B’ezrat Hashem, we begin reading Sefer Shemot. At the beginning of the Parsha, the Ramban discusses the structure of Sefer Shemot, which opens with the descent into Mitzraim and the onset of enslavement. The subsequent Parshiot recount the makkot, the Mitzvot of Pesach, Yetziat Mitzraim, and Kriyat Yam Suf. Yitro and Mishpatim focus on the giving of the Torah, while the remaining Parshiot primarily deal with matters concerning the Mishkan.
The Ramban asks why Sefer Shemot is structured as it is. He explains that Sefer Bereshit focuses on creation and renewal, and the events of the Avot are like a creation for their descendants, foreshadowing what their descendants will experience. At Brit Bein Ha’betarim, Avraham Avinu was told his descendants would be enslaved in a foreign land, and now Sefer Shemot narrates the fulfillment of this prophecy through the first galut.
The question arises – if the exile in Egypt ends in Parshat Beshalach, why does Sefer Shemot continue with the giving of the Torah at Har Sinai and the Mishkan? The Ramban says, the galut is not complete when Bnei Yisrael left Mitzraim; it ends only when they return to their rightful place and to the status of their forefathers. Upon leaving Egypt, they were still in a land not theirs, confused in the desert. When they came to Har Sinai and constructed the Mishkan, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu rested His presence among them, that is when they returned to the status of the Avot and that is the moment they were considered fully redeemed.
Today we will deal with a related, and very interesting, topic that will extend across three shiurim. The first preview of exile was given to Avraham Avinu back in Parshat Lech Lecha:
And He said to Avram: Know for sure that your descendants will be foreigners in a land that is not theirs. They will enslave them and oppress them for four hundred years. But also that nation whom they will serve I will judge; afterwards they will leave with great wealth.
Avraham Avinu, in that moment, sees all the exiles that Bnei Yisrael will endure through the generations – the galuyot of Bavel, Madai, Yavan, and Edom. Chazal say each of the terms found in Avraham’s vision – אֵימָה חֲשֵׁכָה גְדֹלָה נֹפֶלֶת עָלָיו – and each of the animals Avraham offered reference one of the future exiles. Therefore, all the troubles that Bnei Yisrael will go through until the coming of the Mashiach were seen by Avraham Avinu in the Brit Bein Ha’betarim.
The Netivot Shalom asks a wonderful question: Why is there an exile at this point? If we take as an assumption the well-known principle that exile is a result of punishment for sins – וּמִפְּנֵי חֲטָאֵינוּ גָלִינוּ מֵאַרְצֵנוּ – at this stage of history, when Avraham was told there’d be exiles, there was no sin at all!
The Alsheich HaKadosh poignantly addresses this (Shemot):
It is fitting for every wise-hearted person to inquire and seek with wisdom, why did G-d do this to the holy ones who are in the land – Yaakov and all the souls. To put their children and grandchildren under the burdens of Egypt for 210 years, with mortar and bricks, and grueling work in the field. What was their crime and what was their sin?! And behold, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is not suspected of doing justice without justice, G-d forbid!
Everyone should ponder on why the children of Yaakov met such a dreadful fate. Another question posed by the Netivot Shalom is why are seventy tzaddikim, at the highest level of kedusha, taken down to Egypt so that 600,000 people – only a fifth of the population! – would emerge in an absolute lowest state of impurity? What is the purpose of this?
Additionally, how can we explain Avraham’s response after being told of Galut Mitzraim? When told of the impending destruction of Sedom, he rushed to daven for its people and plead with Hakadosh Baruch Hu to save them; yet here, with his own children at stake, he remains silent?! With the fundamental understanding that galut is a bad thing, and one should flee from it, it is stunning that Avraham Avinu would daven for the wicked but not plead and beg to annul the decree of exiles for his own children! He doesn’t ask that the four exiles be abolished, nor that they be reduced to two. For Sedom, he sought to lessen their punishment – maybe there are fifty righteous... maybe forty... maybe thirty? – but upon hearing that his children will be tortured in Egypt for four hundred years, he says nothing? Why does he not wake up and say, "Ribbono Shel Olam, four hundred years? Really?!? Could a discount be applied? Perhaps 100 years?” Nothing.
The Alsheich quotes a response he saw, whereby Hakadosh Baruch Hu had only intended to send Bnei Yisrael to Egypt for the many years, but it was the Egyptians themselves who decided to enslave them, on their own volition. He doesn’t accept this answer, however, stating there is no way that the arduous labor was without the hashgacha of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Instead, Yaakov was destined to go down to Egypt, cruelly, in iron chains (Bereshit Rabbah 86:1), but Hakadosh Baruch Hu saved him the public humiliation and arranged it so that Yosef went down first. A parable is given to a cow that could not be led to the slaughterhouse, so they led its calf instead, and the cow immediately went after it. Hakadosh Baruch Hu intentionally brought Bnei Yisrael down to Egypt – the iron furnace (כּוּר הַבַּרְזֶל) – in order to be refined, cleansed, and purified. The Alsheich then proceeds to try and understand what exactly that refinement process was; what needed to be cleansed and purified.
