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To begin with, we have a fundamental challenge. Every last one of us. We have to ask ourselves: What am I living for? Is my goal merely self-gratification, or am I living for some higher purpose? I am assuming that, since you are here today in Shul at the STSG gathering, that you have some kind of sense that we have this challenge before us.
Well “Chassidus” [teaching of the Chassidic rabbis] explains that we actually have two souls. One is an animal soul, concerned only with its own needs and drives. That is not necessarily bad, but it cannot see beyond itself. Our other soul is “an actual part of G-d” (that “spark” that we speak of) and its fulfillment comes through service, encouraging the expression of this G-dly nature and revealing the G-dliness invested in the world at large.
The appearance of conflict between these souls reflects the challenge which (all) mankind faces: to break through his self-concern and to reveal his G-dly core. When this is accomplished, the first task that I mentioned is making positive use of the potentials and the opportunities that we are granted, and can be achieved with far greater ease.
"Go to Pharaoh..." This week’s parshat tells us that HaShem speaks to Moses and say GO (or does He say “COME”? And if He does; why does He say “Come to Pharaoh”?) Man is called adam to show that even though he comes from the earth, he can use his mind to act righteously. So this all leads to the questioning of why Pharaoh keeps changing his mind. “Sure you can go… no. Stop. Come back. Stay here. Take the men only. No. Stay here. etc.”
The verse continues with “…but one who hardens his heart will fall into evil…” – just as Pharaoh did. He set his heart against G-d and later G-d hardened his heart so that he (Pharaoh) would prolong his (own) punishment. G-d leads men along the path which they themselves choose! If (a) man wants to be good, G-d leads him toward goodness; if he wants to travel an evil road, G-d helps him to do that too!
What is that saying? We can certainly say that Hitler and Stalin wanted to do evil and G-d helped them along their ways… and look where it finally took them. So they were ‘justified’ in the end – their ends. (We assume that they went to hell) But think about what that is saying about us. Do we have some dark little secret that we really don’t like but it has become habitual and perhaps G-d is helping us along that path? And is that path where we really want to go? Don’t we really want to return (teshuvah) to the direction that we believe is the correct path… the “true” path… the right path?
Okay, let’s think about this parshat and look at the four different levels on which we can read it.
There is the Pshat or simple, obvious, literal reading which is a reading of history.
We have the Remez – “Hint” or the Implied content that we read.
There is the Drash (that Jerry will give us later) – the searching into the allegorical content of the reading.
And there is the Sod or the Hidden, the Esoteric meaning which we need to search to discover.
And on whatever level you wish to understand it at this particular time in you life will show you, again, the eternality of the Torah.
The idea this week is to stimulate your thinking of the various plagues which were visited upon Pharaoh and the Egyptian people. Why did they suffer because of Pharaoh and his great ego? What was their problem with the Hebrews (we were not yet Jews)? What is the symbolic meaning (beyond Pshat) of smearing blood on the doorposts and the lintel? We always need to question – we don’t need to question so much “who wrote this” as “what does it mean” and “how can I apply this to my live in 2010”?
Happy Hunting.
Gud’t Shabbos.
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