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The archetype of exile is the Children of Israel’s servitude in Egypt. The Sages teach us that this exile was in fact a spiritual exile, even more than it was a physical exile. Indeed if the spiritual enslavement hadn’t happened the physical servitude would have been impossible.
Rabbi Ashlag, in a letter to his students, explains how the slavery of the Children of Israel by the Egyptians came about. He starts off with an interesting statement from the Talmud on the rules concerning the cities of refuge. A Torah student who has committed manslaughter must be exiled to a city of refuge: and in that case his Rabbi is exiled with him.
The Sages ask: How could such a terrible thing happen to a student of Torah learning with a true Rabbi? Why didn’t his Torah learning protect him from such an event? Rabbi Ashlag points out that this mischance happened to the student because he was in some sense already in exile from his teacher. His estimation of his teacher had gone down so that he no longer valued his teacher and was therefore unable to receive faith and true service of God from him.
By looking carefully at the verses from the Scripture describing the beginning of the exile of the Children of Israel we find a similar process: Joseph the Tzaddik and his generation died, and a new King arose who didn’t recognize Joseph. Rabbi Ashlag points out that it wasn’t the physical presence of Joseph that was missing , it was the way the Children of Israel valued him in their heart. They were not valuing the Tzaddik in their heart , and thus allowed a new governance, —the new King — to conduct their thought speech and actions, instead of the faith that the Tzaddik had taught them.
Thus they became under the dominance of the Kilpah, the evil light of Egypt.
The same principles operate within us. Each one of us has a holy Neshamah, the soul. It is part of the essence of God within us. If we value our soul as we should, placing our faith in it, in the God within, realizing it has so much to teach us and doing all we can to enhance its actions, through our practice of Torah and mitzvot, we can move out of our inner exile and reclaim our redemption.
Material for this podcast taken from Igeret HaSulam Letter 12
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