B"H

Wednesday, Tevet 25, 5779 / January 2, 2018

In this week’s Parsha, Va’eira, G-d sends Moshe and Aaron to warn Pharaoh to let the Jewish people go, lest he will be afflicted with great plagues. In the end, after Pharaoh refused to let them go, G-d sent ten plagues upon the Egyptians. In this week’s Parsha we read about seven of the plagues.

At the same time, G-d tells Moshe to tell the Jewish people, “I am G-d, and I will take you out from under the burden of the Egyptians, and I will save you from their labor, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you unto Me for a nation.”

There are four expressions here relating to the redemption of the Jewish people from their Egyptian bondage. This is the reason for the four cups of wine we drink at the Seder on Passover, commemorating our redemption.

Q. G-d says: “I will take you out from under the burden of the Egyptians, and I will save you from their labor.” In actuality, Jews in Egypt stopped working a year before the Exodus. Why did G-d tell Moshe to tell them that they will be taken out from Egypt first and only after, “I will save you from their labor”?

A. A slave cannot fully appreciate the virtue of freedom, while they are still enslaved. They may even get used to and become settled in their slavery. Only after they are freed and get the taste of true freedom can they fully appreciate the detrimental situation they were in before.

Jews in Egypt, during their enslavement, couldn’t understand their terrible predicament to the fullest. Only after their liberation, after having the wonderful experience of freedom, were they able to truly appreciate the great blessing of being saved from the Egyptian physical and spiritual enslavment.

Parable: The son of a mighty king, who didn’t behave properly as befitting for a prince, was expelled from the palace by his father, the king. He ended up living amongst the poor and homeless and went out each day begging for food together with all the others. Years went by and he completely forgot his origin and that he is the king’s son.

In time, his father, the king, sent to ask his son what he needs. The prince replied, “My backpack is all worn out and torn. Perhaps the king can get me a new backpack to keep my meager belongings in.”

“The same thing is with us,” says the Rabbi of Gur. “We Jews, after being in exile for thousands of years, have become so accustomed to our situation that instead of asking for Moshiach and for our true redemption, we ask for mundane things which have no everlasting value. Like the prince who could have asked to be reunited with his father the king, yet all he wants is a new backpack.

Only when Moshiach will come will we truly understand how enslaved we were to our physical mundane desires, during these exile years. We too, should be praying for our redemption and only then will we truly realize how much we needed Moshiach all these years.  

HAVE A VERY GOOD, HAPPY, HEALTHY AND SUCCESSFUL DAY