Vaeira: Rambam vs. Sforno on the Hardening of Paroh's Heart

This morning (12/31/21), in our "Machshavah Lab" series for women, we had a SURPRISE shiur on the parashah! (It was a "surprise" in the sense that I didn't prepare a shiur. This began as a Q&A and turned into a shiur.) The question was: "What's the deal with Hashem hardening Paroh's heart?" After showing off AlHaTorah's excellent "topics" feature and reading Neima Novetsky's setup of the questions, we focused on two explanations: Rambam and Sforno. I chose these two because they are near-exact opposites in their approaches. We spent the bulk of the time on the Rambam's approach, then contrasted it with Sforno, after which I explained why I personally prefer Sforno's approach because it's more in line with how Hashem operates (according to my understanding), but am still open to readings of the Rambam which harmonize his view with my understanding of Hashem's ways.