“Let us outsmart them lest they rise up from the land”
Slavery is our inability to rise up above our physical nature. Being a slave to our desires and confined to the natural laws of cause and effect is being unable to perceive transcendence, unable to see godliness within ourselves and within our physical universe. We may believe in theory that everything is constantly being run and controlled by divine providence, but for some reason we are unable to truly live our lives in line with that belief. We may think that we are showing freedom by doing what we want and giving in to our physical desires, but in truth we are enslaving ourselves to our natural tendencies. If we were truly free and able to do what we want then external desires would have no pull towards us.
This slavery is the slavery of Mitzrayim (Egypt) which comes from the word meitzar (narrow confinement).
Hashem told Moshe to take us out of slavery. “They will ask me ‘What is His name’, what should I say?” “Tell the children of Israel ‘Y-H-V-H sent me.’”
The name Y-H-V-H is the ineffable name of G-d which (in brief) represents the spiritual DNA of all of creation. Te last letter hey represents the physical world we can perceive, and each letter above that represents a higher level of abstraction, reaching up to the Infinite Light of the Holy One where nothing else exists.
Each one of us is a microcosm of the universe and has all of these levels within theirself. This is the secret that Moshe was given in order to free us from our slavery. When we realize that we are in the image of G-d and that all transcendence is within us, we will be able to free ourselves from the confinement of mitzrayim. We will no longer be stuck in the earthiness of being controlled by the physical laws of nature, and we will no longer be pulled along by external desires; rather we will truly come to resemble Hashem (by being able to do what we want and not being controlled by external forces) and therefore live in the sublime ecstasy of dveikut (attachment) with Him, in the spiritual world where there is no spatial distance, “closeness” is “resemblance”.
“But they wont believe me,” Moshe said.
“What’s that in your hand?” replied Y-H-V-H.
“A stick.”
“Throw it on the ground.”
He threw it on the ground and it was a snake. This is the snake from the Garden of Eden, the Evil One itself, the root and cause of all evil, the one who persuades us to go after our lustful desires, the one who is responsible for the hiddeness of G-d’s light, the one who causes us to doubt, the one who tells us to go after the goal and not to enjoy the process.
“Reach out and grab its tail.”
He reached out and grasped its tail, and it was a stick in his hand.
“This is so they will believe that Y-H-V-H appeared to you.”
When the ineffable name of Hashem was revealed to Moshe, hard reality no longer existed for him. His walking stick which helped him along every step of the way and was extremely familiar to him, turned out to be something completely alien. He was then shown that it is within his power to become so entirely in control of evil that it can once again be his ‘walking stick’.
“Take this stick in your hand, with it you will perform the miracles.”
When the desire that normally controls you is grabbed by its tail and under your own control, you are no longer bound by the confines of nature, and you are thereby free from exile.
Moshe showed this to the Children of Israel and “the people believed.”