ברית בין הבתרים

ברית בין הבתרים

הנש תואמ 'ד תולג

It was decreed at the Bris Bein Habasarim with Avraham Avinu that Yisrael will be in galus 400 years and they would be in servitude to Mitzrayim for 210 years. Let us try to examine why these calculations were necessary. The seforim write that the reason they went down to Mitzrayim was to make a tikkun for the chait of Adam Harishon. After Adam ate from the Aitz Hadaas all his Hashem given madraigos were compromised as the passuk says ותשת עלי כפכה. Hashem placed His palm כף on Adam and diminished his spiritual dimensions. The Chazal state that the original stature of Adam was two hundred amos tall. Subsequent his diminution, Adam was reduced to one hundred amos of spirituality. This is hinted in the word כף which is gematriah 100.

This mission of Yisrael to rectify and repair the lost 100 amos of Adam is hinted in the passuk מה ה' אלקיך שואל מעמך כי אם ליראה. Chazal comment on the word מה to read מאה as if to say Hashem wants from you a hundred. A hundred what? Chazal say 100 berachos to be said daily. According to the above Hashem wants from Yisrael the fixing of Adam's 100 lost amos of ruchniyus. The return of Adam to two hundred amos מאתים would bring about absolute מלכות to Hashem like before the chait. The gematriah of מאתים with its six letters equals מלכות. Avraham at the akeidah attained this level as the malach called him twice by his name םהרבא םהרבא which adds up to מלכות. It is up to his generations to complete the task והיה ה' למלך על כל הארץ.

In the famous Dreidle vort of the Bnei Yissachar he explains that there are four levels that are present in Man. They are the power of לכש נפש, ףוג and הכל which corresponds to the fourth levels of nefesh which being the highest includes and is the source of the other three. To give an example of Adam's compromised ruchniyus of this body, before the chait Adam's body was made of כתנות אור a covering of light in contrast to after the chait he was clothed with כתנות עור skin.

We suggest that each madraigah by itself was diminished 100 amos thereby creating the necessity to make a tikkun of all four during the period of 400 years of galus. Nevertheless Yisrael were in servitude for only 210 years. We suggest that בדיעבד the two hundred would also suffice because that was the general description of diminishing the הרוצ and stature of Adam Harishon as it states ותשת עלי כפכה. The words ילע כף is gematriah 210 alluding to the minimum tikkun of the four madraigos with majority of 400.

There are those meforshim who learn that although we were redeemed from Mitzrayim before the final tikkun of Adam, we had to therefore undergo four exiles. According to our explanation they had to make up the missing 100 amos. If you will look in the Bnei Yissachor on Chanukah in his vort on the dreidle he elaborates how each of the four galuyos corresponded to one of the above nefesh madraigos.