The exodus contains a secret of how we can break free from everything that holds us down or limits us in any way - something that is possible even now, before there’s a throne in Jerusalem.
The beginning of the Book of Shmos-Exodus describes the enslavement of the children of Israel in Egypt after the passing of Joseph and his brothers. Their enslavement continued for many years, but it came to a head when Pharaoh died.
This week’s parsha introduces us to Moses, the “first redeemer” of the Jewish people. Moses serves as the paradigm for the final redeemer of the Jewish people—Moshiach.
Moshe, the liberator of the Jewish nation from Egyptian bondage, was in mortal danger from the time he was born. Pharaoh ordered the Egyptians to throw all newborn males into the Nile. When Moshe was born, his parents hid him for three months and then placed him in a basket to float to hoped-for safety on the Nile River.
In our Parsha (Shmos), the Torah tells us (2:23): “Now it came to pass in those many days that the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed from the labor, and they cried out, and their cry ascended to G-d from the labor.”
This Shabbos (Parshas Shmos) falls out between two very special dates: 20 Teves – the Yahrtzait of the Rambam, and 24 Teves, the Yahrtzait of the Alter Rebbe.
Moshe killed an Egyptian taskmaster, fled the wrath of Pharaoh and ended up in Midyan, where he saved the daughters of Yisro from some shepherds who harassed them.
The worst and most destructive temperament to Bitachon is fear. One who is fearful of what the future holds is clearly not practicing Bitachon in Hashem. When exercising trust and reliance in Hashem, one’s entire attention is focused on Hashem’s omnipotence, to the exclusion of any other existence, and when doing so there is no existing factor that can cause fear.
It is the center because it comprises both the right (chesed-kindness) and the left (g’vura-judgment) and synthesizes them. Torah, as the Rebbe stressed, is the epitome of truth. Truth is impartial to arguments from either of the directions. If truth dictates veering to one particular direction then so be it. If truth then demands that we make an about-turn and go in the opposite direction so be it! Truth is unlimited and inviolate and cannot be swayed by any other consideration.
When we become slaves to our passions and our morals are loose, we lose our status as inherently free people. * Moshiach gains mastery over his material interest. This means that to cultivate the internal Moshiach—which is the catalyst to reveal the external Moshiach—we must exercise control over our inner “donkey.”
January 6, 2021