וימררו את חייהם בעבדה קשה בחמר ובלבנים ובכל עבדה בשדה
“And they made their lives bitter through hard work, with mortar and bricks and all types of work done in the fields”. (Shemos 1:14)
Parshas Shemos introduces us to the bitter oppression and servitude that the Jewish people experienced in Mitzrayim. Commenting on the Torah’s statement that the Egyptians made their lives bitter through hard work with mortar and bricks, the Zohar HaKadosh (Parshas Pinchas 229b) cryptically remarks that the expression בעבדה קשה, which literally means “hard work,” refers to asking them difficult questions (the Hebrew word קשה means both “hard” and “question”), while the word בחמר (mortar) refers to kal v’chomers [fortiori arguments], and לבנים (bricks) refers to libun halachah [clarifying legal issues]. The Zohar appears to be saying that the subjugation in Egypt was not physical in nature but Talmudic, which clearly needs an explanation, as it seems to contradict the conventional understanding of our suffering in Mitzrayim.
Rav Chaim Zev Finkel, Mashgiach of the Mir yeshiva, explains that when Hashem informs a novi about a future event, He often does so in vague terms because the form in which the nevuah [prophecy] is manifested can change through our free will. For example, Hashem commanded Yonah (Yonah 3:4) to notify the people in Ninveh that their city would be נהפכת in 40 days.
Although this implied that the city would be physically overturned and destroyed, they were saved through sincere teshuvah, which was considered an alternative fulfillment of Yonah’s words, in the form of a spiritual upheaval rather than a physical one. Thus, although his nevuah was indeed realized, it was conveyed in an ambiguous manner that left the form of its fulfillment up to the free will of the inhabitants of Ninveh.
Similarly, in the case of Pharaoh’s enslavement of the Jews, Hashem told Avraham (Bereishis 15:13) that his descendants would be strangers in a foreign land, where they would work hard and be afflicted for 400 years. However, Hashem did not tell Avraham where this would take place or how they would be oppressed.
Accordingly, the Zohar HaKadosh teaches us that if the Jews had endured the pain of toiling in Torah study through immersion in difficult questions, kal v’chomers, and halachic expositions, they would have fulfilled Hashem’s intentionally vague message to Avraham, just as the inhabitants of Ninveh satisfied Yonah’s words by overturning themselves spiritually. Because the Jews were not on this spiritual level, they were left to execute the straightforward reading of Hashem’s promise through backbreaking slave labor.
Rav Avigdor Nebenzahl, son-in-law of Rav Finkel, adds that the other reading of Hashem’s words was in fact carried out by shevet Levi. Because they were engrossed in intense Torah study, Rashi writes (Shemos 5:4) that they were exempted from servitude. This dispensation was not a Divine reward for their Torah study as is commonly assumed, but it was due to the fact that they also fulfilled Hashem’s promise, albeit in the form of laboring in Talmudic and halachic discussions.
Rav Nebenzahl therefore suggests that the shevotim who were physically enslaved in Egypt received a physical inheritance in Eretz Yisroel (see Rashi Bereishis 36:7), while the portion of shevet Levi, who satisfied the requirement of hard work in a spiritual manner, was spiritual in nature, as they were chosen to serve in the Beis HaMikdosh.
This idea is extremely relevant, Klal Yisroel are currently going through a very dangerous time, and no one knows what will be from one day to the next. Eretz Yisroel bifrat [especially], but the entire world bichlal [included]. There are goyim all over the world who are desperate to wipe us out, and make things as difficult as possible for us. We also have no idea what Hashem has planned for us. However, we have to realize that we can use our free will to change what Hashem has in plan for us, and if we do what the Zohar says, and busy ourselves with “hard work” of Torah, with kal v’chomers and with libun halachah, then b’ezras Hashem everything will be ok, and we will merit to see Moshiach speedily in our days.
