The sages explain that not only did the Israelites have light in the land of Goshen—“their dwellings”—they had light everywhere in Egypt. Furthermore, and most importantly, the midrash writes that during the plague of darkness, “An Israelite would enter the home of an Egyptian and could search and see all his belongings.” The Egyptian could not move because of the darkness and certainly could not see the Israelite. The Israelites then took advantage of their knowledge of the Egyptian’s possessions and before being freed from their slavery in Egypt, they asked the Egyptians to borrow their belongings. If the Egyptian would say, “I do not have it,” the Israelite would reply, “I know that you have it, and it is hidden inside your box,” or “it is in such and such a place, I saw it in your hand.” The Egyptians had no choice but to lend the Israelites their belongings which they then took as payment for their years of slavery.
Symbolically, this teaches us that even though Egyptian wisdom was dark, a Jew can illuminate it from within. We learn that we must indeed delve into science, seriously delve. We cannot be satisfied with the light in our own home—the light in the Torah study hall. We must wander among the wise Egyptians and there see all the treasures of “wisdom among the nations.” They themselves are paralyzed by the darkness of their science, but we can wander freely and see all the treasures and ask them to borrow these treasures. From them, from the scientific truths, we subsequently learn how to serve the Almighty.
Taking principles from the impure that can aid in serving God is alluded to in the aftermath of the plague of darkness (already in the third reading of our parashah). There Moses tells Pharaoh, “You yourself must also provide us with sacrifices and burnt offerings to offer up to our God.... for from them we will take what we need to serve Havayah our God.” The value of this phrase, “for from them we will take what we need to serve Havayah our God” is 959, or 7 times 137, which means that the average value of each word (in Hebrew) is 137, the value of “Kabbalah” (or “reception”). From the nations we take the secret of learning how to be receivers, since the nations of the world, relative to the Jewish people are quintessential receivers meant to receive the light of the Torah’s wisdom from the Torah scholars. 959 is also the primordial value of “Abraham” who is known as “the father of many nations.” Just the value of the final 5 words in this phrase, “we will take what we need to serve Havayah our God” is 793, known as “the remainder of the month,” the secret of the intercalation of the months of the year.
