redemption

Exile and Redemption: Then and Now

by Yedidah on December 28, 2021

Servitude starts within ourselves. Exile and Redemption from a letter of Rabbi Ashlag

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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finding brotherhood as a requisite for redemption

When we read about brothers in the Torah, we find that the concept of brotherhood as we understand it today, took much time and difficulty to emerge.

The first brothers we know about are Cain and Abel, and the story of their brotherhood is a tragic one .

Then the Torah relates the stories of Abraham and his family, and the first set of brothers we have are Yitshak and YIshmael. Yitzhak carries on the tradition of Abraham, but  Yishmael separates, goes his own way  and forms a separate nation.

A similar division takes place between the children of Yitzhak : Yaakov and Esau. Yaakov remains in the framework of holiness, carrying on the tradition of his fathers,  but Esau again goes his own way, and from him comes other nations.

 We learn in the Zohar that all the individuals mentioned are, in fact, aspects of the yetzer hatov, the good inclination and the yetzer hara, the evil inclination, as they appear as different elements within our psyche.  Avraham Yitzhak and Yaakov embody elements of the framework of holiness, whereas, Yishmael and Esau represent the framework of evil within us.

Now we can see why in each pair of brothers there was distance and separation. The causes of separation between the brothers of each pair are the same issues that we struggle within ourselves: the difference between the desires of the soul, the yetzer hatov which wishes to be in dvekut, unity with God, and the desires of the body, the yetzer hara which wants to receive self-gratification.  

But in the family of Jacob, the situation is different. Jacob begets twelve brothers, who become the twelve tribes of Israel; brothers, whose names are destined to be inscribed on the breastplate of the Kohen Gadol, the  high priest in the Temple. All of them are destined to serve God i. So, at a superficial glance, brotherhood should have been straightforward and easy. But, as we find in the parshiot of the Torah that tell of the relationship between Joseph and his brothers, it was anything but.

The Kabbalah, as taught by Rabbi Yehudah Leib Ashlag, teaches us, that no light can be attained without the appropriate vessel for it. What is a vessel? A vessel is a desire. Therefore, in order to attain brotherhood, the Children of Israel first had to lose it. Only then would they be able to value brotherhood and desire it, ultimately understanding that brotherhood is a prerequisite for redemption.

The issue seems to have been that since the brothers had no role model for brotherhood, they didn’t know they needed it. They were careless of it, and all sides acted in ways that showed it was not something they considered as important. The story of Joseph and the brothers opens with the Joseph acting badly toward the brothers, and they, on their part, hating Joseph. The defining moment when brotherhood is lost, is the selling of Joseph as a slave to Egypt. And then all sides have to live with the dreadful knowledge of where their actions have led .

The moment when, convinced of his brothers’ complete Teshuva, repentance, Joseph finally reveals himself to his brothers, is seen in the Zohar as a moment of redemption. The vessel for brotherhood had finally been made, and the moment of redemption filled it with light.

Finally , the concept of brotherhood widened, not only to relate to the members of one family but to the members of one nation. It was with this brotherhood that the Children of Israel started the exile in Egypt, and it was this they needed to invoke in order to stand at Mount Sinai as “one man with one heart.”

We await the time, when all humanity will unite in brotherhood, at the end of the tikkun ,

“When the glory of God will be revealed and all flesh shall see together that the mouth of God has spoken.” (Isaiah 40:5)

 

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Inner Exile, Inner Redemption

by Yedidah March 31, 2021
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Seder night is the night in which the greatest light of God, the light of redemption, comes into the world. It is the night in which God delivered the children of Israel from Egypt. And this energy, this great light comes into the world again every year. How will we receive it? How will we relate to it? As we start the Haggadah we say , This year we are slaves, next year we will be free. In this podcast we ask the question how and in what way are we in slavery now and what do we need to do to get free?

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Why was Kabbalah concealed and why is it being revealed now?

by Yedidah January 28, 2020
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Why was Kabbalah hidden form previous generations, and why is it revealed to us now? We find it is not because we are worthy, but that without Kabbalah we cannot fulfill the purpose of our lives and come to the full redemption which is now close.

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Redemption: the Essence of Shavuot

by Yedidah June 7, 2019
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Shavuot, the festival of the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai, shares the same essence as that of the day of the final redemption, when all the tikkun of Creation will be complete, and the “Earth will be filled with the knowledge of God as the water covers the sea.” What are the elements that demonstrate this, and what is our role in bringing this great day nearer? A talk from the Zohar and the commentary of Rabbi Ashlag.

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The Name of God on Seder Night

by Yedidah April 15, 2019
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Just as we were exiled in the historical Egypt, we all suffer different aspects of exile wherein we are in exile from our inner selves. Connecting with the name of God, HaShem helps us put our trust in God, helps us forgive ourselves and others and helps trust that HaShem will release us from the bondage of our inner Pharaoh, as indeed He does.

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