Famine and Descent: The Tzaddik's Fall for Good

20“There was a famine in the land …” It seems to me that the verse teaches a lesson in mussar, the way of right conduct, in the spirit of the verse “Not a hunger for bread and not a thirst for water …, but to hear the word of Hashem.”¹ So the real famine is when, Heaven forbid, Bnei Yisrael do not conduct themselves properly and go wayward in the way of their heart.² Through this they cause even the tzaddik who is whole in his deeds to come down from his great and holy level.

21That is what the verse says: “There was a famine in the land,” the famine of Bnei Yisrael straying, “and Avram went down to Egypt.” Because of it the tzaddik, who is called by the name Avram, comes down from his level. Yet “though he falls, he will not be cast down”³ altogether, Heaven forbid. He goes down only to Mitzrayim (מצרים), Egypt, which, split in two, is meitzar yam (מצר ים), “a narrow strait of the sea.” The lofty holiness he had before becomes narrow and confined for him, for “sea” hints at lofty holiness, the upper sea. And it is not only because of the wickedness of the wicked that Hashem lets the tzaddik fall from his level; this too is for his good, as the verse goes on, “lagur, to sojourn, there.” Were it not for this small fall from his level, he might grow a little proud of his level and his holiness. As it is, when the tzaddik sees that he has fallen from his level, he is deeply ashamed and full of regret, and he holds himself to be no more than a ger (גר), a stranger, in the land, the word within lagur (לגור): since he has fallen from his level, he sees himself as a stranger both in this world and in the World to Come.

22a“And it came to pass, when he drew near to come into Egypt”: when the tzaddik sees that he is close to the level called Mitzrayim, the narrow strait. “He said to Sarai his wife”: there are two kinds of service in the tzaddik's avodah. One is to serve Hashem in spiritual things; the other is that in physical things too he must sanctify and purify himself very greatly. The service in spiritual things is called Avram, the masculine side, and the service in physical things is called Sarah. That is “he said to Sarai his wife”: the feminine side is called ishah, “woman.” He said to her, “Behold, now I know that you are a woman of beautiful appearance.”⁴ He meant: I see that I know [you are] a beautiful woman, so I cannot be in lofty holiness; were I there, how would I know it?

22b“And it will be, when … they will kill me …”:⁵ if we do not watch over ourselves and grow strong in holiness, then, Heaven forbid, “they will kill me”: the spiritual power will be killed; “and let you live”: the physical power will prevail. Therefore, “Say, please, that you are my sister”:⁶ we must grow very strong in holiness and in great deveikus, cleaving to the holy Torah, in the spirit of “Say to wisdom, ‘You are my sister.’”⁷ “So that it may go well with me”: through this it will go well with me in lofty holiness, for the spiritual power will grow strong. And more than this, “and my soul shall live biglalech, because of you.” Biglalech (בגללך) speaks of gelalim (גללים), dung, as in “as one burns away dung”:⁸ holy vitality will come even into the dung, that is, into the physical. This is easy to understand.