Musar sur Les Nombres 33:4

The Zohar, commenting on 12,3: ויקחו להם איש ה לבית אבות שה לבית, "They shall each acquire for themselves a lamb per family or a lamb per household," comments that in effect G–d told the Jews to physically get hold of the Egyptians' deity, to keep it locked up for three days and to publicly excecute it on the fourth day. The Egyptians had to witness all this. This was a harder pill for them to swallow than all the other plagues that they had been subjected to previously, and this their idol was afterwards to be roasted on the fire as part of its execution. It was not to be boiled in water because the Torah's command to burn the idols (of the nations we conquered) in fire legislated in Deut. 7,25 would not have been carried out by boiling. If one were to boil the Passover lamb it would be equivalent to hiding it, covering it up, and one could not smell its fragrance. The distinctive smell of its roasting should permeate the house. The reason that it must be roasted whole with its legs and head is to prevent giving the impression that it is alive or that it is a pig, for instance. It must be prepared as food in such a way that everyone notices that it is an Egyptian deity that is being treated in this fashion. The Passover lamb must also not be eaten in a ravenous manner, but at a time when one has almost completed one's meal. No bone may be broken so that the skeleton can be viewed as whole, and its inability to save itself be demonstrated. For all these reasons the Torah speaks about ובאלוההים עשה שפטים "He executed judgments on their deities" (Numbers 33,4).

Our sages explain that the words in 14,10: "And here Israel saw מצרים travelling behind them,” refer to the שר של מצרים. This is the reason the Torah speaks about מצרים instead of about מצריים. When the Israelites saw this, they were assailed by great doubts. At the time of the slaying of every first-born in Egypt they had believed that G–d personally was in their midst and that all these miracles had not been orchestrated with the help of angels, etc., but had been performed by G–d in His capacity as the four-lettered Ineffable Name. They had been convinced that the first-born highest-ranking שר של מצרים, had also been defeated and no longer existed. They had believed that G–d had disposed of that force because no one but G–d Himself was able to accomplish this! The very fact that the Egyptians had buried all their dead had served as a sign for the Israelites that G–d personally had struck down every first-born (as described in Numbers 33,4). When Israel saw that all the Egyptian first-born on earth had been slain, they naturally assumed that their שר in the upper regions had been slain also, because we know of the principle that the spiritual counterparts of the nations on earth suffer defeat in the Celestial Regions prior to the defeat of the nations on earth whom they represent. In this instance, however, the שר של מצרים had not yet been totally eliminated. When the Torah in Numbers 33,4 spoke about G–d having struck, i.e. הכה Egypt, this did not mean that G–d struck a fatal blow at that time. G–d had allowed the שר to survive until the Egyptians were drowned in the sea. The שר had already been weakened.

To get back to the subject of the תיקונים. Joseph, in his capacity as the sacred seed of his father, who in turn represented the spiritual beauty of Adam prior to his sin, was truly created בצלם אלוקים, in the image of G–d, because he was not the result of a smelly drop of semen. He wore the striped coat, a metaphor for the garments woven of light worn by Adam and Eve before they sinned, as we have outlined on pages 290,294. He was therefore the natural enemy of Esau who represented the opposite attributes, the pollution by the serpent, the smelly drop of semen, and the start of a long line of bastards. He demonstrated his loyalty to the Holy Covenant by resisting the lures of Potiphar's wife, by remaining in control of his baser urges. He merited to be elevated to kingdom because his self-control exercised in a country which symbolized sexual promiscuity and perversion, was that much more remarkable. The "crown" of Royalty worn by Joseph was first and foremost his mastery over the guardian angel of Egypt; we have already explained on page 295 that Egypt, (and hence its guardian angel), was second only to ארץ ישראל itself. The שר של מצרים is second only to Israel in the ranks of carriers of G–d's chariots. When the Torah describes Joseph as "riding" in the מרכבת המשנה, this is a hyperbole for Joseph having replaced the guardian angel of Egypt in that role. This augured well for Israel, who, though they would become enslaved in Egypt, would achieve their spiritual refinement in that environment. After that period of refinement, Israel would עלה יעלה, ascend from Egypt spiritually, having witnessed G–d's miracles and judgments on the Egyptians. They would see the guardian angel of Egypt humbled, as described in Numbers 33, 4: “ובאלוהיהם עשה שפטים, The Lord executed judgments on their gods."