Chasidut к Шмот 1:14

[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.

“And they embittered their lives with hard labor, with mortar and with bricks, and all manner of agricultural work.” (Shemos 1:14) The cruel Egyptian taskmasters had no need of the buildings that they forced the Jews to build. Their desire was only to torture the Israelites and embitter their lives. Thus it was solely out of cruelty that they invented the project of having the Jews build the cities of Pitom and Ramses.¹³²The footnote in the original text points out that the narrative first has the Egptians saying, “come, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply and join our enemies,” and only after that it says, “and the built treasure cities for Pharaoh – Pitom and Ramses.” Building these cities was not the only way they tortured the Jews, but even after the cities were built they devised new ways to cause the Jews to suffer. The Talmud (Sotah, 11) tells us that in the eyes of the Egyptian, the life of a Jew was worth less than the life of an animal. A Jewish life was not only cheap when they sent Jews to the wilderness to perform life threatening task like capturing lions and bears,¹³³Shemos Rabbah, 11. they scorned the lives of the Jews even amid the Egyptian metropolises. Every wicked Egyptian imbecile, every shameful Egyptian teenager, would brazenly curse and beat even respected elders of Israel, breaking their bones or even killing them. If an Israelite was physically stronger than his Egyptian oppressor it was no protection. He would have to suffer the blows of every despicable adolescent, because if a Jew so much as raised his hand to an Egyptian it would be reported and the Egyptians would slaughter large numbers of Jews as a collective punishment. There were few Jews who did not go about with broken bones, if not tokens of their oppressors affections in wanton beatings in the street, then surely from being forced to do labor far beyond their physical abilities.¹³⁴Midrash, and Yalkut, Parshas Yitro, Remez 276. They would beat them until their bodies were covered with bruises and lesions, making the Jews thoroughly abhorred.