Parshas Shmos marks the beginning of the six auspicious weeks known as Shovevim, a time designated by the Ari z”l as especially powerful for tikkun hanefesh, the rectification of the soul. These weeks are deeply connected to Galus Mitzrayim, with Mitzrayim representing not only a historical exile, but each individual’s meitzarim, their personal limitations and spiritual constrictions from which they must strive to break free.
This idea of constriction versus freedom appears again in the Jewish calendar. The three weeks of calamity are called Bain Mametzarim, literally “between the constrictions.” In contrast, Pesach is called זמן חירותינו, the time of our freedom. Yet this freedom is not merely physical. At its core, Pesach celebrates the freedom of the soul from the limitations imposed by the body.
Recently, I visited the ancient city of Marrakesh, Morocco, a place steeped in over a thousand years of Jewish history. In other parts of Morocco, there are even kevarim dating back to the time of the churban of the Second Beis Hamikdash. I went to the famous beis hachayim in the old Jewish quarter, a vast cemetery containing hundreds of kevarim, including those of many holy tzaddikim from the 16th century.
My first visit was to the kever of Rav Yitzchak Deluya, a great tzaddik about whom many stories of miracles are told. He was close with Rav Yosef Karo, the author of the Shulchan Aruch, and the rebbe of several other great tzaddikim buried there, including Rav Shlomo Amar and Rav Avraham Azulai, among others.
Standing there, I reflected on why we refer to a cemetery as a beis hachayim, a house of the living. While one might dismiss this as a euphemism, the truth may be quite the opposite. As long as a person lives a life dominated by bodily limitation, constricting the soul’s true desires, he is, in a sense, more dead than alive. A beis hachayim is the ultimate place of life because the souls resting there are truly free. In that sense, they are more alive than those who come to visit and pray. When a person leaves this world, the soul is finally unbound, experiencing real freedom.
This brings us back to Shovevim and Parshas Shmos, which share the same central theme. Parshas Shmos begins the transformation of the Jewish people from the elevated spiritual state they experienced during Yaakov Avinu’s final 17 years, described by the pasuk “Vayechi Yaakov,” a true state of life, as the Zohar explains, into the constriction of Mitzrayim. This exile is described as galus hadibur, a constriction of speech, and by extension, a constriction of the soul itself.
The weeks of Shovevim, beginning with Shmos, present us with an opportunity to reclaim true freedom. Through fasting, self-refinement, and even the smallest shifts, choosing the desires of the soul over those of the body, we can effect changes that resonate throughout the rest of the year and bring us closer to a life of true vitality.
May we merit to take full advantage of these days of light, and may we be zocheh to see Mashiach speedily, today.
RABBI DANIEL COREN
