Understanding Pharaoh's Role Through Chassidus
This will be understood through the paradigm, described in a Maamor in Torah Ohr for this week’s Parsha (now referred to as the Chassidishe Parsha) in explaining the words: וַיְהִי בְּשַׁלַּח פַּרְעֹה אֶת־הָעָם “And it was when Pharaoh sent out the Jewish people.” It illustrates as follows:
Just as the peel or shell of a fruit grows before the fruit, so too in [the realm of spirituality] spirituality, - the spiritual light and the vitality that pervades the K’lipahs - derives from a very lofty, elevated source, from the realm of ‘Tohu’ and this precedes [the realm of] ‘Tikkun’; wherefrom the B’nei Yisroel are derived.
When the B’nei Yisroel were under the servitude of Mitzrayim they refined and elevated the holy sparks which had fallen there due to the ‘Shviras Hakeilim’ of ‘Tohu’. And because of this, the B’nei Yisroel themselves achieved a much greater elevation, [rising] to a higher level.
The Alter Rebbe's Explanation
And with this the Alter Rebbe explains the Possuk and translates “And it was when Pharaoh sent out ‘WITH’ the Jewish people”, (explaining the words: אֶת־הָעָם to mean with the people) that he [Pharoah] sent them out with fruit and fruit...
