The Mouth of Freedom
Deception, Self-Deception, and Humility in Beshalach
Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp before Pi-hahiroth [lit. “the mouth of freedom”], between Migdol and the sea, before Baal-zephon; you shall encamp facing it, by the sea. Pharaoh will say of the Israelites, “They are astray in the land; the wilderness has closed in on them. “They are astray in the land; the wilderness has closed in on them.” (Exodus 13:3-4)
”Baal-zephon: A reference to the Egyptian deity Baal Tzefon whom Pharaoh credited with this accomplishment of halting the Israelites.” (Seforno)
Rabbi Yehuda of the West, Eretz Yisrael, and some say Rabbi Shimon ben Pazi, taught: It is permitted to flatter wicked people in this world, as it is stated concerning the future: “The vile person shall no longer be called generous, nor shall the churl be said to be noble” (Isaiah 32:5). By inference, this indicates that in this world it is permitted to flatter them. (Sotah 41b)“In war, events of importance are the result of trivial causes.” (Julius Caesar)
“All warfare is based on deception.” (Sun Tzu)
“Surprise lies at the root of all operations without exception.” (Carl von Clausewitz)
God could have led the Israelites straight out of Egypt without much fanfare (at least after the 10 plagues), but instead God tells them to turn back and feign being lost. In so doing, God baits the Pharoah’s army to pursue them, a set-up for Egyptian military defeat and humiliation. God is not interested in achieving an immediate utilitarian outcome—freedom from bondage. Rather, God seeks to stage a spectacle on the world-historical stage, one that will be remembered for ages. This requires a directorial gambit that makes no sense otherwise. God sets history as a morality play.
For God’s deception to work, the deceiver must not suspect it. Seforno notes that Baal-zephon was an Egyptian deity whom “Pharaoh credited with this accomplishment of halting the Israelites.” Pharaoh remained a believer in false gods even after witnessing the most miraculous events. Pharaoh’s reading of the situation flows naturally from his theological framework - he sees exactly what his belief system predisposes him to see. Despite having witnessed ten plagues that systematically dismantled Egyptian certainties, Pharaoh remains trapped in his original paradigm. His idolatry is not merely theological error but an epistemic failure, a doubling down on his priors, an unwillingness to update his understanding in the face of new evidence. Idolatry—Pharaoh’s ascription of power to false, static gods—is the very reason he can’t change his mind. Pharaoh regards himself as a god; gods are never wrong and thus can’t admit error. I take it that God’s hardening Pharaoh’s heart amounts to strengthening his conviction that he himself is a god. Pharaoh already believes this; but God encourages him to go all-in, to size his position accordingly. Pharaoh is responsible for his mistaken thesis, but God endows him with the over-confidence of a college student opining about the Current Thing.
Deception, according to Sun Tzu, is the fundamental principle of military strategy. It is also a strong motif in the story of Jacob, who tricks his father into blessing him, his brother into selling him his birthright, and his father-in-law into giving him the prized share of the flock (i.e. all the speckled and spotted livestock as his wages). In fact, Biblical law enjoins us not to place a stumbling block in front of a blind man. In the realm of ethics and psychology, deceit is frowned upon; but in war it is a virtue. God's deceptive maneuver would not be possible without Pharaoh's collusion.
The divine strategy at Pi-hahiroth echoes and elevates the pattern we see in Jacob’s narrative. Just as Jacob employs deception against those who cannot see beyond their immediate assumptions - Esau’s short-termism, Isaac’s reliance on physical senses - God uses Pharaoh’s rigid theological framework against him. The Torah sets up a conceptual parallel between Esav's inability to value the birthright beyond immediate hunger, Isaac’s initial failure to see beyond appearances, and Pharaoh’s commitment to Egyptian theological certainties. Epistemic rigidity is a kind of hunger, an impulsiveness. Pharaoh clings to his pre-conceptions because they “feed him.” (Worth noting the core metaphor of “feeds” in social media, where we are served up the very news and opinions that fortify our pre-established views.) Isaac offers blessing to Jacob as reward for food. The deceived, in each case, are trapped by their need to be immediately gratified. Reconsidering one’s worldview takes time and requires one to forgo the hedonic pleasures of feeling in the right. As the meme format goes, “Men would literally rather drive their chariots into the sea than go to therapy.” According to Thomas Kuhn, changing one’s paradigm is a multi-generational process. Max Planck says that science progresses one funeral at a time.
The military strategists Sun Tzu and Clausewitz both emphasize the role of deception in warfare. In war, winners will seek to downplay their success, while losers seeks to play up their strength. In Zero to One, Peter Thiel argues that monopolistic companies like Google will insist on being competitive, while competitive airline companies and restaurants will claim to be monopolies. Deception—and self-deception—mean that it is often hard to tell who is winning and who is losing in the fog of war. But we should expect a high density of reversals. Here at Pi Hachirot, we see a similar inversion. Israel, in a position of strength, acts weak, while Pharaoh, in a position of weakness projects strength. Both deceive. But only one knows its a game. Julius Caesar, who was a master of paradoxical military strategy, observed that, “In war, events of importance are the result of trivial causes.” Here, the trivial cause of Egypt’s foolhardy war on Israel is Pharaoh’s predictable interpretation of Israel’s pitstop at Pi-hachirot via Baal-Zephon. To us, these places are nearly meaningless. To Pharaoh they were everything.
The rabbis of the Talmud teach that “It is permitted to flatter wicked people in this world," inferring this from Isaiah's vision of a future in which "the vile person shall no longer be called generous.” This teaching from Sotah 41b suggests that engaging with broken systems sometimes requires working within their logic. At Pi-hachirot, God does precisely this - engaging Egyptian theological assumptions not to validate them but to expose their fundamental inadequacy.
The location's name, Pi-hahiroth - “the mouth of freedom” - takes on deeper significance in this reading. Freedom requires escaping not just a geographic Egypt but an epistemic Egypt: the closed system of thought that makes Pharaoh’s errors inevitable. Like Jacob’s deceptions, which exposed the spiritual blindness of those who thought they could see clearly, the divine strategy at Pi-hahiroth reveals that idolatry's deepest flaw is its practitioners’ inability to recognize their own limitations. Just as Jacob’s opponents remained trapped in their immediate perceptions - Esav by his hunger, Isaac by his physical senses, Laban by his greed - Pharaoh remains captive to his theological certainties, unwilling to inhabit a dynamic universe where understanding must constantly be updated in the face of new revelation.
This reading transforms Pi-hahiroth from a mere geographical marker into a metaphysical threshold. To pass through this mouth of freedom, one must first recognize the bars of one’s mental prison. The Israelites’ physical journey mirrors the cognitive journey required of all who seek liberation: the willingness to turn back, to appear lost, to inhabit the uncomfortable space of not-knowing. In this light, the military deception becomes more than tactical brilliance - it becomes a lesson in the need for epistemological humility. Monotheism can be conceived less as the doctrine of divine existence and more as a way of being, a skepticism towards self-claimed gods. Pray for the welfare of the king, obey and oblige when necessary, but do not worship the king, or assume that he is infallible.
Pharaoh’s defeat at the Red Sea is not just a military catastrophe but the inevitable conclusion of a mindset that refused to question and revise its own foundations. The mouth of freedom opens widest for those willing to admit they might be wrong.
Shabbat Shalom,
Zohar Atkins