In this parshah, the Eternal tells Moshe to go to pharaoh and tell him to send the children of Israel to the wilderness, where they will serve Him. When pharaoh refuses, he and the Egyptians are afflicted with plagues.

The commentator Rashi wonders about the verse in which the Eternal says to Moshe: “Go to pharaoh in the morning, when he goes out to the Nile,” and say that he must set the children of Israel free (Exodus 7:15). Rashi wants to answer the question of what exactly pharaoh is doing in the morning by the Nile. “(He) went to relieve himself, because he was making himself out to be a god, who would not need to relieve himself. So he would get up early, go out to the Nile, and do what he needed to do there (in secret).”

This sounds like a joke one might find on the Internet, and I think it is a joke, but one with moral significance. Whenever people act as though they are better than others, they are likely to be both dishonest and arrogant. They hide the fact that they are in fact ordinary mortals with ordinary physical functions. The contrast between boastful pretentiousness and earthy reality can be funny, and when humor is aimed at these flaws, it slips a message in, along with the laughter. The midrash implicitly suggests that we should recognize that we are just plain folks and should not put on airs or compete for the Eternal’s job.

Contrast Rashi’s midrash with the following story from Avot d’Rabbi Natan: “Let Hillel be your model, and let all your deeds be done for the sake of heaven. For when Hillel would leave to go somewhere, his students would ask him, ‘Where are you going, rabbi?’ and he would answer, ‘I am going to do a mitzvah!’ ‘What mitzvah, Hillel?’ ‘I am going to the bathroom.’ ‘Is that a mitzvah?’ ‘Yes, for it is a mitzvah to see that the body is kept in good health, and is not brought to any harm...(We will be) rewarded for cleaning and caring for our bodies, as we have been created in the image and likeness of the Eternal.’”

Hillel was perfectly willing to acknowledge his physical body and its needs, without any shame or prudishness. He did not try to pretend to his admiring students that he was a god, but he did make a claim that might strike us as humble, or proud, or maybe a little bit of both. He taught that he was connected to and governed by his Creator in everything he did, even going to the bathroom. If we follow Hillel’s example, we will not see ourselves as god-like, but we will see ourselves as having the precious possibility of following the Eternal at every moment, with every act we perform.

While there are no pharaohs today, we do have powerful corporations and governments. These entities, like the pharaohs of old, seem to want to be treated as god-like. They want us to believe that they do not produce waste products, and they get up early in the morning to keep the public from discovering their dirty secrets. The public should insist that these entities acknowledge that they pollute and then push them to adopt new technologies and regulations to protect the environment and our health.

But our vigilance can’t end there since not all pollution is caused by governments and corporations. In developing nations, 30% of the population is without access to clean and unpolluted water. Basic sanitary systems are lacking, and excrement flows into untreated water supplies. This water is used for washing, drinking and cooking. As a result, millions of people, including a disproportionate number of infants and children, die every year from water-borne diseases.

The governments of developing nations are much too impoverished to be able to assure their citizens clean water, but this would be a relatively inexpensive project for the US and other wealthy nations. We Jews are required by Jewish law to give between ten and twenty percent of our income every year to assist poor people. I hope you will consider directing some of your tzedakah contributions to organizations that help provide clean water and other health services to people in impoverished nations.