What is the inner theme of the Exodus from Egypt? This discourse explores the nature of the Exodus in terms of a revelation of a higher level of G-d’s Name, higher than that revealed at Creation, and also higher than that revealed to the Patriarchs. This revelation will be the key to the positive transformation of the world in the time of the Messiah.
The clue that the Exodus is about the Divine Name is provided by G-d’s statement to Moses near the beginning of his mission to free the Jews, in Sedra Va-Era. G-d said to him “I appeared to the Patriarchs with My Name Sha-dai, but I was not known to them by My Name YKVK, the Tetragrammaton” (Ex.6:3). The discourse infers from this that the inner purpose of the Exodus was to reveal the Divine Name, the Tetragrammaton.
Let us try to understand this, step by step. At the beginning of existence the Divine Name which was revealed was Elokim. As it says “At the beginning Elokim created Heaven and Earth” (Gen.1:1). But this Name expresses concealment of the Divine.
Another Name relevant to Creation is Sha-dai. The Sages tell us that when G-d created the world at first it was unfurling endlessly. Then, with the Divine Name Sha-dai, which literally means ‘it is enough!’, G-d finalized the process of Creation.
But Sha-dai, ‘it is enough’, can also be understood with another meaning: “there is enough in My G-dliness for every creature”. This expresses a tremendous level of Divine blessing to each individual according to and even beyond their needs, as a verse states: “I will pour out to you blessing until it will be beyond ‘enough’”.
This level of Divinity was revealed to Abraham when G-d gave him the command of circumcision, as He said to him: “I am G-d who is Sha-dai, walk before Me and be perfect” (Gen.17:1).
Great as this level of Divine revelation was, for the Patriarchs, it was surpassed by the revelation of the Tetragrammaton which took place at the Exodus from Egypt. The Exodus meant not only leaving the slavery of that country at that time, but also going free from all limitations.
For, as is known, there is not only the hostile ‘Egypt’ of the ancient history of the Jewish people, but also levels of ‘Egypt’ in one’s positive progress from level to level. One realises that a certain level, which seemed positive, is actually a limitation. So, one tries to break out of that limitation, to leave ‘Egypt’. When one does so successfully, one reaches a new level of freedom. But eventually one discovers that this new level is also limited. It is the new ‘Egypt’ from which one must try to escape...
The final and total going free from Egypt will be when one goes free from every level of limitation. This will be with the ultimate revelation of the Tetragrammaton, which began to be revealed at the original going out of Egypt thousands of years ago.
The discourse now gives further explanation of this in terms of the initial concealment of the Divine at the beginning of Creation. It is as if everything in our material world is not fully itself, but is a ‘mashal’, a parable for something higher. Yet that higher level, called in Hebrew the ‘nimshal’, the reality depicted by the parable, is itself a parable for a higher reality. And so on, higher and higher. Beyond, at a very exalted level, is the root of the chain of parables.
The discourse explains this in terms of a specific feature of our physical world: a lion. According to Chassidic teaching, the source of the earthly lion is the ‘face of a lion’ in Ezekiel’s vision of the Divine Chariot. Ezekiel states that this was on the right, signifying the quality of Kindness. This means that the ‘Face of a Lion’ in his vision has a higher source, namely the supernal attribute Kindness, an exalted aspect of the World of Emanation (Atzilut). This attribute itself has a yet higher source: the attribute Wisdom of the World of Emanation, Atzilut. And Wisdom too has a yet higher source, in Keter (Crown) of Atzilut.
Thus the physical lion in our world is a manifestation of a chain of images, reaching back to its root at the highest level. When this root will, in the Future, be revealed in the physical lion below, the lion will change its nature. It will cease to be a dangerous animal. Hence Isaiah states that when the Messiah comes, “the lion, like cattle, will eat hay”.
This explains why at the beginning of the Ten Commandments, G-d states “I am the L-rd your G-d Who took you out of the Land of Egypt”. The question is sometimes raised, why does it say this rather than that G-d created heaven and earth? But G-d’s power to take each individual and the entire people out of the Land of Egypt is even greater than the power of creation. In the act of Creation, there is a partial concealment of G-d, as expressed by the Divine Name Elokim. In the Exodus from Egypt, there is a full revelation of G-d, expressed in the Tetragrammaton, the Name YKVK.
This Divine revelation also has the power to connect each person with his or her root, and to connect the whole world with its root, bringing a deeper level of reality to everything.
Through this the world will be transformed into a positive realm of freedom. Our Pesach festival celebrates the beginning of this process, leaving Egypt thousands of years ago, and looks forward to its conclusion with the coming of Moshiach.
