do something the Eibershter wants, and nevertheless he will do it with kabalat ol malchut Shamayim, he will do it with accepting the yoke of Hashem. That's the opposite middah of akshanus, a stubbornness of Pharaoh. That means that you will never change in your middot, and no matter what the middot say, no matter what the sechel says, you will serve Hashem the way you're supposed to. And this is why Rashi here, when he explains the inyan of כבד לב פרעה, that Pharaoh had this akshanus, this stubbornness against the Eibershter, that we find the opposite by Moshe Rabbeinu. Moshe Rabbeinu is the זה לעומת זה of Pharaoh, that כי כבד ממך הדבר. In order to be mevatel the כבד לב פרעה, the negative stubbornness of Pharaoh, you need an opposite, which is a stubbornness in the good side, a stubbornness of kedushah. And therefore the pasuk says, \"כי כבד ממך הדבר\" by Moshe Rabbeinu, that this stubbornness of kedushah comes from Moshe Rabbeinu, the way the pasuk \"כי כבד ממך הדבר\", the kaved, the stubbornness of Yiddishkeit, of kedushah, comes from Moshe Rabbeinu. Moshe Rabbeinu had a complete bitul to Hashem, so by him it made no difference things that might be understood, not understood, be felt, not felt, doesn't matter. Moshe Rabbeinu had this middah of being stubborn in it, and that gave the koach to all the Yidden. And that what Rashi is merumaz here, that here it says כבד לב פרעה, so Rashi says you have a כבד ממך הדבר, that Yidden have the opposite of Pharaoh, of the akshanus of Pharaoh, the stubbornness of Pharaoh, they have the koved, the stubbornness in kedushah, and where do they get this from? ממך הדבר, it comes from Moshe Rabbeinu. As we know that from Moshe Rabbeinu Yidden get a lot of good thing great things that come to them. As the Alter Rebbe says in Tanya that every Yid has a little bit of Moshe Rabbeinu in him. So just like Moshe Rabbeinu had this bitul to the Aibershter and this kabbolas ol to the Aibershter, we all Yidden get this also from Moshe Rabbeinu, and this fights the stubbornness of Pharaoh because we have the stubbornness of kedushah, which overpowers the stubbornness of Pharaoh.