Hasidut untuk Keluaran 6:7

“And you should know that I am Hashem your God who takes you out…” (Exodus 6:7). This is a promise that they will know that Hashem took them out from the land of Egypt. And this is the reason for the entire exile, that a person should know that from his side he is set to be in exile. And this is the practice for every person from Israel. Similarly I heard from my father, my master, my teacher and mentor, whose memory should be a blessing, that if a person truly knew that everything is from Hashem, they would not hide from him anything, and all the hiddenness is so that it will not seem like it is from Him, and the words of the wise are grace. And a person needs to know, even during a time of favor when he has a little bit of clinging, with all that, it cannot be forgotten that he is set, from his side, for any sin and iniquity. Only with the help of Hashem. And this is what is written, “so that you will remember the day that you left Egypt all the days of your life” (Deuteronomy 16:3), meaning even when he is clinging to the living God. And similarly the Sages wrote that this comes to include the days of the messiah, which is a good time, when the evil inclination is not in control. Nevertheless, he has to remember well, that if not for His mercy we would still be in Egypt. As it is written, “if He hadn’t taken us out… we would still be enslaved…” (Passover Haggadah). And this Hashem wanted to ingrain in Israel at the time of the exile, that they should know that all this was so that they would know after the entire redemption and after the receiving of the Torah, that Hashem took them out of Egypt. And this is what it says by the Sabbath, “a remembrance for the exodus from Egypt” (Kiddush for Friday night), for it is a day of rest, and a person must know that it is from Hashem. And therefore, every day we mention the exodus from Egypt before the unification of krias Shema to know that if not for His mercy we would be in Egypt. And through making this truly clear, every day we leave from the meitzar (straits - same root as Mitzrayim which means Egypt) and we are able afterwards to accept the yoke of Heaven. And we say, “You brought us out from Egypt and You redeemed us from the house of slavery” (Morning Prayers). It seems that the explanation is that there were two things: the hard work of the slavery, and also that they were truly under the hand of Egypt. And it is written in the holy Zohar, that as long as a person has a different yoke, he cannot accept the yoke of Heaven. This is why slaves are exempt from accepting the yoke of Heaven. And therefore, after the exodus from Egypt we accept the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven. And so too it is written, “and I will take out…” and then afterwards “and I will take you to Me as a nation…” (Exodus 6:6-7), as we said above. [Even so, after this he should also know that if not for His mercy we would be in Egypt, and this is why we mention also after krias Shema the exodus from Egypt and redemption. And afterwards we can come through that to prayer.]

“And I will take you out… from under the burden (sivlot) of Egypt… " (Exodus 6:6). I heard from my father an explanation of “sivlot” (burden), that they were not able to bear, in any manner, the impurity of Egypt. And from that came the redemption afterwards. And it seems that it is from this that Moshe, our teacher, took them out, as he said “Behold the children of Israel did not listen to me” (Exodus 6:12). Because afterwards it is written “and I will redeem…” (Exodus 6:6), if so, before they heard and it was not properly disgusting to them, and they did not leave from under the burden, consequently how will Pharaoh listen, which happens afterwards? But really they had left the burden of Egypt, but the attribute of Moshe was on a higher level, for he was further separated from the land of Egypt, and so it is written “they did not listen to me…” (Exodus 6:12). And this was the idea of having Aharon join, that their clinging to Moshe would be through Aharon [and that is what is written “and He commanded them…” (Exodus 6:13)], as we said above. And afterwards it is written, “and you should know that I am Hashem your God who takes you out from under the burden of Egypt” (Exodus 6:7), that after the whole redemption, one must know that if not for the help of Hashem, we would still be under the burden of Egypt, which is an bad aspect, as we said above. And this is advice for all of Israel, that one should habituate himself to hate evil with the utmost hatred. Like the Sages said, a person should incite his good inclination against his evil inclination (Berachot 5a). And this is the beginning of the redemption, as we said above.

Exodus 6,7. “I will acquire you to be My ‎people,….and you will know that I am ‎‎Hashem.” (The Merciful One) The ‎new revelation to Moses here is that whereas other ‎nations cannot grasp the concept of Hashem ‎with their brains at all, the Jewish people have been ‎granted this dimension of perception of ‎‎Hashem. The tool which enables us to have ‎such insight is the Torah and the commandments ‎contained in it which G’d has given to us as a gift. This ‎‎“gift” is spelled out in verse 8. As a result of making ‎proper use of these gifts we, the Jewish people, have a ‎better understanding of the Shechinah, and ‎what this term implies.‎