English translation — בא א

Sicha 1<pg>46</pg>

A.

In the story of the plague of darkness it is stated in the verse<sup>1</sup>

"And Moses stretched out his hand etc. and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days.

They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but for all the children of Israel there was light in their dwellings."

And it is stated in Midrash Rabbah<sup>2</sup>

"And in the three days of darkness the Holy One, blessed be He, gave the people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians<sup>3</sup>

and they lent them, for Israel would enter the houses of the Egyptians and would see in them silver vessels and gold vessels and garments<sup>4</sup>

If they would say, 'We have nothing to lend you,' Israel would say to them, 'Behold, it is in such and such a place,'

At that time the Egyptians would say, 'If these people wanted to lie to us, they could have taken them in the days of darkness and we would not have noticed, for they already saw them; since they did not touch them without our knowledge, likewise they will not hold onto them,' and they would lend them,

to fulfill what is stated<sup>5</sup>

And afterward they will go out with great wealth,

as it is said: 'And for all the children of Israel there was light etc.,'

It does not say 'in the land of Goshen,' but rather 'in their dwellings,' meaning that wherever a Jew would enter, light would enter and illuminate for him what was in barrels and in chests and in hidden treasures."

And so it is stated

(in brief)

in Tanchuma⁶

"And so in Egypt the cloud shone for Israel and darkened for Egypt, as it is said: they did not see etc. And for all the children of Israel there was light, and it shone for Israel and showed them all the silver and gold vessels and garments and all the good of Egypt, and what was in chests and in barrels and in hidden places it showed them, and they would ask and they would give to them against their will, for they would say to them: Israel, here for you in such-and-such a place is such-and-such a vessel."

The content of this exposition is brought briefly in Rashi⁷

"And why did He bring upon them darkness? For they were...

And further⁸

that Israel searched and saw their vessels, and when they left and they would ask from them and they would say: we have nothing in our hand, he says to him: I saw it in your house and in such-and-such a place it is."

And behold, at first glance it appears,

that Rashi's intention is to explain the verse like the explanation of the midrash,

that this that Bnei Yisrael saw the vessels of the Egyptians<pg>47</pg>

is the explanation of the verse "And for all Bnei Yisrael there was light in their dwellings"<sup>9</sup>.

But it is very forced to explain the intent of Rashi this way,

because:

a)

the above-mentioned precision in the Midrash,

"In the land of Goshen it is not said, but rather 'in their settlements,'

that wherever a Jew would enter, light would enter, etc.'",

is not the simple interpretation of "in their settlements"

(and on the contrary,

this is the opposite of the simple interpretation)¹⁰,

and if Rashi held thus, he should have written this explicitly.

b)

And the main point: Rashi wrote his commentary on the words

(in verse 22)

"And there was darkness, thick darkness etc. three days",

as a reason for the plague of darkness — "And why did He bring upon them darkness" — and he did not mention at all in his commentary the words

(from the verse that follows — verse 23)

"And for all the children of Israel there was light in their dwellings".

And it is implied from this,

that according to Rashi's explanation there were here two different matters: a)

"And for all the children of Israel there was light in their dwellings" — that in this it is speaking

(according to the simple meaning of the expression)

about the houses of Israel

(that in the land of Goshen)¹⁰.

b)

That the children of Israel "saw all their vessels" of the Egyptians in the houses of the Egyptians — and this matter is learned

(not from what is written "And for all the children of Israel there was light in their dwellings",

but rather)

from the essence of the plague of darkness,

since this was the intention of the plague,

so that the children of Israel would be able to see their vessels and ask for them afterwards from the Egyptians at the time of their exodus from Egypt.

2.

According to the above we learn,

that there is a fundamental difference between the Midrash and Rashi in the interpretation of the verses here:

According to the Midrash,

that which is said "and for all the children of Israel there was light in their dwellings" — this too is part of the plague of darkness,

for the plague included two details:

(a)

darkness

(miraculous)

for the Egyptians,

(b)

light

(miraculous¹¹)

for Israel,

"that wherever a Jew would enter, light would enter and illuminate for him etc."

But according to Rashi, there was here only one miracle — the darkness that the Holy One, blessed be He, brought upon the Egyptians,

except that the reason He brought this plague upon them was for the sake of the children of Israel,

that through the darkness the ability was given to the children of Israel to search in the houses of the Egyptians and to see the place of their vessels,

but there was not in this an additional miracle that the children of Israel could see what was found in the houses of the Egyptians.

[And that which the verse continues afterwards "and for all the children of Israel there was light in their dwellings,"

it is a matter in itself,

that comes to emphasize that the plague was only in Egypt and not in the dwelling place of the children of Israel in the land of Goshen.

That is to say: that it did not become dark for Israel in the Egyptian house is part of the plague of darkness,

for this is the intention and the purpose of the plague; but the intention in what is said "and for all the children of Israel there was light in their dwellings" is,

on the contrary,

to inform that there was no trace of the darkness in the dwellings of the children of Israel.

And analogous to what is said regarding the plague of hail<sup>12</sup>

"only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, there was no hail,"

even though at first glance it is simple without this,

since the plague was only upon Egypt<sup>13</sup>].

And this distinction between the Midrash and Rashi is emphasized and precise in the differences of language between them:<pg>48</pg>

In the Midrash the language that the light was "shining for Israel and showing them..

what is in chests and in barrels and in hidden treasures",

whereas in Rashi

(a)

it is not mentioned at all that there was here some "light"

(and only mentioned regarding the seeing of the Children of Israel,

"they saw their vessels"),

(b)

he specifies that the Children of Israel "searched" — unlike in the Midrash,

that the light was "showing them",

(c)

he omits that the Children of Israel saw the vessels that are "in chests and in barrels and in hidden treasures".

And according to the above, the reason for the changes in the simple meaning is understood:

According to the midrash that "and for all the children of Israel there was light in their dwellings" is part of the miracle,

if so, it was a special and miraculous light that "showed them..

what is in chests and barrels and hidden treasures",

and for this natural light is insufficient to see by it what is found inside the vessels and

(all the more so)

in hidden treasures,

but it was a special and miraculous light¹¹.

But not according to the simple meaning of the verse

(the way of Rashi in his commentary on the Torah)

there was no miraculous light here,

but only that the darkness did not darken for Bnei Yisrael,

and consequently they were able to see what was in the houses of the Egyptians

(by ordinary and natural light)¹⁴,

and therefore they had to search etc. until they saw the vessels of the Egyptians

(and based on this one can say,

that it is possible that Bnei Yisrael did not find all the vessels that were hidden in hiding places etc.).

[And based on this one can further explain a difference between the Midrash and Rashi: In Rashi it is explicit that this — that Bnei Yisrael would enter the houses of the Egyptians and see their vessels —

was

(one)

of the reasons for the plague of darkness¹⁵,

but not so from the language of the Midrash it implies that this is not the reason for the plague of darkness,

but rather an additional thing that occurred during the time of the plague of darkness¹⁶.

And according to the above one can explain the reason,

for according to the Midrash that there was a miraculous light that showed Yisrael all the vessels of the Egyptians,

there is no need

(so much)

to bring darkness upon them,

for even if there was light among the Egyptians,

Yisrael would see the vessels of the Egyptians by means of this miraculous light¹⁷

; but not according to Rashi that there was no miraculous light,

behold the possibility to see the vessels of the Egyptians was only because of the darkness that the Holy One, blessed be He, brought upon the Egyptians].

3.

And we must explain the reason of Rashi that he changed from the midrash of the Midrash,

And as an introduction:

It is known that in fulfilling the command of the Holy One, blessed be He,

one must endeavor that the fulfillment be in a natural way,

not through a miracle,

namely both that the object in which the commandment is performed be a natural object and not a work of miracles¹⁸,

and that the act of fulfilling the commandment be done in a natural way.

And furthermore this is explained elsewhere at length¹⁹,

that this includes not only the fulfillment of the commandment itself,

but<pg>49</pg>

also the preparation for the commandment,

that also the preparation must be natural.

And as we learn from the well-known story²⁰

about the sanctification of the moon of the Alter Rebbe,

that he asked the official who was in charge of the ship to stop it so that he could sanctify the moon while standing and with settled mind,

and when the official refused,

the Alter Rebbe stopped the ship in a miraculous way,

but he did not then sanctify the moon until the official agreed to stop it himself — for the reasons for this are²¹,

because he wanted that also the preparation for the fulfillment of the commandment be in a natural way and not through a miraculous matter²².

And based on this, one may explain why Rashi did not explain as in the Midrash that the seeing of the Egyptians' vessels by Bnei Yisrael was through a special miracle

(through a light not according to nature)

— because according to this exposition,

the purpose of the plague of darkness was so that Yisrael could fulfill the command of Hashem²³

"And they shall ask, each man from his fellow and each woman from her fellow, vessels of silver and vessels of gold",

until there would be "and you shall empty out Egypt" — "uterokinon"²⁴,

And according to this, it follows,

that the preparation for fulfilling this command was not according to nature,

in a miraculous way,

for only through this miraculous light did they see the vessels of silver and gold of the Egyptians and what was hidden etc.,

and only through this did they fulfill the command to request from them all their vessels that were in hiding places etc.

And therefore Rashi changes and explains,

that this that they saw their vessels was not by means of a special light and in a miraculous way,

but rather according to nature,

that Israel searched in the houses of the Egyptians and saw their vessels by natural light,

so that also the preparation for the mitzvah would be fulfilled in a natural way.

[And even though all the essence of the miracle of the plague of darkness was for this, that Israel would be able to see the vessels of the Egyptians — this is only in the category of the removal of the obstacle,

or at most in a manner of cause and effect,

and not preparation and qualification for the mitzvah,

that this was specifically in that the children of Israel searched and saw their vessels,

and in such a case — this is not unnatural.

And also this thing can be learned from the above story of the Alter Rebbe,

for superficially, that the official agreed to stop the ship — was not because of himself

(actually),

but because he saw that it was in the power of the Alter Rebbe to stop the ship by himself in a miraculous manner,

but this is only a mere cause; the preparation itself,

the stopping of the ship for the sake of reciting the blessing of Kiddush Levanah,

was done by the official himself and not in a miraculous manner].

4.

However, that the Midrash did not pay attention to this,

and explains that there was a special and miraculous light in this,

it can be said,

because it holds that in our case it was not necessary to say so — and for several reasons:

a)

The condition that the fulfillment of the commandments must be specifically in a natural way,

is primarily regarding commandments after the Giving of the Torah

[for this is a fundamental matter in the Giving of the Torah,

that the commandments should affect the physicality of the world,

in the language of the Midrash²⁵

"the upper ones descended to the lower ones",

and therefore most of the commandments, almost all of them, are in physical matters,

and in this itself specifically in natural ways,

as explained elsewhere¹⁹]

— but not so in our case which speaks before the Giving of the Torah.

b)

Content of the topic of "And they asked, each man from his neighbor"<pg>50</pg>

his neighbor, etc.' is not

(so much)

in the category of "commandment" and obligation

(of Bnei Yisrael),

but on the contrary,

receiving reward

(from Above),

through which was fulfilled the promise of the Holy One, blessed be He, "And afterwards they will go out with great wealth"²⁶,

except that the Holy One, blessed be He, clothed this payment of reward in the ways of nature,

by means of Bnei Yisrael asking from the Egyptians vessels of silver, etc.,

but the content of the matter is — receiving reward from Above.

[And therefore we find that the entirety of the matter of "And they asked, each from his neighbor, etc." was not so much dependent on Israel,

but rather came about in a miraculous way from above,

and as is explained at the beginning of the matter²⁷

"And I will give the favor of this people in the eyes of Egypt",

and as it is stated in the verse afterwards that it was actualized "And God gave the favor of the people in the eyes of Egypt"²⁸

; "And God gave the favor of the people in the eyes of Egypt and they lent them"²⁹].

And it is understood,

that in the fulfillment of such a command we are not concerned if the preparation is done through a miracle.

[And one may add further,

that in our case it was necessary

(according to the midrash)

the miracle to illuminate the "hidden treasures" — because the purpose and goal of the command "and they shall borrow" was

(not only that Bnei Yisrael would go out "with great wealth",

but also this)

— "and you shall empty out Egypt",

"and drain it".

And therefore it was necessary that the miracle of "and for all Bnei Yisrael there was light" be,

to illuminate the hidden treasures in the houses of the Egyptians,

for specifically through this miraculous light they had the ability to see everything that was hidden of vessels of silver and gold with the Egyptians to fulfill what is said "and you shall empty out Egypt"

(unlike if they had seen only the vessels that were outside and by searching in the houses of the Egyptians,

they would not have been able to fulfill this command to drain Egypt)].

5.

According to this, we will explain

(based on the inner dimension of the matters)

also the difference between the Midrash and Rashi in explaining what is written "And for all the Children of Israel there was light in their dwellings" — whether this too is part of the plague of darkness or not:

It is stated in the books³⁰

that the "great wealth" that the Children of Israel took out of Egypt also alludes to the holy sparks that were found in the land

(and the matters)

of Egypt,

for in that the Children of Israel took out the silver vessels etc. of Egypt,

they took out the holy sparks

(that were in them)

from the evil of Egypt and returned them to the domain of holiness.

And the content of this service

(of "clarification of the sparks")

is a primary matter in the service of each and every one of Israel,

that in addition to the obligation of Torah study and the service of prayer,

which in their essence are in the person himself,

and in this itself — in his spirituality

(the understanding of Torah in his intellect and the feeling of the heart in prayer)

— there must also be fulfillment of the commandments

(most of which are in physical matters),

and also doing his permissible matters for the sake of Heaven,

by which he draws holiness into the physicality of the world and elevates the sparks of holiness that are in physical matters to the domain of holiness

(as explained at length in the Tanya³¹).

<pg>51</pg>

And it can be said,

that according to Rashi this is the difference between the two matters in the verse —

(a)

the essence of the plague of darkness,

which gave the possibility for the children of Israel to enter the houses of the Egyptians and see their vessels,

(b)

"And for all the children of Israel there was light in their dwellings" — which correspond to the two types of service mentioned above: the service of Torah and prayer,

by which the light of holiness shines "in their dwellings" of the children of Israel

(in his soul and spirituality),

and the service of refining the world,

to bring out the sparks of holiness that are in physical matters and to elevate them to holiness.

According to the way of peshat — that is, as things appear in simplicity and externality — they are two different types of service,

and perhaps also opposite types.

However, in the Midrash — Aggadah in the Torah that "most of the secrets of the Torah..

are hidden in the Aggadot"&lt;sup&gt;32&lt;/sup&gt;

— it explains that also that "and for all the children of Israel there was light in their dwellings" is part of the plague of darkness,

because from the perspective of the inner intention,

these two types of service are not different matters,

but rather they belong and are connected with each other,

for also the service of Torah and prayer,

its purpose is for the service of refining and purifying the world

(as explained in Tanya&lt;sup&gt;31&lt;/sup&gt;,

that the soul did not descend below in order to fix itself,

but only to fix the body and its animal soul and its portion in the world).

And this is the inner content in the words of the midrash,

that also this that "for all of Bnei Yisrael there was light in their dwellings" is part of the plague of darkness,

and this is because also the light that shines for Israel when they are "in their dwellings",

which is the light that shines in their soul through Torah and prayer,

they need to draw down and bring into the "houses of the Egyptians"

(the darkness of the world),

so that through it they can take out from there the sparks of holiness that are found there and return them to the domain of holiness.

6.

And more deeply it can be said,

according to the "wine of Torah" in Rashi — that this that according to Rashi the conclusion "and for all of Bnei Yisrael there was light in their dwellings" is not part of the plague of darkness,

it is because in this is hinted a matter even higher,

which comes after the completion of the work of clarification and refinement of the world.

For it is explained in several places,

that the descent of the soul and its service below is a need on high,

that after the completion of its service in refining and purifying the world, the soul ascends to a higher level than it was before its descent,

until it merits "to be absorbed in the body of the King"³³.

And this is the inner explanation of the verse,

that after the completion of the service in refining and purifying the world

(which is hinted at in the plague of darkness,

through which the Children of Israel brought out the wealth of Egypt and brought it into the domain of holiness)

— they merit "and for all the Children of Israel there was light in their dwellings",

that the soul comes to its dwelling and its true place,

Israel and the Holy One, blessed be He, are entirely one,

where there is no place at all for the existence of Egypt and the matters of Egypt

(even not as they are refined and ascend to holiness)³⁴,

but only

(in the language of the Zohar³⁵)

Israel and the King alone.

7.

And from this there is to learn also great encouragement in our service now,

in this our last exile:

Although we are found in a time of "darkness of the exile",

And in this itself — darkness double and multiplied³⁶

of the footsteps of the Mashiach,

behold the Holy One Blessed be He brings about causes,

and until ways that are above<pg>52</pg>

nature,

so that Bnei Yisrael could perform their service without any hindrances or delays.

And although all the above matters must be specifically through the ways of nature — this is regarding what pertains to the fulfillment of the commandment from the side of Bnei Yisrael,

but regarding the situation

(in the world)

required so that Israel could perform their service in its fullness,

there are no limitations,

and the Holy One, blessed be He, also performs open miracles in order to enable Israel to perform their service through the ways of nature

[as in the plague of darkness,

that the Holy One, blessed be He, performed an open miracle and brought a miraculous darkness upon the Egyptians,

so that Bnei Yisrael could search and find the vessels in a natural manner

(from their side)

; and similarly in the above story of the Alter Rebbe,

that he effected through a miracle,

that the trustee himself wanted to stop the ship].

And all the more so according to the explanation of the Midrash,

that there was also here a miraculous light — that certainly this matter is also not just a one-time thing that occurred in the Exodus from Egypt,

but something similar to this is also in the redemption from this last exile

(which is "as the days of your going out from the land of Egypt"³⁷),

that even when we are in the "land of Egypt"

(before the coming of the redemption)

a light above nature shines,

and in the language of the verse³⁸

(which comes in the continuation of the matter in the aforementioned Midrash³⁹),

that also when "darkness covers the earth and thick darkness the nations

(nevertheless)

upon you will shine the Lord etc."

And beyond this,

that this light gives the power to the children of Israel to turn into holiness also the matters that are in the darkness of the world,

which in externality appear to be things that conceal and hide and prevent a person from fulfilling the command of the Holy One, blessed be He,

And that they themselves assist and help the Jewish people to fulfill the commandments of G-d,

in the manner that Pharaoh himself assisted and helped the Jewish people to leave the exile of Egypt.

And a verse does not depart from its plain meaning,

and this is the main point,

that at the end of the time of exile there is "light in their dwellings" for all of Israel,

and in each and every one of Israel,

in its plain sense, in the physical and in the spiritual,

that each and every one of the Jewish people has expansion and rest in all his affairs,

And they prepare themselves with joy and a good heart to greet our righteous Moshiach,

with our youths and our elders, with our sons and our daughters⁴⁰

and their silver and their gold with them⁴¹,

simply, and likewise in the spiritual aspects,

very soon, speedily in our days.

(From the talks of Shabbos Parshas Bo 5741,

Shabbos Parshas Vayikra-Purim 5745)