Second Reading: Seeing in the Dark
“They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days; and for all the children of Israel there was light in their dwellings.”
The ten plagues of Egypt came to subdue those soul forces that are incapable of recognizing the inner reality of Havayah, God’s essential Name. Kabbalah explains that the plagues correspond to the order of the sefirot from the bottom up: The first plague, blood, corresponds to the sefirah of kingdom of the kelipah—the realm of the impure. The second plague, frogs, corresponds to the sefirah of foundation of the kelipah, and so on. The ninth plague, darkness, corresponds to the sefirah of wisdom of the kelipah.
Each plague is a reproof and serves a double purpose—both to reproach the Egyptians and to make them admit or acknowledge the truth. Whenever we speak of reproof or moral judgment, we are also aiming for an intellectual proof to convince the one we are reproving. However, at least initially, there is a kelipah that prevents the truth from penetrating, therefore it is necessary to first criticize and enter the kelipah, before it can be cracked and subdued.
Following this strategy, Pharaoh is struck with Ten Plagues that subdue the ten faculties of his soul, which in their present state, prevent the truth from penetrating his mind and prove to him the reality of the inner and essential Name, the Name Havayah, and as we saw at the beginning of the parashah “Egypt will know that I am Havayah.”
The Dark Wisdom of Egypt
We still want to know what the darkness was all about. During the time that the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, there indeed was wisdom in Egypt. In fact, in those times, Egypt possessed the pinnacle of all human wisdom—the science of the times. The purpose of the plague of Darkness was to demonstrate to the Egyptians (and to the Israelites) that all of Egypt’s scientific wisdom was nothing but complete darkness.
In fact, it was such heavy and tangible darkness that the sages say: If you were sitting, you could not stand up, and if you were standing, you could not sit; the darkness completely binds you. It was impossible to move because of the darkness, “there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days: they did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days.”
The sages state that one should “believe that there is wisdom among the nations” (יןִמֲאַּם תִיֹוּגַּה בָמְכָח), but there is no Torah. God wanted to show the Israelites that even though the Egyptians possessed wisdom, living according to this wisdom was like living in darkness. While the wisdom of Egypt is actually darkness, double and redoubled darkness, “for all the children of Israel there was light in their dwellings.”
What does this mean?
Borrowing from Science to Serve God
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” (ּונּמִימִת.... כֹּלוֹעְים וִחָבְ זּנוֵדָיְּן בֵּתִּה תַּם־אַּגּינוֵהֹ־לֱת הוי' אֶד אֹבֲעַח לַּקִנ). The value of this phrase, “for from them we will take what we need to serve Havayah our God” (יִּכּינוֵהֹ־לֱת הוי' אֶד אֹבֲעַח לַּקִנּונּנֶּמִמ) is 959, or 7 times 137, which means that the average value of each word (in Hebrew) is 137, the value of “Kabbalah” (הָלָּבַק), which means “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” (א אב אבגדהוזחטיכלמנסעפצקר אבגדה אבגדהוזחטיכלמ) 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” (חַּקִנּינוֵהֹ־לֱת הוי' אֶד אֹבֲעַל) is 793, known as “the remainder of the month” (ׁשֶדֹית חִרֵאׁש), the secret of the intercalation of the months of the year.
Illuminating Modern Science
Today the situation is the same. In the hands of the world, science, for all its success is darkness—it conceals the Almighty, it can be used as a tool to advance atheism. But when a Jew delves into science for the sake of extracting the “wisdom of the nations” and using it to serve God, even the paralyzing darkness of science can be illuminated. The Alter Rebbe writes in the Tanya that we must learn how to use the wisdom of the nations “like a pickaxe to cut with them, that is, to earn a livelihood from them so that we may comfortably serve God, or to know how to use them for the service of God or His Torah.” This was, he writes, the intent of Maimonides and Nachmanides in their pursuit of the sciences of their time and this should be our intent when pursuing modern science.
(from Mivchar She’urei Hitbonenut, vol. 11, pp. 155-157)
