Chasidut su Esodo 10:2

Indeed, regarding what is explained in the Talmud, “A person does not commit a sin unless a spirit of nonsense has entered him” (Sotah 3a), relates to another matter. For is it not known what is stated in the verse, the tzaddik shall live through his faith (Habakuk 2:4)? For sometimes a person falls from Awareness, and it is by way of a trial from the Blessed Creator, by taking from him the Awareness in order to see if he will stand by God’s ways. Nevertheless the righteous holds to his way through his faith; and even though they take the Awareness from him, nevertheless he walks and strengthens himself in God’s ways. But this is not true if he does not have the faith; then when he falls from Awareness and “a spirit of nonsense enters him” he might commit a sin, God forbid. And this is what our Sages of Blessed Memory intended in their saying, “A person does not commit a sin unless a spirit of nonsense has entered him,” which is to say that he fell from Awareness by way of a trial. But in the Egyptian exile they did not have Awareness at all, and then there was no relevance for Choice as we have stated. And that is because the Awareness was in smallness, which is to say that they were in Awareness like a minor who has no [legal] awareness; and therefore it was stated in the Talmud, “A minor has no [legal] intention” (Hullin 13a). And that is [the meaning of] the verse’s further statement, that you may tell … how I have toyed [hit’allalti] with the Egyptians (Ex. 10:2), from the idiom of child [ollel] and infant (Jeremiah 44:7) – as if [God was saying] “Like I have made myself small in Egypt,” which is to say that the Awareness was in smallness in Egypt. And after this it says that you may know that I am the LORD (Ex. 10:2), which is to say that they will have the whole Awareness in their Exodus from Egypt, to know God with Awareness.

Exodus10,2 “and in order that you may ‎tell in the hearing of your son and your ‎grandson, etc.” “how I have made a mockery of ‎the Egyptians and how I have displayed My signs ‎among them., in order that you may know that I ‎am Hashem.” We need to analyse not only the ‎peculiar phraseology in this paragraph but also why ‎G’d addresses the words: ‎וידעתם כי אני ה'‏‎, “you will know ‎that I am Hashem to the Israelites instead of ‎to the Egyptians, by writing: “‎‏:וידעו כי אני ה'‏‎ “so that they ‎will know that I am Hashem.”‎
It appears that the gentile nations do not have ‎access to G’d through His regular activities, i.e. nature, ‎but only though supernatural events, miracles within ‎the framework of known natural events which have ‎been upset. The plagues that occurred in Egypt were of ‎that category. Matters that are altogether beyond ‎nature are not accessible to the gentile nations. This ‎explains why the Talmud in Sanhedrin 58 ‎states that when a gentile observes the Sabbath Day as ‎does a Jew, i.e. the day on which G’d rested, and is to ‎be emulated as such, he not only does not earn credits ‎for this, but is guilty of the death penalty as he ‎breached the command to earn his livelihood by the ‎sweat of his brow, (without break). G’d’s message to ‎the Jewish people, in the verses above, is a hint at the ‎different nature of the gentile nations, even at the time ‎when the Sabbath as basic legislation for the Jewish ‎people had not yet been legally formulated. ‎‎[The reader is reminded of the ‎‎Midrashim that credit Moses with having ‎secured the Sabbath as a day of rest from labour by ‎Pharaoh, not for religious reasons, but to enable the ‎Jews to perform better work for the Egyptians by ‎recharging their physical batteries on that day.” ‎Ed.]‎

[Regarding] the statement in the Holy Zohar, “Come to Pharaoh (Ex. 10:1) – it should have said ‘go to Pharaoh!’” (cf. Zohar Bo, 2:34a), as well as the question posed by the commentators, which I wrote above – the miracle of the Exodus from Egypt was that the Awareness was in exile with wicked Pharaoh in Egypt; and therefore Israel was exiled there to bring the Awareness from there. And the difficulty of the servitude made it whole, as is stated in Tikkunei Zohar: “And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve… in mortar [be-homer] (Ex. 1:13-14), that is [the logical argument of] ‘…and certainly…’ [kal ve-homer]; and in brick [oo-vil’venim] (Ex. 1:14), that is the heating [libbun] of halakhah; and in all manner of service in the field (Ex. 1:14), that is the external sources; in all their service, wherein they made them serve with rigor [b’farekh] (Ex. 1:14), that is argumentation [pirkha]” (Tikkun 9, Supplement 147a), which is to say that all of this was in exile in Egypt. And through their servitude they took the Awareness, which is the Torah, out of the exile. When they served in mortar they brought [the logical argument of] “…and certainly…” out of the exile, and so on for all the other servitudes as we have stated. And therefore when Moses our Teacher, peace be upon him, said, Behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me [ – How then shall Pharaoh listen to me] (Ex. 6:12), and Rashi explained, “This is one of ten ‘…and certainly…’ [arguments] in the Torah,” that is to say that when [Moses] said this “…and certainly…” [argument] he brought the “…and certainly…” [argument] in the Torah out of the exile. For the all of the Torah was in the Egyptian exile, since the Awareness was in exile; and the Awareness is the Torah. Now, the Torah begins with [the letter] bet, In the beginning [God] created etc. (Gen. 1:1); but why didn’t the Torah begin with aleph, which is the first of all the letters? Because [if that were the case] the world would not be able to exist for even one hour, and would be nullified from existence because of the letter aleph’s great brightness, since it alludes to the Champion [aluf] of the World, who is Blessed God in [God’s] Glory and [God’s] Essence, as if it were possible. But because the LORD God is a sun and shield (Psalm 84:12) – which is to say just like one can not look at the sun because of its great brightness, only by way of a shade or a shield can one look at the sun’s light – so too, as if it were possible, with a thousand thousands of thousands of distinctions without end or boundary, would it be impossible to exist because of the letter aleph’s great brightness, since it is the Champion of the World. Only by way of a shade or a shield, which is the letter bet – [only] through it does it become possible to constrain the letter aleph so that it can also be in the Torah. For after the letter bet in bereshit we find several alephs, in the word bereshit and in the words bara elohim, once it was constrained by the letter bet. And that is [the meaning of] Come [בא] to Pharaoh, which is to say through the bet the aleph will be in the Torah. And since now the Torah is in exile, therefore I have hardened his heart and [the heart of his servants] (Ex. 10:1) so that Israel will serve in mortar and in brick (Ex. 1:14) to bring the Torah out of exile. And as is stated in Tikkunei Zohar, “… in mortar [be-homer] (Ex. 1:13-14), that is [the logical argument of] ‘…and certainly…’ [kal ve-homer],” as we said above – through this they brought [the argument of] “…and certainly…” out of the exile, and so on for the other servitudes. And that is [the meaning of] that I may show these signs [otot] of mine among them (Ex. 10:1), that the letters [otiot], which belong to the Torah, must be taken out of exile. And the verse concludes, that you may tell … how I have toyed (Ex. 10:2), which is to say that I made Myself small since the Awareness was in smallness. And now you may know (Ex. 10:2), as was stated above.