Crying Out for Our Father: Freedom to Accept His Yoke

1“And I too have heard the groaning of Bnei Yisrael, whom Egypt is enslaving, and I have remembered My covenant.”¹ Rashi explains: “I have remembered” that covenant, for at the Covenant Between the Parts I told Avraham, “And also the nation that they will serve, I will judge.”² But if Hashem redeems them because of the promise He made at the Covenant Between the Parts to bring them out, why does the verse give the reason as “whom Egypt is enslaving”? After all, Hashem, blessed be He, promised to redeem us, and He keeps His promises; that reason alone is enough for Him to redeem us.

2A little further on, the Torah says: “Therefore say to Bnei Yisrael, ‘I am Hashem, and I will take you out from under the burdens of Egypt …’”³ Notice the name used here. As is well known, the name Yisrael, which Yaakov received after he prevailed over the angel, points to a lofty level.⁴ Yet we know that at this point, before the Exodus, Bnei Yisrael were sunk deep in the bondage of impurity. Why, then, are they called here by the name Yisrael, and not “the sons of Yaakov”?

3Further on, the Torah says of Moshe and Aharon: “He commanded them concerning Bnei Yisrael and concerning Pharaoh king of Egypt, to take Bnei Yisrael out of the land of Egypt.”⁵ The Yerushalmi asks, “What did He command them about?” and answers, “The passage about setting slaves free.”⁶ But what was the point of accepting the mitzvah of freeing slaves at that time, when they themselves were still under Pharaoh's hand and the burdens of Egypt?

4aLet us begin with the words of my holy father and teacher, zt"l, on Rashi's comment at the beginning of our parshah: “‘I appeared’: to the Avos.”⁷ The commentators on Rashi, the Mizrachi and the Gur Aryeh, and the holy sefarim Degel Machaneh Efraim and Ohev Yisrael, all ask what Rashi is adding, since the verse goes on to say it outright: “to Avraham, to Yitzchak and to Yaakov.” My holy father explained this on the basis of the sefer Be'er Mayim Chaim, by R' Chaim of Chernowitz, on the verse “We have become orphans, and there is no father.”⁸ The verse seems to say the same thing twice: if “we have become orphans,” obviously “there is no father.” The Be'er Mayim Chaim explains that we are indeed “orphans,” with many troubles in exile. Yet what we mainly lament is that “there is no father”: we lack closeness to our Father in Heaven. All our grief should be over this, that we are like a son exiled from his father's table.⁹

4bOn this basis my holy father explained the verse “Gather and listen, sons of Yaakov, and listen to Yisrael your father.”¹⁰ Yaakov Avinu was telling his sons that whatever state they might be in, they must at the very least know that they lack a father, and “listen to your father.” In the same way he explained the verse “From afar Hashem appeared to me.”¹¹ When we know that we stand far from the Holy One, blessed be He, we will naturally want to come close to Him, and then the words “Hashem appeared to me” will come true. That is the meaning of “‘I appeared’: to the Avos,” to the fathers: we must turn our hearts to knowing our Father in Heaven and seeking Him. Those are his holy words.

5Let us explain this further. The Rambam's question is well known: why were the Egyptians punished for enslaving Bnei Yisrael, when Hashem, blessed be He, had decreed it Himself, saying, “They will enslave them and afflict them …”?¹² He answered, in these words: “What is this like? Like one who says, ‘This people will have righteous and wicked among them.’ The wicked man cannot say because of this that it was already decreed upon him to be wicked, since Hashem told Moshe that there would be wicked people in Israel. So too with the Egyptians: each and every one of those who oppressed and harmed Israel was free to refrain from harming them, had he so wished.” So far his words. In other words, the Egyptians did not enslave Israel because Hashem commanded it, but out of their own wickedness, and that is why they were punished. The Ra'avad, in his glosses on the Rambam, explained it differently. The Holy One, blessed be He, had said only “they will enslave them and afflict them,” but the Egyptians went further and worked them with crushing labor, and for this they were punished.

6Both answers, the Rambam's and the Ra'avad's, are hinted at here in the verse. “Whom Egypt is enslaving” hints at the Rambam's answer: the Egyptians enslave Israel of their own will, not because Hashem commanded it. The next verse goes on: “I will take you out from under the burdens of Egypt, I will rescue you from their labor, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.” Rashi explains “the burdens of Egypt” as “the toil of the Egyptian load.”¹³ This fits the Ra'avad's answer. The Egyptians, on their own, laid a heavy load on Israel, and so they would receive their punishment: Hashem would redeem Israel from them “with great judgments.” Indeed, because the Egyptians wickedly worked them with crushing labor beyond all measure, Israel could not serve Hashem, blessed be He. The suffering that came upon them was a great obstacle to avodas Hashem, the service of Hashem, and serving Hashem is the very purpose of the Exodus. As the verse says, “When you take the people out of Egypt, you will serve God on this mountain.”¹⁴

7Chazal teach in the Yerushalmi: “From where do we know that slaves are exempt from reciting the Shema? For it says, ‘Hear, O Israel, Hashem is our God, Hashem is One.’ It applies to one who has no master but the Holy One, blessed be He. This excludes a slave, who has another master. From here we learn that a slave is exempt from reciting the Shema.”¹⁵ It follows that in Egypt, where Bnei Yisrael were slaves to Pharaoh, they were exempt from accepting the yoke of the kingship of Heaven [that the Shema expresses]. That is why they were commanded about freeing slaves at that very time. Since just then they felt how much the bondage kept them from properly accepting that yoke, they undertook that in the future, once the Torah was given, they would keep the mitzvah of freeing slaves. Through this mitzvah, slaves would be able to accept that yoke upon themselves, and accepting it was the purpose of the Exodus. This answers our third question.

8This answers our second question. They are called here “Bnei Yisrael,” a name that shows special greatness, because of what they groaned about. They were being worked with crushing labor, and it kept them from accepting upon themselves the yoke of the kingship of Heaven. All their pleading and crying out to go free from the yoke of slavery was only so that they could take upon themselves the yoke of the kingship of Heaven in full. This is a sign of greatness and of a high level.

9It is about this that Hashem said, “I appeared to the Avos.” He revealed Himself to Bnei Yisrael because of their cry, which rose from a groaning heart because they lacked the revelation of their Father in Heaven. All their longings and all their prayer were over this: they felt that they lacked their Father in Heaven, that is, they could not accept upon themselves the yoke of the kingship of Heaven. So “I appeared,” Hashem's revealing Himself to them, came through the power of “to the avos,”¹⁶ meaning the desires and yearnings they had for their Father in Heaven.

10May Hashem help us be privileged to accept the yoke of the kingship of Heaven with nothing to hold us back, and may the verse “Hashem will be One and His Name One”¹⁷ be fulfilled in us, with the coming of Moshiach. Amen, may it be His will.