The Torah emphasizes that Hashem descended, because in truth, it is far below the honor and standing of Hashem to send messages to a person as disgusting as Par’oh. Moreover, Par’oh had the gall to refuse Hashem’s command and they ended up in a fight. This was totally unacceptable for Hashem’s honor as it deserves, and this is considered a descent.
The Medrash quotes the possuk אִּיש חָׂכָׂם נִּשְפָׂט אֶת אִּיש אֱוִּיל – a wise man is judged with a foolish man. The Medrash explains that when a wise man argues with a foolish one, the wise man too is judged for lowering himself to argue with a fool. ‘Anyone who judges a fool is also judged’.
Hashem relinquished His own standing and honor for the sake of Klal Yisroel, and He descended from High to assist His nation. His nation was subjugated by Mitzrayim, and Hashem did not allow that.
The Torah then says that Hashem would bring him up from this land. In twelve months, when the time arrived, Hashem would take them out of Mitzrayim and they would not be delayed.
Why did Hashem wait for a year? Why did He not redeem them immediately? The reason for this is that the correct time for redemption had not yet arrived and they had to wait another year.
The Ohr Hachaim asks why the redemption from Mitzrayim took one year. The Mishna says that it was twelve months, and the Medrash tells us that each of the plagues had a three week warning period and one week for the actual plague. Why was this necessary? Why did Hashem not redeem His nation immediately? The Halacha is that gentiles do not require a warning to be punished, why did they get three weeks of warnings?
The Ohr Hachaim explains that the time of redemption had not yet arrived. The purpose of the descent to Mitzrayim was that Klal Yisroel be able to redeem the ‘sparks’ of holiness that were captured among the nations of the world. If they would have been redeemed any earlier, they would not have done their job and there would still be some sparks in captivity.
The entire Klal Yisroel reached the 49th gate of understanding, the level that Moshe Rabbeinu reached of his own accord. They could not reach the fiftieth level because that would only be possible if they made an attempt of their own accord, and they did not reach that level to make the effort. We have been taught by Chazal that in the future, when Moshiach has come, we will understand the fiftieth gate of understanding. The effort that is required as the investment for this understanding is the suffering we have undergone through the great and terrible exile.
The true difference between the redemption from Mitzrayim and the future redemption is that we did not have the Torah in Mitzrayim. Without the Torah, there is no way to understand the fiftieth gate of understanding. When we have the Torah, we can understand more and more, even more than our natural ability.
This is why Hashem could not take us out of Mitzrayim until we had finished sorting out the forty-ninth gate of understanding, but right before we reached the fiftieth.
