Torah.org Meor Einayim - G-d Smarts
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Meor Einayim
By Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein
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Parshas
Shemos
G-d Smarts
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At the core of our
exile in Mitzrayim was a galus
of daas.
Not a dimming of our general comprehension or understanding, but of the daas necessary to
truly serve Hashem.
True daas is the engine
that drives yirah
and ahavah.
How could this not be so? When a person fully understands and
internalizes that Hashem fills the universe with His Kavod – that there
is nowhere and nothing devoid of His Being; that He is both the Source of
all pleasure that can be conceived, and the One who sustains all things –
so that if it could be conceived that He would withdraw from His Creation
all things would disappear into a primordial chaos; that His withdrawal
even from any of the spiritual worlds would preclude their existence –
when a person grasps these things, he will not desire any other pleasure
in the universe. He will understand that Hashem Himself is the essence of
anything he would desire, and comes to desire only Him! He will not make
the mistake of taking any pleasure dissociated from the Divine Influence
that shines from within it. (Such dissociation is never neutral. It
always divides between a person and his Creator.)
Ahavah is described by Chazal as pertaining to “each
and every midah
with which Hashem measures out to you.”[1] This is a reflection of the
reality that Hashem’s supernal light radiates from His infinitude. It
seems incongruous with the limitations of this world. Indeed, it is. This
existence cannot contain it. It therefore has to come to us through His
different midos,
which restrain and confine His light to forms that are manageable in this
world. Each one contracts that light in a different way, and mediates it
in a manner that is fit for the world that we know.
What determines
which midos He
uses? Largely, it is our daas.
Depending on how much daas
we have at a given time, He hides more or less of what He is, and
conversely reveals more or less. At some times, it may be through the midah of rachamim; at other,
it might be chesed.
Or, it could be some other midah.
These midos
have enormous impact on practical aspects of our lives. One who loves
Hashem will accept whatever midah
Hashem shows him with joy, understanding that he is being shown exactly
what is appropriate for him on his level. He will accept a display of din as an exercise
of His mercy – thereby transforming it into the latter! Thus, Chazal tell
us that tzadikim
turn midas ha-din
into rachamim.
Like Avraham Avinu,
each of us have to be tested. We are made to submit to many nisyonos/challenges.
The substance of each nisayon
is removing the connection to Hashem that was enabled previously by a
person’s daas.
His daas
then becomes restricted from what it was before. The nisayon is navigated
successfully when a person can make the right choices based on the
imprint his daas
left upon him before it was diminished.
In Egypt, our daas was occluded.
Just as a shell encases the edible portion, in the infancy of our
peoplehood, our daas
was encased by a kelipah.
That kelipah
was broken with the Exodus, which allowed daas to be activated. (Thin layers of kelipah remain, to
be removed only in the days of Moshiach.) The process continues
throughout time. Evildoers still find themselves within the kelipah, and have no
true daas
at all. They are still locked into the restraints/metzarim of
Mitzrayim. The rest of us find relief each Pesach from what clouds our daas. Thus, the geulah continues.
This is what the Haggadah means when it states that it was not just our
ancestors whom Hashem redeemed from Egypt, but all of us.
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