Escaping the Cold

Va'eira TUESDAY, JANUARY 5 24 TEVET, 5776 ב"ה וַיֵּהָפְכוּ כָּל הַמַּיִם אֲשֶׁר בַּיְאֹר לְדָם (ז, כ שמות) And all the water that was in the Nile turned to blood. (Shemos 7:20) Escaping the Cold Bnei Yisrael's exile in Egypt seemed interminable. Slavery in Egyptwas so much a part of Bnei Yisrael's reality that they refused to accept Moshe's message that their redemption from Egypt was imminent. The subjugation and oppression of Bnei Yisrael was so severe that even Moshe struggled to understand how it could be part of G-d's plan. It was only when G-d struck the Egyptians with the Ten Plagues, starting with the water in Egypt turning to blood, that Egypt's grip on Bnei Yisrael began to crumble. "In every generation and every day, one must regard himself as though he has come out of Egypt on that very day," say our Sages (Mishnah, Pesachim 10:5, cf. Tanya, chapter 47). The Torah's name for Egypt, Mitzrayim, shares a common root with the Hebrew word meitzar, constraint. Accordingly, the above teaching of our Sages is explained in Chassidic teaching as an instruction that, "in every generation and every day," one must constantly strive to escape his personal Egypts, the internal constraints that hinder and restrain his devoted service of G-d. In this context, the Ten Plagues represent ten steps through which we can breach even the toughest internal barriers, freeing our souls to fully experience their attachment to G-d. In the first plague, the waters of the Nile River turned to blood. Water is naturally cold. Thus, the waters of the Nile, which were a false Egyptian deity, represent coolness and indifference toward ideas that are truly G-dly and holy. This attitude of coolness is the root of all spiritual ills. For it is impossible for a person to remain perpetually unexcited about neither holiness nor that which challenges holiness. Therefore, even if a person observes all the mitzvos but he does so coldly and apathetically, his detachment will invariably lead him to be attracted to ideas that counter a life of holiness. Therefore, the very first step toward breaking out of your spiritual Egypt is to rid yourself of the cold waters of the Nile. Replace them instead with warm and life-carrying blood—warmth, passion and enthusiasm toward all things G-dly. Coolness is the number-one weapon in the arsenalof our Yetzer Hara—the part of us that is naturally inclined to the unholy. Correspondingly, the first and most crucial step toward our escape from Egypt is to infuse our Judaism and Torah observance with passion and excitement. —Likkutei Sichos, vol. 1, pp. 119-124 Sponsor a Lightpoints email A project of Or Hachassidus ביוזמת ולזכות הרה״ח הרה״ת ר' ישעי' זושא ווילהעלם שליט״א להצלחה רבה לו ולכל משפחתו בגו״ר

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