Point to Ponder
Experiencing Exile
What Is the Purpose of Galus?
The parashiyos that we’re currently learning—dealing with galus and Yetzias Mitzrayim—teach us extremely important lessons regarding situations we encounter in the course of our lives.
When we’re young and foolish, we look at every situation and trouble with one hope and desire: to extricate ourselves from it. And when the Ribbono shel Olam has rachmanus and draws us out of trouble, we think that we’ve now rid ourselves of the problem. We were freed from that distraction in our lives that robbed us of our serenity. Now we can go back to our lives.
If this is indeed how things work, we might ask: What was the purpose of ever having been in galus?! What was the point? Simply to bother us and trouble us?!
Exile Gives Birth to a New Sort of Salvation
But the truth is that every galus experience we’re faced with brings a geulah that has never existed before, and which was created by this very situation. Salvation can come only after we have experienced pain and exile. The galus brought a new ohr and illumination into the world that can be acquired only after you have suffered and sweated through the galus. This was the entire purpose of galus: to bring us closer to this light, and once we have attained that light, there’s no “going back to the old.”
We see this in the course of our very own lives. We go through the teenage phase of life, which comes with change and volatility and transformation. We struggle through ups and downs, aspirations and illusions, and it’s not always easy. But we enter these years as children, and we emerge as adults, wiser and more mature—people who can make decisions in life.
There was a bitter galus in the middle, but the galus has fashioned a new reality for you. We never go back to being children. These difficult years are intended for us to build ourselves into a new creation, a new being: a mature, wise person.
The Purpose of Pain
The same applies to all challenges and suffering we go through. We wait for the saga to end, and we thank Hashem when it comes to a close. But it’s a mistake to think that we’d have been better off had it never happened. Because if the Ribbono shel Olam has placed us into this situation, then there’s an important purpose for us in it, and there’s much that we need to learn and take away from it.... the emunah and bitachon that we have amassed... the deep connection with the Ribbono shel Olam we have forged out of necessity. This journey fashions a new reality called redemption!
Light at the End of the Tunnel
This is the lesson we learn from these parashiyos. The Ribbono shel Olam placed the Yidden into Galus Mitzrayim, and He promised them that this will be followed by redemption. It was foretold to Avraham Avinu that at the end of 400 years, his descendants will leave Mitzrayim with great wealth—that is, they will not leave the same way they entered. They will take with them the holy sparks that they have rectified. They will have become ready for Kabbalas haTorah! This period had a tremendous purpose; they received the גדול רכוש, the great wealth that they needed to acquire.
When a Yid sings המשיח בביאת שלימה באמונה מאמין אני, he isn’t merely pining for the end of galus, but also for the light that has been created through this suffering. Only through the phase of galus can we attain the stage of geulah—which will place us at a far better place than we could have ever attained without it.
The First Half of Redemption
We learn in Parashas Shemos that the newborn boys were cast into the river, and thus Moshe Rabbeinu had to be placed into a box, through which he reached Basya bas Pharoah.
The sefarim hakedoshim tell us that this entire decree was made because, since Moshe Rabbeinu would be leading the Jewish People, he had to be raised in the palace of the king, where he would acquire royalty and the royal nature that would serve him in his leadership as he led the Jewish People. This entire decree was all in order that Moshe Rabbeinu would reach the palace of the king and be raised there.
This is one example of the way galus serves a purpose of salvation and redemption. Every galus, challenge, and difficulty works this way. Galus is a means without which we cannot attain geulah.
Forged by Challenge
When we look around us, we will see great men—some well-known and some not as much—who have reached old age, baruch Hashem. We think of their lives as a story of supreme avodas Hashem, and we may say, “Look how he served Hashem despite all his challenges! Not everything went so good for him.... not all his children turned out so amazing, and it’s certainly with a cheshbon from Above, but imagine how much more of a kiddush Hashem it would have been if everything would have been perfect!”
But the truth is precisely the opposite: Because of the challenges that he endured—that’s why he turned out this way! Everything that he attained is all thanks to the “galus” that he lived through. This built him and brought redemption to his soul.
The Design Within the Difficulty
Sometimes, we see a Yid who struggled with one of his children, but the next generation, his grandchild, turned out amazing.... People speak about how wonderful it is that things went back to the way they “ought to be.”
Now, there are many Heavenly calculations that we’re not privy to—but people may not realize that something very simple happened here. This Yid needed to have a difficult experience so he would become humbled and acquire bittul to Hashem. Once he has achieved this, there’s no longer a need for the pain! There needed to be something in the middle that would invoke pain and prayer and tears—which leads directly to a beautiful and illuminated salvation.
Believing in Redemption
These are things that happen every day. We endure challenges—which are directly responsible for our growth! Now, things are tough, but it’s all worthwhile. Later, when we attain our perfection, we can pack away the difficulties and challenges, for they’re no longer needed.
When we believe properly in geulah, we must believe in the entire process of geulah. We must remember—in every difficult challenge that we endure—that the salvation is being manufactured during these very moments. A Yid who recognizes this davens to Hashem that he should have his eyes opened to take along all the beautiful illuminations from the galus.
