Exodus, 1:1-6:1

Portion Summary

The portion, Shemot (Exodus), begins with the demise of Joseph and all of his contemporaries: “And a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph” (Exodus, 1:8). Subsequently, Moses was born in Egypt and his sister hid him in an ark. She placed the ark in the Nile and followed it. Pharaoh’s daughter went down to bathe in the river, found the ark, and took the baby. Moses’ sister offered to help her find a Hebrew nursing woman and brought Moses’ mother in to nurse the baby.

Moses grew and lived in Pharaoh’s home for forty years. One day, he saw an Egyptian man beating a Hebrew. He struck and killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand. When he realized that one of his Hebrew brothers had seen him in the act, he feared being reported and escaped to the desert.

In the desert, he met Jethro, priest of Midian. Moses married his daughter. When he saw the burning bush, he was told that he must return to Pharaoh and to the people of Israel, and tell them it was time to get out of Egypt.

The portion ends with the children of Israel complaining to Moses about their unhappy situation. Moses turned to the Creator, who said to him, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh, for by a strong hand shall he let them go, and by a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land” (Exodus, 6:1).

Commentary

These stories deal with man’s soul. The Torah tells us how to correct ourselves in order to develop the soul within us, how to open it up to the upper light, to the revelation of the Creator, and how to feel within it the upper, spiritual world.

The process begins with a special desire, called “Abraham,” which awakens and asks about the meaning of our lives, leading us to open up our souls. Our developing desire must escape Babylon, the sum of our great ego.

Subsequently, that desire creates another desire, Isaac, which begets yet another desire, Jacob. These three desires form the foundation of the soul.

Jacob, which is a special desire, has twelve sons. This is a development of the third desire, which achieves equivalence with the upper force—the Creator—who is pure bestowal. The exodus from Babylon symbolizes our desire to achieve that same level of bestowal. Jacob is the first to actualize that desire through his sons, particularly through Joseph, who assembles all the qualities of bestowal from the corrections that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the rest of the sons have made.

Joseph is the only one who can descend to his ego with all the corrections and begin to work with the ego, which is called “Egypt.”

The whole of the house of Jacob goes down to Egypt. There, they complete their corrections and die. After awhile, a child is born in the tribe of Levi. Unlike the rest of the Hebrew children that Pharaoh put to death, this one survives. In spiritual terms, Pharaoh “swallowed” all the desires that were corrected into aiming to bestow. He put them to death by the ego taking over all the desires. Thus, even if a person wanted to advance toward spirituality, the ego, life, and the environment would make it impossible.

In the period preceding the birth of the desire called “Moses,” one could not advance toward spirituality. One had to wait until the Moses desire appeared and grew, thanks to his mother, who nursed him, and to Batia, Pharaoh’s daughter, who received him afterward.

Batia is Bat Yah (Daughter of the Creator); she is a part of the quality of Pharaoh within us, a special part of our ego, the will to receive. This part can connect with the desire to bestow and grow.

Moses grew in Pharaoh’s house as a grandson, the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, Batia. He was raised as a prince who was educated in all of Egypt’s wisdom until he was forty.

Age forty is the age of Bina (understanding). It is not an indication of a number of years, but a stage at which the desire not only grows and draws from the side of Pharaoh, the ego, but begins to correct itself, as well. The desire that reaches the age-state of forty discovers its oppositeness from Pharaoh and uses him to escape from him.

Our exodus from Egypt begins when we feel that we can no longer tolerate the struggle. It happens when there is resistance, when we feel both Pharaoh and Moses within us, and the Jews in us crave unity, but are unable to achieve it because they are Pharaoh’s slaves. Here is where we discover Pharaoh’s rulers. There is an inner struggle between the Jews and Pharaoh’s rulers, and we perceive it as unbearable. This is when we begin to resist and must take action to correct ourselves.

The force of Moses within kills Pharaoh’s men—the Egyptians—within us, and must therefore flee from Pharaoh. In fact, when Moses kills the Egyptian within him, the struggle between him and his ego only intensifies, and he has to draw very far from his ego. This is the meaning of “the escape from Egypt.”

However, one cannot escape all at once because the rest of the desires, the children of Israel, are still enslaved in Egypt under the ego, working in order to receive. Only Moses grew and escaped to Midian, to Jethro, married the priest’s daughter, Zipporah, and stayed there for forty years.

While in the desert, Moses understood that there was one special point, the burning bush, that could lift him up. With Jethro, he connected to it for forty years. He continued to grow there and acquire all of Jethro’s wisdom, which gave him a springboard back to Egypt, to the beginning of his confrontation with Pharaoh.

The Creator said to Moses, “Let’s go to Pharaoh together because ‘I have hardened his heart.’” In other words, we feel two forces once again, which provide the understanding and ability to cope with what is required, with the ego. Then, we understand that “there is none else besides Him” (Deuteronomy, 4:35), that there is nothing but the singular force that, on the one hand, plays with the ego and hardens Pharaoh’s heart. On the other hand, it goes with us and helps us advance above it. Thus, the Creator gradually brings us toward exiting our egos entirely as we exit Egypt.

At the same time, “the children of Israel sighed from the work” (Exodus, 2:23), building Pithom and Rameses, beautiful cities corresponding to the first and second Temples, yet were for Pharaoh. The ego continued to grow, as did the children of Israel, and all these qualities of bestowal within our forces of reception chased away the Egypt in us, our egos.

We can see the great force that exists in these qualities only as we advance. As long as they are enslaved by Pharaoh, they are cities of poverty—a state in which one desires to exit the ego and advance toward spirituality, but has no outlet by which to escape. “Cities of poverty” indicates that a person is in danger¹ because if he remains in his ego, he will never attain the spiritual world.

During his time with Jethro, Moses acquired the powers to cope with Pharaoh. He made a covenant and arrived in Egypt with his son, Gershon. Upon his return to Egypt, he began to struggle with Pharaoh. He reunited with his brother, Aaron, and together they collected the rest of the elders of Israel.

Put differently, we summon all the inner forces with which we believe we can rise above our egos and correct ourselves. The forces, thoughts, and intentions with which we can rise above our egos, above Egypt, are those that are in equivalence with the Creator. It is in those desires that the upper force is revealed, and we receive a glimpse of the spiritual world..

In that struggle, we can connect with the inner Aaron, the right side, and with Moses, the left side. Together, they are Cohen (priest) and Levi (Levite). Then, we summon all those inner forces and discover evidence of the Creator through “miracles,” meaning forces that act on our desires. Once a bit of the spiritual force appears in us, we can sort out the desires with which we can build the Kli (vessel) to reveal the Creator, the “soul.” These desires intend to demand of Pharaoh, “Let My people go” (Exodus, 5:1).

At that point, we feel that we are at a crossroads, and that we have the endurance. We demand that we detach ourselves from the ego and rise to the level of Bina, outside of Egypt. Our strength does not manifest at once. The Pharaoh within says, “No way,” and “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?” (Exodus, 5:2).

Within us is a mighty struggle, preventing us from detaching from our nature. It resists us by pulling us toward our nature, and we try but are constantly pulled back. This is why we suffer the blows called the “Ten plagues of Egypt.” These blows push us forward.

This is a tough process. The struggle resembles labor pains. Indeed, the exodus from Egypt is called “birth”—the birth of the spiritual man. In this state, we (the people of Israel) suffer from all the desires and intentions in us. We are very frustrated and need much support. It is quite difficult to go through these states without the support of the proper environment, which serves as a “midwife” in Egypt.

In that state we need those midwives in order to muster the needed strength to bring us to the necessity for the upper force, to feel that without the help of the Creator we will never rise above our Egypt.

We therefore see that there is a meaningful “game” here between the strengthening Pharaoh and the strengthening Israel. But only when we come to a state of bewilderment and helplessness does the Creator say, “Come unto Pharaoh” (Exodus 7:26) “for I have hardened his heart” (Exodus 10:1). That is, the Creator wishes to save us precisely through the hardening. By that, He shows us His greatness.

The dramatic process and difficult conditions we face are for our own sake. During the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah, as we rise above our egos and discover spirituality—the upper force—we undergo a complicated process of self-scrutiny and inner struggles between desires, forces, and intentions. We experience it so we may feel the upper force, the spiritual world, and where it is, because we can neither see nor feel it with our senses.

We must collect these supporting forces—Pharaoh, Jethro, Moses, Aaron, Israel in Egypt, and all the patriarchs—as forces that desire us to rise above the ego and discover the spiritual world. These forces face up to Pharaoh, the ego, and demand to rise above it, as it is written, “Let My people go that they may serve Me” (Exodus, 7:16). It happens so we may discover the greatness, the so-badly-needed help that one receives from above, from the Creator.

This is the only way we can acquire the power that the Creator sends us, the upper force, the force of bestowal, the love of others, through which we rise above the ego and come out of Egypt. This is our spiritual birth, and only then do we begin to feel the spiritual world. Henceforth, we will be revived.

The portion opens before us a new stage in our development. This is why the book, Shemot (Exodus), is the second book in the Torah. There are five books in the Pentateuch. These correspond to our five egoistic desires that we need to correct on five degrees: the worlds Assiya, Yetzira, Beria, Atzilut, and Adam Kadmon, until we reach the end of correction, complete redemption. Each world contains five internal degrees, which, in turn, contain another five degrees in each. Thus, altogether there are 125 degrees by which we ascend to the final and complete correction, our complete redemption.

Redemption begins after the first, preparatory stage, when we discover the true Pharaoh within, the real ego. Because we face two conflicting forces—Pharaoh and Moses—we need a third force to decide between them. That force is the Creator, the upper force, which then appears and helps us.

Questions and Answers

The portion describes the preparations for a spiritual birth. Is it similar to what is happening in the world today?

Of course. We are all in a state of scrutinizing our egos, their control over us, and the narrow boundaries that they allow us. We have yet to achieve the recognition that the ego is evil, but many people are already beginning to see that we are helpless because we don’t know how to correct the crises the ego has created.

Is this the sensation of Egypt or is it not yet it?

This is already the sensation of Egypt. We are under great stress because we have not determined whether Pharaoh is our “good grandpa.” Is he sitting with Moses in his lap and dispensing the joys of life (including the Jews that are in Egypt, enjoying the abundance) or is there a new stage arising here?

For thousands of years we have been progressing thanks to our growing egos, and we have enjoyed it. We thought we would thrive and prosper indefinitely. But suddenly, we have discovered that the very force we were thanking for our abundance had become a harmful force. This is Pharaoh changing his attitude toward the Jews in Egypt, becoming the bad ruler, as it is written, “Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph” (Exodus, 1:8).

Over the last one hundred years, but particularly since the turn of the century, we have been involved in this self-scrutiny, and we must finish it quickly. However, everything depends on people sharing their knowledge of the situation, because no one knows what to do.

It is similar to what happens on Purim, when the city of Shushan is bewildered and people do not know who is right—Mordechai or Haman. Likewise, the story in Egypt repeats itself with the Jew who wanted to reveal how Moses killed the Egyptian.

Therefore, we must explain to everyone what is really happening, the reason for all the bad things, the crises, and how we can rise above them all. It is only our egos that have brought us into this pre

Portion Summary

The portion, Shemot (Exodus), begins with the demise of Joseph and all of his contemporaries: “And a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph” (Exodus, 1:8). Subsequently, Moses was born in Egypt and his sister hid him in an ark. She placed the ark in the Nile and followed it. Pharaoh’s daughter went down to bathe in the river, found the ark, and took the baby. Moses’ sister offered to help her find a Hebrew nursing woman and brought Moses’ mother in to nurse the baby.

Moses grew and lived in Pharaoh’s home for forty years. One day, he saw an Egyptian man beating a Hebrew. He struck and killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand. When he realized that one of his Hebrew brothers had seen him in the act, he feared being reported and escaped to the desert.

In the desert, he met Jethro, priest of Midian. Moses married his daughter. When he saw the burning bush, he was told that he must return to Pharaoh and to the people of Israel, and tell them it was time to get out of Egypt.

The portion ends with the children of Israel complaining to Moses about their unhappy situation. Moses turned to the Creator, who said to him, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh, for by a strong hand shall he let them go, and by a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land” (Exodus, 6:1).

Commentary

These stories deal with man’s soul. The Torah tells us how to correct ourselves in order to develop the soul within us, how to open it up to the upper light, to the revelation of the Creator, and how to feel within it the upper, spiritual world.

The process begins with a special desire, called “Abraham,” which awakens and asks about the meaning of our lives, leading us to open up our souls. Our developing desire must escape Babylon, the sum of our great ego.

Subsequently, that desire creates another desire, Isaac, which begets yet another desire, Jacob. These three desires form the foundation of the soul.

Jacob, which is a special desire, has twelve sons. This is a development of the third desire, which achieves equivalence with the upper force—the Creator—who is pure bestowal. The exodus from Babylon symbolizes our desire to achieve that same level of bestowal. Jacob is the first to actualize that desire through his sons, particularly through Joseph, who assembles all the qualities of bestowal from the corrections that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the rest of the sons have made.

Joseph is the only one who can descend to his ego with all the corrections and begin to work with the ego, which is called “Egypt.”

The whole of the house of Jacob goes down to Egypt. There, they complete their corrections and die. After awhile, a child is born in the tribe of Levi. Unlike the rest of the Hebrew children that Pharaoh put to death, this one survives. In spiritual terms, Pharaoh “swallowed” all the desires that were corrected into aiming to bestow. He put them to death by the ego taking over all the desires. Thus, even if a person wanted to advance toward spirituality, the ego, life, and the environment would make it impossible.

In the period preceding the birth of the desire called “Moses,” one could not advance toward spirituality. One had to wait until the Moses desire appeared and grew, thanks to his mother, who nursed him, and to Batia, Pharaoh’s daughter, who received him afterward.

Batia is Bat Yah (Daughter of the Creator); she is a part of the quality of Pharaoh within us, a special part of our ego, the will to receive. This part can connect with the desire to bestow and grow.

Moses grew in Pharaoh’s house as a grandson, the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, Batia. He was raised as a prince who was educated in all of Egypt’s wisdom until he was forty.

Age forty is the age of Bina (understanding). It is not an indication of a number of years, but a stage at which the desire not only grows and draws from the side of Pharaoh, the ego, but begins to correct itself, as well. The desire that reaches the age-state of forty discovers its oppositeness from Pharaoh and uses him to escape from him.

Our exodus from Egypt begins when we feel that we can no longer tolerate the struggle. It happens when there is resistance, when we feel both Pharaoh and Moses within us, and the Jews in us crave unity, but are unable to achieve it because they are Pharaoh’s slaves. Here is where we discover Pharaoh’s rulers. There is an inner struggle between the Jews and Pharaoh’s rulers, and we perceive it as unbearable. This is when we begin to resist and must take action to correct ourselves.

The force of Moses within kills Pharaoh’s men—the Egyptians—within us, and must therefore flee from Pharaoh. In fact, when Moses kills the Egyptian within him, the struggle between him and his ego only intensifies, and he has to draw very far from his ego. This is the meaning of “the escape from Egypt.”

However, one cannot escape all at once because the rest of the desires, the children of Israel, are still enslaved in Egypt under the ego, working in order to receive. Only Moses grew and escaped to Midian, to Jethro, married the priest’s daughter, Zipporah, and stayed there for forty years.

While in the desert, Moses understood that there was one special point, the burning bush, that could lift him up. With Jethro, he connected to it for forty years. He continued to grow there and acquire all of Jethro’s wisdom, which gave him a springboard back to Egypt, to the beginning of his confrontation with Pharaoh.

The Creator said to Moses, “Let’s go to Pharaoh together because ‘I have hardened his heart.’” In other words, we feel two forces once again, which provide the understanding and ability to cope with what is required, with the ego. Then, we understand that “there is none else besides Him” (Deuteronomy, 4:35), that there is nothing but the singular force that, on the one hand, plays with the ego and hardens Pharaoh’s heart. On the other hand, it goes with us and helps us advance above it. Thus, the Creator gradually brings us toward exiting our egos entirely as we exit Egypt.

At the same time, “the children of Israel sighed from the work” (Exodus, 2:23), building Pithom and Rameses, beautiful cities corresponding to the first and second Temples, yet were for Pharaoh. The ego continued to grow, as did the children of Israel, and all these qualities of bestowal within our forces of reception chased away the Egypt in us, our egos.

We can see the great force that exists in these qualities only as we advance. As long as they are enslaved by Pharaoh, they are cities of poverty—a state in which one desires to exit the ego and advance toward spirituality, but has no outlet by which to escape. “Cities of poverty” indicates that a person is in danger¹ because if he remains in his ego, he will never attain the spiritual world.

During his time with Jethro, Moses acquired the powers to cope with Pharaoh. He made a covenant and arrived in Egypt with his son, Gershon. Upon his return to Egypt, he began to struggle with Pharaoh. He reunited with his brother, Aaron, and together they collected the rest of the elders of Israel.

Put differently, we summon all the inner forces with which we believe we can rise above our egos and correct ourselves. The forces, thoughts, and intentions with which we can rise above our egos, above Egypt, are those that are in equivalence with the Creator. It is in those desires that the upper force is revealed, and we receive a glimpse of the spiritual world..

In that struggle, we can connect with the inner Aaron, the right side, and with Moses, the left side. Together, they are Cohen (priest) and Levi (Levite). Then, we summon all those inner forces and discover evidence of the Creator through “miracles,” meaning forces that act on our desires. Once a bit of the spiritual force appears in us, we can sort out the desires with which we can build the Kli (vessel) to reveal the Creator, the “soul.” These desires intend to demand of Pharaoh, “Let My people go” (Exodus, 5:1).

At that point, we feel that we are at a crossroads, and that we have the endurance. We demand that we detach ourselves from the ego and rise to the level of Bina, outside of Egypt. Our strength does not manifest at once. The Pharaoh within says, “No way,” and “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?” (Exodus, 5:2).

Within us is a mighty struggle, preventing us from detaching from our nature. It resists us by pulling us toward our nature, and we try but are constantly pulled back. This is why we suffer the blows called the “Ten plagues of Egypt.” These blows push us forward.

This is a tough process. The struggle resembles labor pains. Indeed, the exodus from Egypt is called “birth”—the birth of the spiritual man. In this state, we (the people of Israel) suffer from all the desires and intentions in us. We are very frustrated and need much support. It is quite difficult to go through these states without the support of the proper environment, which serves as a “midwife” in Egypt.

In that state we need those midwives in order to muster the needed strength to bring us to the necessity for the upper force, to feel that without the help of the Creator we will never rise above our Egypt.

We therefore see that there is a meaningful “game” here between the strengthening Pharaoh and the strengthening Israel. But only when we come to a state of bewilderment and helplessness does the Creator say, “Come unto Pharaoh” (Exodus 7:26) “for I have hardened his heart” (Exodus 10:1). That is, the Creator wishes to save us precisely through the hardening. By that, He shows us His greatness.

The dramatic process and difficult conditions we face are for our own sake. During the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah, as we rise above our egos and discover spirituality—the upper force—we undergo a complicated process of self-scrutiny and inner struggles between desires, forces, and intentions. We experience it so we may feel the upper force, the spiritual world, and where it is, because we can neither see nor feel it with our senses.

We must collect these supporting forces—Pharaoh, Jethro, Moses, Aaron, Israel in Egypt, and all the patriarchs—as forces that desire us to rise above the ego and discover the spiritual world. These forces face up to Pharaoh, the ego, and demand to rise above it, as it is written, “Let My people go that they may serve Me” (Exodus, 7:16). It happens so we may discover the greatness, the so-badly-needed help that one receives from above, from the Creator.

This is the only way we can acquire the power that the Creator sends us, the upper force, the force of bestowal, the love of others, through which we rise above the ego and come out of Egypt. This is our spiritual birth, and only then do we begin to feel the spiritual world. Henceforth, we will be revived.

The portion opens before us a new stage in our development. This is why the book, Shemot (Exodus), is the second book in the Torah. There are five books in the Pentateuch. These correspond to our five egoistic desires that we need to correct on five degrees: the worlds Assiya, Yetzira, Beria, Atzilut, and Adam Kadmon, until we reach the end of correction, complete redemption. Each world contains five internal degrees, which, in turn, contain another five degrees in each. Thus, altogether there are 125 degrees by which we ascend to the final and complete correction, our complete redemption.

Redemption begins after the first, preparatory stage, when we discover the true Pharaoh within, the real ego. Because we face two conflicting forces—Pharaoh and Moses—we need a third force to decide between them. That force is the Creator, the upper force, which then appears and helps us.

Questions and Answers

The portion describes the preparations for a spiritual birth. Is it similar to what is happening in the world today?

Of course. We are all in a state of scrutinizing our egos, their control over us, and the narrow boundaries that they allow us. We have yet to achieve the recognition that the ego is evil, but many people are already beginning to see that we are helpless because we don’t know how to correct the crises the ego has created.

Is this the sensation of Egypt or is it not yet it?

This is already the sensation of Egypt. We are under great stress because we have not determined whether Pharaoh is our “good grandpa.” Is he sitting with Moses in his lap and dispensing the joys of life (including the Jews that are in Egypt, enjoying the abundance) or is there a new stage arising here?

For thousands of years we have been progressing thanks to our growing egos, and we have enjoyed it. We thought we would thrive and prosper indefinitely. But suddenly, we have discovered that the very force we were thanking for our abundance had become a harmful force. This is Pharaoh changing his attitude toward the Jews in Egypt, becoming the bad ruler, as it is written, “Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph” (Exodus, 1:8).

Over the last one hundred years, but particularly since the turn of the century, we have been involved in this self-scrutiny, and we must finish it quickly. However, everything depends on people sharing their knowledge of the situation, because no one knows what to do.

It is similar to what happens on Purim, when the city of Shushan is bewildered and people do not know who is right—Mordechai or Haman. Likewise, the story in Egypt repeats itself with the Jew who wanted to reveal how Moses killed the Egyptian.

Therefore, we must explain to everyone what is really happening, the reason for all the bad things, the crises, and how we can rise above them all. It is only our egos that have brought us into this predicament. Through the right process, as the Torah tells us, we must come to see the ego as an evil force on which we must shine the light that reforms.² In other words, the Creator that is now appearing to Moses tells him, “Come to Pharaoh because I have hardened his heart,” meaning, “I caused the crisis so you would find Me, because only I can help you out of it.”

We must pass this message to everyone as quickly as possible and show how we can discover the upper force that rewards us with abundance. If we relate to our crisis in the right way, we will obtain—while in this life—the spiritual world, eternity, and perfection.

What is Moses in spirituality, and what are all the stages he went through on the spiritual level?

Moses is the force that pulls us out of Egypt (our egos), raising us above this world and into the spiritual one. It is contrary to what Batia says: “I drew him out of the water” (Exodus, 2:10). Moses is the force that must now lead us from here until we enter the land of Israel.

Why is Pharaoh’s daughter called Batia (the Creator’s daughter)? Aren’t they opposites?

Pharaoh is the posterior side of the Creator. The upper force is playing with us. It is written, “I have created the evil inclination,” which is Pharaoh, “I have created for it the Torah as a spice” (Masechet Kidushin, 30b), because “The light in it reforms it” (Eicha, “Introduction,” Paragraph 2). In other words, He reforms Pharaoh, the evil inclination.

At the end of the process, we must take from Egypt all the Kelim (vessels), all the desires, and empty the Egyptians from everything, as it is written about the children of Israel that they went out with “great substance” (Genesis, 15:14). This is how we sanctify these Kelim, these great desires—which so far worked for our own good. We now invert them into working for the sake of others, and it is precisely in these desires that we discover our eternal life.

Why did Pharaoh refuse to let Israel leave Egypt?

When the Israelites are in Egypt, they give great substance to Pharaoh. The forces of bestowal inside the will to receive are very helpful to Pharaoh, and the will to receive knows how to trade, how to develop industry, science, and so forth.

It seems as though the Creator is waiting for Pharaoh’s approval, because after Pharaoh refuses, the Creator brings them out in haste.

It is our own choice. We stand between the ego, the force of reception, and the force of bestowal. We are the ones who recognize the evil in Pharaoh, and when we see this evil gradually losing its strength by our actions, we can then leave it behind.