(With special thanks to Rosh Yeshivah Rav Daniel, to Rosh Yeshivah Rav Natan, Rabbi Arthur Green, and my chevruta Baruch Hirshcopf.)
In this week’s parashah, it is written (Shemot/Exodus 2:23): “And it came to pass in the course of those many days, that the king of Mitzrayim (Egypt) died. And the children of Yisrael sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry rose up to the Elokim min avodah from labor.”
Israel cried out -- but not to Hashem -- but still Hashem received the cry.
The verse says “min avodah” (from labor). But which avodah (labor) is meant – Israel’s avodah for Paroh or Israel’s avodat Hashem (service of The Eternal)?
If “avodah” refered to avodat Hashem, if the cry rose up from Israel’s prayer, then wouldn’t Israel have cried to Hashem? But they didn’t cry out to Hashem. So, avodah must refer to Israel’s labor as slaves for Paroh
The Sfas Emes teaches on this parashah that in each exile there are rungs, various levels of distance from Hashem. He identifies three rungs: the imprisoned, the righteous (tzadik), and the poor. Each rung corresponds with a quote from Torah about an action of Hashem: “motzi asirim” (He brings forth the prisoners), “podeh ‘anuim” (He delivers the humble [i.e., the tzadikim (righteous)]), “v‘azar dalim” (and He helps the poor).
“The middle rung,” the Sftas Emes teaches, “[comprises] those who are prisoners in exile; they are unable to broaden out that point of divine life that is within them. They need to be brought forth from prison. ‘The humble’ are the tzadikim (righteous); they themselves are not really in exile, but they remain there only for the common good. Such was the case with Moshe, who already had been a shepherd. He was prepared for redemption. In essence, he was no longer in exile at all but was there just to redeem Israel. The same was true of the light in those seventy souls [descended from Ya‘akov] who came into Egypt; they were there just to make for redemption. This is ‘He delivers the humble.’ But ‘He helps the poor’ refers to those lowly ones who do not yet even feel their exile; they are in need of the greatest salvation. This is the beginning of redemption: ‘I will bring you forth from beneath the sufferings of Egypt.’”
Kedushas Levi teaches on this parashah that the gate to tzedek (righteousness) (see for example, Tehilim/Psalms 118:19) is knowing what one does not know. Thus, the true tzadik (righteous person, leader of Israel) may be understood as one for whom humility has brought about a state of “Socratic ignorance”, as one who through cleaving to Hashem knows what s/he does not know. It is precisely this knowing of what is unknown through which the tzadikim redeem Israel.
The rungs of exile are manifest not only as individual people in exiled generations, the Sfas Emes later says, “all these rungs seem to exist in every person as well.” We have within ourselves prisoners, points of divine life which we cannot fully express; tzaddikim, aspects prepared for redemption; and poor, portions of our beings so afflicted, they are desensitized numb and are not even aware of themselves.
Just as, within the People of Israel, the tzadikim redeem the poor through knowing what is unknown, similarly within the individual, the aspects of tzedek redeem the poor portions by knowing them. And just as the tzadikim are not really in exile and live with the People of Israel in exile only to make for redemption, similarly, the aspects of tzedek constitute the individual’s connection with Hashem and are implanted in our beings in order to redeem our poor portions. What does it mean to be “not really in exile”? Rav Daniel has taught that to be in exile is to be prevented from full expression. The aspects of each individual that can be fully expressed are the aspects prepared for redeeming. This is the case because we live -- and are made to live -- and are created to live -- in a world of tikkun (repairing). Our placement, our designation, our purpose, is to effect redemption; the highest, most free expression of self is to be redeeming the poor portions, within the souls and out with the world.
In order to redeem ourselves, to do tshuva (returning to Hashem), we must become humble and sensitive in our self-perception. In this way, we may feel where we cease to feel and learn where there is soul-work (avodat Hashem) to be done. Becoming aware of our spiritual dendrites “who do not yet even feel”, is like becoming aware of a limb of the body that has “fallen asleep”. There is pressure at the verge where numb meets sensitive. Though a numb member has no perception of its own, since it is still attached, it effects the whole; the numb member’s existence is felt because it presses into the feeling body. The feeling might be painful, but it is this sensation at the verge that hints where redemption must be done. In the body, we feel “pins and needles” when the organ resumes activity or meets with objects. Similarly, in the soul, when a piece of our spirit is needed for use after it has stayed dormant or is pushed into new challenges, we are blessed to receive painful indication of the fact we grow and specific information about where we are growing. The pain is not only an indication of the beginning of redemption (if it were only this we might ask for growth and subsequent extended awareness without the specific awareness of growing), the pain is itself an instrument of the growth -- driving us to examine the obstacle merited and to completely actualize the redemption.
It is written (Shemoth 5:15): “Then the officers of the children of Yisrael came and cried to Paroh, saying, Why do you dealthus with your servants?” Israel cried out, and here it is stated explicitly that they cried not to Hashem but instead to Paroh. There can be no doubt then that their avodah was avodah for Paroh. So, how can the Sfas Emes teach “those seventy souls… were there [i.e., came down into Egypt] just to make for redemption”? Where is the work of redemption if Israel does avodah for Paroh and not for Hashem?
At the first crying out in the parashah (Shemot/Exodus 2:23), even though Israel cries without directing their cry to Hashem, Hashem hears; just so here with the second cry (Shemot/Exodus 5:15), though the cry is directed toward Paroh, it arrives to Hashem. Now, as with the cries, so too with the avodah; the avodah for Paroh IS their avodat Hashem. Of course, this avodah is incomplete, and Israel needs to learn that they must progress beyond the constricted stage of laboring in Egypt. (Accordingly, when Moshe asks Hashem at the burning bush “what is his name? what shall I say to them?”, Hashem gives Moshe this name for the people to call: “E-heye asher E-heye” (I will be who I will be). Kedushas Levi, as I gathered in my extremely limited understanding, teaches that in the first “E-heye”, they admit their numbness and call out ‘I don’t know what I am’, and in the second “E-heye”, they call out ‘I trust Hashem to make me who I will be’.)
The Torah tells how the avodah for Paroh is turned toward Hashem with direct reference to the pain inflicted by the avodah. It is written: “But the more they [the Egyptians] afflicted them [Israel], the more they [Israel] multiplied and grew.” The pain is instrumental in teaching us netzach, to overcome our incompleteness and affirm life for its very own sake (see Frameworks, “The Nameless Lightness of Being”).
Not only do these rungs exist within the individual and within each exiled generation, the rungs exist for us across time. Two different but similar words are translated as ‘cry’: one from the shoresh (root) Zayin-‘Ayin-Quf (Shemot/Exodus 2:23), and one from the shoresh Tzadiq-‘Ayin-Quf (Shemot/Exodus 5:15). Their parallel usage recalls a parallel usage earlier in the Torah. It is written (Bereishit/Genesis 18:20-21): “And Y-H-V-H said, Because the cry (Zayin-‘Ayin-Quf) of Sedom and ‘Amora is great, and because their sin is very grievous, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry (Tzadiq-‘Ayin-Quf) of it, which is come to me; and if not, I will know.” Rashi explains these verses: “If they persist in their rebellious ways, an end will I make of them; if however they do not persist in their rebellious ways, I will know what I will do -- punishing them only with suffering”; and he derives this lesson: “the judges should not give decisions on cases involving capital punishment except after having carefully looked into the matter.”
Judgment was initiated by crying for both Sedom and Israel. We learn from the parallel between Sedom and Israel that Israel had sunk so low we were like Sedom. Of course, we were not so far off as Sedom for the judgment of Sedom decided between suffering and extermination, whereas ours decided between liberation and further slavery to prepare for eventual liberation.
Israel’s lowliness and Sedom’s are distinguished in this respect: our descent contains the means of redemption. After it is written “their cry rose up to Elokim min-avodah” enabling the judgement of whether they are ready to be redeemed, we read “and Elokim heard their groaning, and Elokim remembered His covenant with Avraham, with Yitzchak, and with Ya‘akov” (Shemot/Exodus 2:24) By the generations of Am Yisrael who were tzadikim are the impoverished generations redeemed. The three rungs of exile -- prisoners, tzadikim, and poor -- manifest in three spheres -- the individual, the people, and the nation.
May Your will, Eternal One, be our generation’s redeeming and in-gathering from exile; our people’s reuniting through the leadership of those who stand for You in each and every kind of avodah; and our individuals’ feeling what we feel not. May the avodah of the tzadikim be soon perfected. Shabbat Shalom!