Mitzrayim 5785: How to Get Out of Your Personal Constraints - in Light of Chassidus

00:00 Sometimes it happens to every one of us: we want to learn better, daven better, behave better, but it just doesn’t work. We feel the path is so difficult that we’ll never manage to serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu fully. No, the road seems too long. I can’t get there. I want to—who doesn’t? We want to be servants of Hashem. We want to serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu through Torah study, mitzvos, and davening. But it just doesn’t work. I can’t do it. It’s hard; it’s a long road. The yetzer hara is stronger than I am and keeps pursuing me. All kinds of desires, wants, and pleasures. I can’t overcome all my feelings and the difficulties I have in serving Hashem. In these words or in some other form, each of us sometimes has these thoughts, these moments, these times when we feel it isn’t working. It’s hard. I want to, but I can’t. How do we redeem ourselves? How do we go from slavery to freedom? How do we reach our inner Geulah, the redemption of the soul? Nissan is a month of Geulah. In the teachings of Chassidus, the Alter Rebbe speaks about this in Tanya: the Exodus from Egypt doesn’t refer only to the actual departure of the Jewish people, over three thousand three hundred years ago, from slavery to freedom, from backbreaking labor in Egypt. It also means the exodus from Egypt within the soul, the inner Geulah. How do I become free on the inside? How do I free my soul, so that we can connect to Hakadosh Boruch Hu as we truly want to—daven with intention, learn with vitality, have love of Hashem, awe of Hashem, joy in serving Hashem, fulfill a mitzvah with pure intention, and free ourselves from negative feelings, harmful desires, anger, jealousy, hatred, fears, and excessive worry? All these things surround us, enslave

02:42 us, and make us feel imprisoned. How do I get out of that prison? So today we’ll talk about the Exodus from Egypt according to Tanya. One of the wonderful things the Alter Rebbe does is open our eyes, giving us the distinctive perspective of Chassidus to understand how we leave Egypt every day, in daily life. Actually, there’s a question here, and that’s what we’ll discuss today: What is so great about the Exodus from Egypt and the festival of Pesach? It’s a well-known question: What exactly are we celebrating? Yes, the Jewish people were in exile, enslaved in backbreaking labor, and then we left Egypt and were freed. It truly was a great miracle, the miracle of the Exodus. But afterward, we went back into exile. The redemption from Egypt lasted for a certain period. The Jewish people left Egypt, crossed the desert, and entered the Land of Israel, but we haven’t remained free to this day. There have been all kinds of periods, all kinds of ups and downs in the situation of the Jewish people. After the destruction of the First Beis Hamikdash, after the destruction of the Second Beis Hamikdash, and up to today, we are stuck in a long, deep, difficult exile. So what is really at the heart of this great celebration? What is at the heart of this great festival of the Exodus from Egypt, which we celebrate in Nissan, the month of Geulah, on Pesach—so much so that we call it “the season of our freedom”? What is there about this great festival? What exactly are we celebrating? And not only that: the question applies to every single day as well. We don’t celebrate the Exodus from Egypt only on Pesach; we mention it every day. There is a halachah that every day, a Jew must mention the Exodus from Egypt, by day and by night, when we say Shema Yisroel. We begin with Shema Yisroel, and the halachah says we must continue to the very end, including the passage about tzitzis, where we conclude with the verses about the Exodus from Egypt,

04:57 “I am Hashem your G-d, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt.” In this way, according to halachah, we fulfill the mitzvah “so that you will remember the day you left the land of Egypt all the days of your life.” In effect, we leave Egypt every day. Why is the Exodus from Egypt so important? In fact, with almost every mitzvah, we keep mentioning “in remembrance of the Exodus from Egypt”—in Kiddush, on Shabbos, in the Shabbos prayers, and on the festivals, not only on Pesach. We keep coming back to the Exodus from Egypt. When a Jew puts on tefillin, the passages associated with tefillin mention the Exodus from Egypt too. What does that mean? Why is it so fundamental to a Jew’s daily life? Here the Alter Rebbe comes and tells us something wonderful: recognizing and understanding this will free us. It will give us an inner sense, an inner awareness, of the soul’s freedom in daily life. First, before we discuss the Alter Rebbe’s words, let’s present the explanation of the Maharal of Prague. It is also the foundation for what Tanya later explains in the language of Chassidus. The Maharal of Prague discusses this subject in his books, especially Gevuros Hashem, among others, and offers a wonderful explanation. He says that the essence of the Exodus from Egypt is that, at that point, the Jewish people became free in their souls, in their very essence. In other words, the Exodus was not merely an actual move from slavery to freedom on that day, at that time, in that period. Rather, the Exodus from Egypt meant that a Jew ceased to be, in his very essence, a slave to Pharaoh and Egypt, and became a servant of Hashem. At the moment of the Exodus, a Jew became a servant of Hakadosh Boruch Hu—we became servants of Hashem—and that freed us completely, in our very essence, forever. A Jew can never again be enslaved to anything other than Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That became

07:29 the defining mark of who we are. A Jew can be here or there, in all kinds of places, among the nations of the world, but they can never rule over a Jew’s soul, over his essence, over his neshamah. A Jew’s neshamah has been free forever from the moment of the Exodus from Egypt. The exiles that came afterward, as we said, are something external, an outer covering. They do not define who you are. That is why the Exodus from Egypt is such a momentous event. The festival of Pesach, the month of Nissan, marks the Jews’ fundamental separation from that bondage, once and for all. The soul no longer has any connection to it. Any connection can only be external, never essential. In essence, you are free forever, because that is who you are. That is the Maharal of Prague’s explanation. So, with that said, let’s now see how the Alter Rebbe explains it in Tanya. He discusses it there, in the final chapters of Likkutei Amarim. The Alter Rebbe gives a wonderful explanation of the whole subject of the Exodus from Egypt. He says that we know it is written about the Exodus—and we say it in the Haggadah—“Not through an angel, not through a seraph, not through a messenger, but Hakadosh Boruch Hu in His own glory and by Himself.” Something extraordinary happened at the Exodus from Egypt. Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself descended into Egypt, as the verse says, “I have come down to rescue him.” “I Myself, in My glory,” as we also say in the Haggadah—yes, in His own glory and by Himself. Hakadosh Boruch Hu, so to speak, did not send angels, seraphim, or messengers. Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself descended into Egypt, that most depraved of lands, and there He took the Jewish people, brought them out of the depths of degradation and impurity, and drew us close to Him, close to His very Essence. It is very interesting how the Alter Rebbe explains this with an analogy. This is the analogy he gives:

09:49 A great king. Imagine a great and exalted king who rules over countries, ministers, peoples, and multitudes. He has many servants, ministers, and attendants. The king himself sets aside all his wealth, all his honor, everything he possesses, and lowers himself to a simple, lowly man lying in a heap of refuse. In the Alter Rebbe’s words, the man is at the very lowest point. The king comes himself, takes hold of this lowly man in that condition, embraces him, cleans him, washes him, brings him into the royal palace, into the innermost chamber, and gives him a great embrace. He draws him close and, as it were, gives him his very self. Imagine such a thing. What love would awaken in that simple man for the great king when he reflects on what is happening? The great, exalted, wonderful king has left all his ministers and servants, and he is attending to me. He himself takes me, cleans me, embraces me, and brings me into his own room, into the innermost chamber. There is no affection, no love, greater than this. The Alter Rebbe says that even if our heart were a heart of stone, it would melt and turn to water. Our heart would pour out like water at the sight of that love. “As water reflects a face back to a face,” as King Shlomo says in Mishlei: when a person looks into water, he sees his own face. Love reflects love. Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s love for us at the Exodus from Egypt—when we reflect on that great event and take it to heart, it should awaken tremendous love within us. He Himself, not through an angel and not through a seraph, descended into the depravity of Egypt, took us out, cleansed us, led us through the wilderness throughout the days of the Counting of the Omer, and brought us to Mount Sinai. There, through the giving of the Ten Commandments, came the great bond—what we might call the great embrace. Hakadosh

12:12 Boruch Hu, as it were, betrothed us. He gave us the Torah, gave us the mitzvos, and, as it were, gave us His very self. “I am Hashem your G-d.” The Gemara in Tractate Shabbos says that Anochi, “I,” is an acronym for “I wrote and gave My very self.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself, as it were, inscribed and gave His very essence within the Torah. To whom did He give it? “An inheritance for the congregation of Yaakov”—to the Jewish people. And here the great, eternal bond was formed. The author of the Tanya tells us that the Exodus from Egypt is not something that happened once and was over. The giving of the Torah is not something that happened once and ended. It happens again every single day. “In every generation, and every single day, a person must see himself as though he himself left Egypt today.” Those are the Alter Rebbe’s words in Tanya. A Jew needs to reflect and realize that this is actually happening all the time. In the Pesach Haggadah we say, “Blessed are You, Hashem our G-d, King of the universe, Who redeemed us and redeemed our ancestors.” The Geulah is not only our ancestors’. First and foremost, “redeemed us.” We need to reflect, come to recognize, and understand that the Exodus from Egypt is something that happens again every single day. Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself comes to every Jew, to his heart, each and every day, and says to him: I am here with you. Each of us, as we said, is in a kind of Egypt. It is the body, the animal soul, the yetzer hara, the desires, the constant pursuit of things, the worries, the fears, the jealousy, the hatred, the competition, and the anger. Each of us knows ourselves. We know the weaknesses that surround us—our inner Egypt. Hakadosh Boruch Hu comes to a Jew each and every day and says: I am here with you. Since the Exodus from Egypt, since the giving of the Torah, there has been a true bond between Hakadosh Boruch Hu and every Jew. We have the ability

14:44 to connect and form that bond. When a Jew gets up in the morning and says—as Tanya explains—“Hear, O Israel, Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is One,” at that moment he reflects: “Hear, O Israel, Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is One.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu is our G-d; He is my G-d. He chose me. He wants to be with me. He is mine. He leaves everything else—all the worlds, the sefiros, the angels, the lofty souls above—and says: I am here with you. And we need to do just one thing. What is the one and only thing required of us? To want to unite with Him, to want to accept the yoke of Heaven, to want to unite with Hakadosh Boruch Hu through the Torah study and the mitzvah we are doing right now. Just the desire. The moment we say, “I want to,” there is nothing else we need to do. You do not need to run or fly, go up to the heavens, or ascend to the seventh heaven. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is right here with you. In the words of the Alter Rebbe in Tanya, chapter 47—I suggest we read it inside, so we can see the Alter Rebbe’s words: “Therefore, nothing prevents or holds back the soul’s cleaving to Hakadosh Boruch Hu except the will.” There is one thing, and one thing alone, that can prevent the bond and the connection: the will. “Unless a person does not want it at all, etc.” Wonderful. The Alter Rebbe gives no moral lecture, no rebuke, no warning about what will happen if we do not, no punishments—not a word. The Alter Rebbe says one line: “Unless a person does not want it, etc.” If a person says, “I don’t want to; I’m not interested; I don’t feel like it; it doesn’t interest me,” and so on—that is it. “Etc.” means there is nothing more to say. “But as soon as he wants it, he accepts and draws upon himself His blessed unity explicitly when he says, ‘Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is One.’” The moment a person wants it and accepts it,

17:14 and says, “I want to unite with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Hear, O Israel, Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is One.” And the same applies to other verses where we emphasize: this is what I want. The moment a Jew awakens his desire, he immediately unites with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, because Hakadosh Boruch Hu, for His part, is already here. Since the Exodus from Egypt and the giving of the Torah, that bond and connection have existed in a real, total, and complete way. The Alter Rebbe says even more there in Tanya. The holy Patriarchs, who lived before the giving of the Torah, had to toil, search, and journey. Avraham Avinu, “traveling onward”—he had to toil through searching and traveling to come to a connection with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. But we do not even need to do that. We have already received it as a gift, as an inheritance. “It is an inheritance for us, for He gave us His Torah.” We say this every day in the blessing over the Torah: “Who chose us from among all the peoples and gave us… Blessed are You, Hashem, Giver of the Torah.” We say “Giver of the Torah” in the present tense. Every single day Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives us the Torah anew. And He says: “I am”—I am here with you, together with you. From your side, I ask only one thing: awaken the desire. The moment you want it, you are there. There is a famous story about the Baal Shem Tov. They tell that the Baal Shem Tov was sitting and learning with his students in the beis midrash. The Baal Shem Tov would always teach his students one of the fundamental principles of his teachings: from everything a Jew sees or hears, he must learn a lesson in serving Hashem. The Baal Shem Tov was sitting and learning with his students in the beis midrash. Suddenly, in the middle of their learning, a window opened and a non-Jew stuck his head in and asked for help. He told them he was outside with his horse and wagon. The wagon was stuck in the mud; he wanted to get out, but he could not. “Please, help me”

19:20 For me. The students, who were in the middle of learning, told him, “Sorry, we can’t. We don’t know how to do that; we can’t help you.” The non-Jew told them, “You can, but you don’t want to.” And he left. He said it in Russian: “You can, but you don’t want to.” The Baal Shem Tov heard those words and turned to his students: “Do you know that this non-Jew is a messenger whom Hakadosh Boruch Hu just sent us to convey a message for life, a message for everyday life?” When a Jew says, “I can’t. It’s hard; it’s impossible. I’m not capable. I can’t free myself from my worries, my fears, the things weighing on me. I can’t serve Hashem, I can’t daven with concentration, I can’t fulfill a mitzvah”—you can. You need to want to. And here comes another piece of good news. All right, we’ve discovered that wanting is the key. And it really is. We can see it plainly: the moment we want to, we’re given everything from Above. But sometimes someone says, “How do I awaken that desire? What do I do when my desire is dormant? I can’t.” Here, too, we need to understand a very important point, which the Alter Rebbe also makes earlier in Tanya, in chapter 41. The Alter Rebbe says: The desire is already within you. You don’t have to create that, either. Desire is something natural to a Jew’s soul. The Alter Rebbe says that every Jew wants to unite with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and every Jew naturally wants to fulfill Hashem’s will. It is engraved in a Jew’s nature. It’s in our blood. In fact, as is well known, the Rambam writes this in his book of halachah: a Jew wants to fulfill Hashem’s will and does not want to be separated from Hakadosh Boruch Hu.

21:26 It is engraved in a Jew’s blood and nature. So the desire is there, too. What’s the issue, then? Sometimes we stubbornly refuse to listen to the pure, genuine desire we have. That’s where our work comes in. And of course, we do need to work. Nothing happens on its own. Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives us the ability to do the work. When the Jewish people left Egypt, what did Moshe Rabbeinu say? “When you bring the people out of Egypt, you will serve G-d on this mountain.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants these things not to come entirely as a gift. He wants there to be some work involved, so that it will be ours—something we value, something that costs us effort. Because when something comes as a gift, a person doesn’t appreciate it. That is why it says, “You will serve.” The work, though, is to awaken the desire. Once I’ve awakened it, I have the ability to break free of the bonds of the yetzer, to free myself from the animal soul, to connect with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, to leave my constraints behind. And that itself is the great celebration. This explains what is so essential about the month of Geulah, the month of Nissan, throughout which we do not say Tachanun. It is a month of Geulah. Pesach is “the season of our freedom,” because it is the time from which we draw strength for the whole year. Pesach is the gateway to all the days of the year: a Jew has the ability to free himself completely and absolutely from all impurity and the sitra achra, and to unite with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, with the Infinite, completely and absolutely. From this we receive the strength to leave our constraints and limitations behind, to free ourselves from all sorts of things that weigh on us and hold us back, and to unite with Hakadosh Boruch Hu completely and absolutely, with joy and love. May Hakadosh Boruch Hu grant each and every one of us the month of Geulah in its fullness, and may we merit to go from the Geulah of the soul to the final and complete Geulah—the Geulah of the body, the Geulah of the material world, the complete Geulah. As the Gemara says, “In Nissan our ancestors were redeemed

23:34 from Egypt, and in Nissan they are destined to be redeemed.” May the complete Geulah come this year through Moshiach Tzidkeinu.