“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.”
