Netivot Shalom – Parashat Bo
The inner connection of מאס
Disgust is what happens when weariness turns inward.
וּבְמִקְרָא גָּדוֹל זוֹ גִּלּוּי שְׁכִינָה
“And with great awe, this was a revelation of the Divine Presence.”
Why does Hashem say, “I will go out within Mitzrayim” — בְּתוֹךְ מִצְרַיִם (b’toch Mitzrayim)? Mitzrayim was saturated with idols. How specifically in מַכַּת בְּכוֹרוֹת / makat bechorot the Plague of the Firstborn, does the Shechinah descend inside Mitzrayim itself?
וּבְמִקְרָא גָּדוֹל זוֹ גִּלּוּי שְׁכִינָה,
and with great awe, this was a revelation of the Shechinah.
Not inspiration.
Not elevation.
But gilui Shechinah, a direct revealing of Hashem’s Presence.
And where does this happen?
Moshe tells us explicitly:
“כֹּה אָמַר ה’ כַּחֲצוֹת הַלַּיְלָה אֲנִי יוֹצֵא בְּתוֹךְ מִצְרַיִם וּמֵת כָּל בְּכוֹר”
“So says Hashem: At midnight I will go out within Mitzrayim, and every firstborn shall die.”
This line should stop us.
Why within Mitzrayim, בְּתוֹךְ מִצְרַיִם b’toch Mitzrayim?
Mitzrayim was not a neutral place.
It was saturated with גִּלּוּלִים, idols, with spiritual density and טֻמְאָה, tumah.
Moshe himself teaches us this. He says:
“כְּצֵאתִי אֶת הָעִיר” — “When I go outside the city,”
then I can spread my hands to Hashem.
חוּץ, chutz, outside was necessary for tefillah, because inside the city was overwhelmed with idols.
So how can this be?
How, specifically in מַכַּת בְּכוֹרוֹת, makat bechorot, the Plague of the Firstborn, does the Shechinah descend inside Mitzrayim, the very place Moshe could not pray?
This question is not technical. It is deeply personal.
Because Netivot Shalom is not only teaching us history. He is teaching us something about where Hashem is willing to go. The answer he gives is radical.
This moment, makat bechorot, was not carried out through intermediaries. Not through angels. Not through Moshe and Aharon.
אֲנִי ה’ בִּכְבוֹדִי וּבְעַצְמִי —
I, Hashem, in My glory
and My very Essence.
Why?
Because the darkness was too dense.
The tumah too thick.
Any messenger would be endangered.
So Hashem Himself entered. And this teaches us something very intimate.
There are places so constricted, so overwhelmed, so saturated with inner noise and confusion, that only Hashem can enter.
Not fixing.
Not correcting.
Not demanding.
Just Presence.
This is why Netivot Shalom calls this moment gilui Shechinah.
Not because of what was destroyed, but because of what was revealed.
Hashem’s willingness to descend into the deepest place, at כַּחֲצוֹת הַלַּיְלָה, chatzot halaylah, midnight, the שִׂיא הַחֹשֶׁךְ, si ha-choshech, the absolute peak of darkness.
And why would Hashem do this?
Because the first words Hashem sends to Paro are not a threat, but an identity statement:
“בְּנִי בְּכֹרִי יִשְׂרָאֵל”
“My firstborn child is Israel.”
This is the reason Hashem enters b’toch Mitzrayim.
Even when submerged in idols.
Even when surrounded by tumah.
Even at chatzot halaylah, the peak of darkness.
Hashem does not wait for purification in order to claim relationship.
The relationship is what initiates geulah.
If Hashem enters the deepest place because Israel is called My child, then discipline can never be read as rejection.
This is why the verse says:
“מוּסַר ה’ בְּנִי”
“The discipline of Hashem comes as ‘My child.’”
It is essential to say this clearly.
The foundation for everything that follows does not come from later mussar language alone.
It is embedded directly in Parashat Bo itself.
The Torah does not merely describe a punishment.
It emphasizes movement:
“אֲנִי יוֹצֵא בְּתוֹךְ מִצְרַיִם”
“I Myself go out within Mitzrayim.”
This is unprecedented!
Throughout the Torah, when a place is saturated with gilulim and tumah, Divine revelation withdraws.
Moshe himself teaches this when he says “כְּצֵאתִי אֶת הָעִיר” — prayer happens outside.
Yet here, precisely at makat bechorot, Hashem does the opposite.
Netivot Shalom understands this as the deepest expression of gilui Shechinah:
not revelation above the darkness,
but revelation inside it.
Why?
Because Parashat Bo is also the place where Hashem defines the relationship in its most essential form: “בְּנִי בְּכֹרִי יִשְׂרָאֵל.”
A Melech does not send messengers when his child is trapped in the deepest place.
He descends himself.
This is why ani Hashem b’kevodi u’v’atzmi appears here and nowhere else.
Not at kriyat Yam Suf.
Not at Har Sinai.
Only here.
Because this is not about power.
It is about relationship.
Israel is not redeemed because they are worthy.
They are redeemed because they are ben Melech.
And once that is true, everything else follows.
Discipline that emerges from this place can never mean rejection.
Guidance that comes from this place can never mean abandonment.
Correction that emerges from this place can never require self-erasure.
This is the hidden architecture behind the verse:
“מוּסַר ה’ בְּנִי אַל תִּמְאָס.”
The Torah is not warning against arrogance.
It is warning against forgetting the relationship that made Yetziat Mitzrayim possible in the first place.
Because when a Yehudi forgets that Hashem enters b’toch Mitzrayim for His child,
the danger is not sin.
The danger is turning weariness into self-rejection.
אַל תִּמְאָס.
Do not reject yourself.
This is not a command to suppress humility.
It is a warning against self-collapse.
The shoresh מָאַס describes a process.
1. First weariness.
2. Then aversion.
3. Then rejection.
The Torah is not speaking to arrogance here.
It is speaking to exhaustion.
אַל תִּמְאָס means:
do not grow tired of yourself.
Do not let effort turn into disgust.
Do not turn fatigue inward and make yourself the problem.
Because while a ben / bat Melech may grow weary,
it is not fitting for a ben / bat Melech
to become the object of rejection,
שֶׁיִּמְאַס עַצְמוֹ,
to become disgusted with herself,
to become weary of herself to the point of rejection.
This is the subtle danger the Torah is guarding against.
When the work feels long.
When patterns repeat.
When triggers are persistent.
When growth feels slow.
The impulse is to say, “I’m done.”
I’ve tried so hard to work on myself.
I’ve read all the books, learned all the Torah I can, done the retreats, the elevation tools, the practices…
But that moment is not a failure of discipline.
It is a loss of Daat.
True mussar does not strip dignity.
It restores zikaron, remembrance.
You are not being asked to erase yourself in order to grow.
You are being asked to stay present with yourself.
To breathe.
This is our practice.
This is why Netivot Shalom anchors this entire teaching in gilui Shechinah.
Hashem does not enter Mitzrayim to destroy.
He enters to be present.
And if Hashem does not abandon His child in the darkest place,
then a ben or bat Melech must not abandon herself when she is tired.
Discipline does not mean becoming someone else.
It means remembering who you are.
Therefore it is written:
“לְמַעַן תִּזְכֹּר אֶת יוֹם צֵאתְךָ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם כֹּל יְמֵי חַיֶּיךָ”
“So that you shall remember the day you went out of the land of Mitzrayim all the days of your life.”
This remembering is not optional, and it is not nostalgic.
It is daily, embodied, and necessary.
We are obligated to remember Yetziat Mitzrayim every day — morning and evening — not only in times of illumination, but also in constriction, difficulty, and at the peak of darkness, שִׂיא הַחֹשֶׁךְ.
For this remembrance is not historical memory.
It is the remembrance of gilui Shechinah — that even at chatzot halaylah, and even b’toch Mitzrayim, Hashem descends to be with His people.
When we hold clear emunah — lived, embodied knowing — that Hashem is with us in every state, that the Melech ha-Gadol stands over me and sees my deeds, this itself is geulah.
This is the true Daat:
remembering that I am a bat Melech,
never abandoned,
that even in descent there is closeness.
This is why the greatest danger is not avaira, but the fall of Daat.
For when Daat is present, there is no place for despair.
And therefore, when Hashem descends into the deepest place to declare:
You are My people.
You are My child.
You are a ben Melech.
— the work that follows is not self-rejection, but remembrance.
The root מ־א־ס in Pnimius Torah
אַל תִּמְאָס
Bitul Without Violence
The phrase אַל תִּמְאָס is short, sharp, and layered.
It carries an entire inner path in just a few words.
“מוּסַר ה’ בְּנִי אַל תִּמְאָס
וְאַל תָּקֹץ בְּתוֹכַחְתּוֹ.”
Mishlei (3:11)
“The discipline of Hashem, My child, do not reject,
and do not grow weary of His guidance.”
Already here, the Torah pairs two dangers:
מָאַס — rejection, despising
קּוֹץ — weariness, fatigue, impatience
Pnimius Torah teaches that these are not separate states.
They are stages of one inner movement.
Simple translation
“Do not despise — let the ego despise itself.”
But this is not permission for self-negation.
It is a refinement of where rejection is allowed to land.
Deeper meaning (Pnimit)
אַל תִּמְאָס — Do not fall into self-rejection, disgust, or harsh judgment.
This is a warning not to attack the self.
Not to collapse inward.
Not to turn struggle into self-erasure.
שֶׁיִּמְאַס עַצְמוֹ — Let the false sense of self-importance, the ego, lose its grip on its own.
Not through force.
Not through shame.
But through clarity.
This reading appears explicitly in Netivot Shalom, who emphasizes that the word b’ni defines the relational context of the discipline.
You are addressed as a child, a ben Melech.
And therefore:
“אֵין זֶה מַתְאִים לְבֶן מֶלֶךְ שֶׁיִּמְאַס עַצְמוֹ.”
It is not fitting for a ben Melech to reject himself.
This is a teaching about bitul without violence.
The Baal Shem Tov and his students return to this principle repeatedly:
anything that comes through force belongs to the side of din, not emet.
True bitul does not come from breaking the self.
It comes from clarity that dissolves falsehood.
So the Torah is careful:
Not:
crush yourself
shame the self
“break” the ego by force
But instead:
let false selfhood fall away when truth is seen
let ego dissolve from lack of fuel, not from attack
This is consistent with the teaching in Tanya that the ego does not need to be killed — it needs to be seen through.
In somatic language, it means… Do not tighten against yourself.
Soften — and what is inauthentic will release itself.
Force strengthens the false self.
Presence starves it.
True humility comes from clarity, not self-contempt.
When presence enters, the ego no longer needs to be fought — it simply loosens.
אַל תִּמְאָס — Don’t despise. Don’t reject yourself.
שֶׁיִּמְאַס עַצְמוֹ — Let the ego lose its importance on its own.
Don’t attack yourself.
When there is truth and humility, the ego falls away by itself.
The root מ־א־ס in Pnimius Torah
The Hebrew root מאס holds 2 closely related meanings:
1. to despise / reject
2. to grow weary of / be fed up with
These are one process, not two definitions.
Disgust is what happens after prolonged weariness.
When something exhausts us long enough,
it stops attracting us.
We no longer fight it —
we simply lose interest.
So שֶׁיִּמְאַס עַצְמוֹ does not mean:
attack the ego
reject the self
It means:
let the ego run out of energy
let it bore itself
let it exhaust its own momentum
This aligns with the teaching of histalkut ha-koach — the withdrawal of energy …
Don’t turn your exhaustion into self-rejection.
Let the ego wear itself out on its own.
Or even simpler:
Don’t hate yourself.
Let the false self get tired and fall away naturally.
The inner connection
In Hebrew, the root מאס holds one inner motion with two expressions:
weariness
disgust
Disgust is what happens when weariness turns inward.
The Torah interrupts that turn.
אַל תִּמְאָס — don’t aim the weariness at your essence.
שֶׁיִּמְאַס עַצְמוֹ — let the false self grow tired instead.
True bitul comes from the exhaustion of illusion,
not the disgust of being.
This is why the phrase is paired with b’ni — My child.
Because a ben / bat Melech may grow tired,
but may not turn that tiredness into self-rejection.
KAVANA אַל תִּמְאָס
Ribbono shel Olam,
do not let my tiredness turn into self-rejection.
Let what is not true in me
lose its urgency on its own.
May false effort grow weary,
and may my essence remain untouched.
Let bitul come through clarity,
not force.
* * *
Notice where effort is still trying.
Do nothing to stop it.
Let the body feel
how exhausting it is
to hold an identity too tightly.
Stay present.
Breathe.
Allow the tension to tire itself out.
When the grip grows tired,
rest appears.
A Conversation:
Meeting “Disgust”
You (Self): I notice you’re here, Disgust.
I’m not trying to get rid of you.
Disgust: I’m tired. I’m sick of this pattern.
You: Thank you for telling me.
Are you protecting me from something?
Disgust: Yes.
If I make things feel unbearable,
maybe you’ll finally stop.
You: So you’re not here to punish me.
You’re here because something has been exhausting.
Disgust: Exactly.
I don’t want to hate you.
I just want this false effort to end.
You: You don’t need to turn inward.
You don’t need to reject the self.
You can rest.
Disgust: If I rest… will the pretending stop?
You: Yes.
We’re not feeding it anymore.
You don’t have to push.
You don’t have to attack.
You can let the ego grow tired on its own.
Disgust: Then I don’t need to be so loud.
You: No.
Your job is done.
Stay nearby if you need to.
But you don’t have to burn anything down
to be heard.
(Pause. Breathe. Feel the softening.)
Somatic Integration
Notice where Disgust lives in the body.
Let it know:
You don’t have to harden me
to stop the false self.
On the exhale,
allow the effort
to tire itself out.
Meditation from Parashat Bo — Netivot Shalom
Gilui Shechinah at Chatzot: Returning to Daat
This meditation returns us to the exact place where the Netivot Shalom begins:
וּבְמִקְרָא גָּדוֹל זוֹ גִּלּוּי שְׁכִינָה
“With great awe — this was a revelation of the Shechinah.”
Settle into stillness.
There is nothing to accomplish here.
Nothing to repair.
This is a meditation of presence, not effort.
Let the body be as it is.
Bring to awareness tto
כַּחֲצוֹת הַלַּיְלָה
At midnight.
Not the beginning of night.
Not the softening toward dawn.
The center.
The deepest hour.
שִׂיא הַחֹשֶׁךְ — the peak of darkness.
Let the body feel what midnight is like internally.
Where things feel quiet but heavy.
Where nothing is moving yet nothing is resolved.
Do not change it.
B’toch Mitzrayim — Within Constriction
Now bring the phrase:
אֲנִי יוֹצֵא בְּתוֹךְ מִצְרַיִם
“I go out within Mitzrayim.”
Mitzrayim here is not geography.
It is constriction.
Pressure.
Narrowness.
Inner places where breath feels tight.
Let yourself notice:
Where is Mitzrayim alive in me right now?
No fixing.
No naming stories.
Just noticing where.
Ani Hashem — No Intermediaries
Hear this clearly:
This moment is not carried by effort.
Not by angels.
Not by messengers.
אֲנִי ה’ בִּכְבוֹדִי וּבְעַצְמִי
Hashem enters as is.
Let that land in the body.
Notice how the system responds
when there is no demand placed on you
to change before Presence arrives.
Stay here for a few breaths.
Gilui Shechinah — Presence Without Correction
Gilui Shechinah does not mean uplift.
It means nearness.
It means Presence that does not wait
for purity
for readiness
for coherence.
Feel what it is like
to be accompanied
inside the constriction.
This is not comfort.
It is companionship.
B’ni Bechori / Identity Remembered
Now let the Torah’s declaration arise:
בְּנִי בְּכֹרִי יִשְׂרָאֵל
“My firstborn child.”
Let this be said to you.
Not as praise.
As fact.
Notice what happens in the body
when identity is restored
without effort.
This is Daat returning.
אַל תִּמְאָס — The Warning Heard Gently
Now bring the verse from Mishlei:
מוּסַר ה’ בְּנִי אַל תִּמְאָס
Let it be spoken softly.
This is not a command to push.
It is a warning spoken with closeness.
Feel the difference between:
discipline that tightens
and guidance that restores relationship
Stay with the felt sense.
Letting the False Self Grow Tired
If there is effort still trying —
to manage
to improve
to prove —
do nothing about it.
Let the body feel
how tiring that effort is.
This is שֶׁיִּמְאַס עַצְמוֹ.
Not rejection.
Not attack.
Just allowing what is false
to lose momentum.
Returning to Daat
Now sense:
I am not abandoned here.
I am not rejected here.
I am not required to be different.
Even at chatzot.
Even b’toch Mitzrayim.
This remembering is geulah.
Let the breath move once more.
Closing
When you are ready, gently return.
Carry with you this knowing:
Gilui Shechinah happens
not when we escape darkness,
but when Presence enters it.
FULL TRANSLATION:
Netivot Shalom – Parashat Bo
וּבְמִקְרָא גָּדוֹל זוֹ גִּלּוּי שְׁכִינָה
“And with great awe, this was a revelation of the Divine Presence.”
Moshe said:
“כֹּה אָמַר ה’ כַּחֲצוֹת הַלַּיְלָה אֲנִי יוֹצֵא בְּתוֹךְ מִצְרַיִם וּמֵת כָּל בְּכוֹר”
“So says Hashem: At midnight I will go out within Mitzrayim, and every firstborn shall die.”
This requires explanation. Why did Hashem say “I will go out within Mitzrayim”
(בְּתוֹךְ מִצְרַיִם – b’toch Mitzrayim)?
Mitzrayim was filled with abominations / idols
(גִּלּוּלִים – gilulim), as it is written that Moshe said:
“When I go outside the city”
(כְּצֵאתִי אֶת הָעִיר – k’tzeiti et ha’ir),
“I will spread my hands to Hashem.”
Our Sages taught that Moshe did not pray within the city because it was filled with gilulim. How then, in makat bechorot (מַכַּת בְּכוֹרוֹת – Plague of the Firstborn), did the Shechinah (שְׁכִינָה – Divine Presence) descend within Mitzrayim?
This difficulty is sharpened by the emphasis on within. For later it is written:
“Hashem spoke to Moshe and Aharon in the land of Mitzrayim,” and our Sages explained that this was outside the city
(חוּץ לַכְּרָךְ – chutz la’krach),
not within the city, which was full of gilulim. Yet here it is emphasized within Mitzrayim. How could the Shechinah descend into a place filled with gilulim and tumah (טֻמְאָה – ritual impurity)?
The explanation is as follows. It is brought in Likutei Torah from the Arizal that what took place in makat bechorot, “with great awe,” was gilui Shechinah —
“אֲנִי ה’ בִּכְבוֹדִי וּבְעַצְמִי”
(ani Hashem b’kevodi u’v’atzmi).
For the tumah in Mitzrayim was extremely severe, and it was impossible to send there an angel or seraph, lest the tumah seize them. For this reason, even through Moshe and Aharon this could not occur. Therefore it had to be only Hashem Himself —
ani Hashem b’kevodi u’v’atzmi.
But why was this necessary only for makat bechorot, whereas the first nine makot (מַכּוֹת – plagues) were carried out through Moshe and Aharon?
The explanation is that the ten makot
(עֶשֶׂר מַכּוֹת – eser makot) corresponded to the ten sefirot of kelipah
(עֶשֶׂר סְפִירוֹת דִּקְלִיפָּה – eser sefirot d’kelipah).
Makat bechorot corresponded to Keter d’kelipah
(כֶּתֶר דִּקְלִיפָּה – keter d’kelipah), as hinted in the verse:
“וּמֵת כָּל בְּכוֹר… מִבְּכוֹר פַּרְעֹה הַיֹּשֵׁב עַל כִּסְאוֹ”
“Every firstborn shall die… from the firstborn of Paro who sits upon his throne.”
This represents the most entrenched and difficult kelipah.
Therefore, this maka alone could not be carried out by angels, seraphim, or even Moshe and Aharon, lest they become attached to the kelipah. It had to be only ani Hashem b’kevodi u’v’atzmi.
With this we understand why all ten makot were necessary. Hakadosh Baruch Hu could have struck Mitzrayim immediately with makat bechorot, and they would have expelled Israel at once. Rather, this follows what is written in Mesillat Yesharim regarding kedushah (קְדוּשָּׁה – holiness): a very lofty level in which all actions are solely for Hashem.
A human being cannot attain this level on his own, but only the level of taharah (טָהֳרָה – purity) —
פְּרִישׁוּת מִן הָרַע וְהַחוֹמֶר
(separation from evil and materiality).
The path to kedushah is:
“תְּחִלָּתוֹ הִשְׁתַּדְּלוּת וְסוֹפוֹ מַתָּנָה”
(its beginning is effort and its end is a gift).
When a person strives לְהִתְקַדֵּשׁ – l’hitkadesh (to sanctify himself), Hashem grants him kedushah as a matanah (מַתָּנָה – gift).
So too here: Moshe and Aharon performed the human effort through the first nine makot, and only afterward came the matanah — gilui Shechinah in makat bechorot.
This level of gilui Shechinah is not found anywhere else — not at kriyat Yam Suf (קְרִיעַת יַם סוּף – Splitting of the Sea), where it is said:
“רָאֲתָה שִׁפְחָה עַל הַיָּם מַה שֶּׁלֹּא רָאָה יְחֶזְקֵאל הַנָּבִיא”,
nor at Har Sinai (הַר סִינַי), when all seven heavens
(שִׁבְעָה רְקִיעִים – shivah reki’im) were opened.
Only here, at yetziat Mitzrayim (יְצִיאַת מִצְרַיִם – Exodus from Egypt), was there gilui Shechinah.
This is like a Melech / King (מֶלֶךְ) whose son falls into a pit and is about to drown. When no one else can save him, the Melech himself
(הַמֶּלֶךְ בְּעַצְמוֹ – haMelech b’atzmo) descends —
בְּכָל לְבוּשֵׁי הַמַּלְכוּת
(in full royal garments) —
even לְעִמְקֵי הַבּוֹר
(into the depths of the pit),
to save his son.
So too at yetziat Mitzrayim, when Israel was immersed in the forty-nine gates of tumah
(מ״ט שַׁעֲרֵי טֻמְאָה – mem-tet sha’arei tumah) and stood at the brink of the fiftieth gate
(שַׁעַר הַנּוּ״ן – sha’ar ha-nun), Hashem said:
“כַּחֲצוֹת הַלַּיְלָה אֲנִי יוֹצֵא בְּתוֹךְ מִצְרַיִם.”
Chatzot halaylah (חֲצוֹת הַלַּיְלָה – midnight) is the absolute peak of darkness
(שִׂיא הַחֹשֶׁךְ – si ha-choshech).
Yet precisely there, Hashem descended b’toch Mitzrayim, to save His people.
Thus the first message sent to Paro was:
“בְּנִי בְּכֹרִי יִשְׂרָאֵל”
— “My firstborn son is Israel.”
Even in the depths of tumah, Israel is still called the King’s child.
In light of this, we can understand another foundational principle:
Exile (גָּלוּת – galut) is the withdrawal of Daat
(הִסְתַּלְּקוּת הַדַּעַת – histalkut ha-Daat),
and redemption (גְּאוּלָּה – geulah) is the illumination of Daat
(הֶאָרַת הַדַּעַת – ha’arat ha-Daat),
as it is written:
“וְיָדַעְתָּ אֶת ה’”
— “and you shall know Hashem.”
For Daat is a matter of bonding and attachment — deveikut,
as in the verse:
“וְהָאָדָם יָדַע אֶת חַוָּה”
— “And Adam knew Chavah.”
The withdrawal of Daat occurs when a Yehudi forgets the greatness of Hashem’s love for him — that he is a ben Melech (בֶּן מֶלֶךְ). Concerning this it was taught:
“אֵין אָדָם עוֹבֵר עֲבֵירָה אֶלָּא אִם כֵּן נִכְנְסָה בּוֹ רוּחַ שְׁטוּת”
— “A person does not sin unless a spirit of folly enters him.”
When a Yehudi loses awareness that he is a ben Melech and that Hashem is with him, this is the loss of Daat. True Daat is when a Yehudi believes and knows that Hashem loves him and is attached to him in every state in which he finds himself.
When Hashem assists a Yehudi and grants him true Daat — the awareness that he is a ben Melech and chelek Eloka mima’al — this itself is geulah.
This is what was taught on the verse:
“מוּסַר ה’ בְּנִי אַל תִּמְאָס”
— “The discipline of Hashem, My child, do not despise.”
, דמוסרו של הקב"ה ליהודי
הוא, בני, הרי בני אתה בן המלך,
אל תמאס
אין זה מתאים לבן המלך שימאס עצמו
For the discipline of Hashem comes to a Yehudi as “My child.”
You are a ben Melech.
אַל תִּמְאָס —
do not grow tired of yourself (turn that weariness into disgust),
for it is not fitting for a ben Melech
to make himself the object of rejection / שימאס עצמו
Thus too can we understand: “The discipline of Hashem, My child” — you are beloved to Me as a child, as it is written:
“בְּנִי בְּכֹרִי יִשְׂרָאֵל”
— “My firstborn son is Israel.”
How, then, could a Yehudi act against His will? For sin only comes when Daat is lost — when one forgets the greatness of Hashem’s love and attachment. There is no greater ruach shtut (רוּחַ שְׁטוּת – spirit of folly) than this.
The galut of Mitzrayim was precisely this loss of Daat — forgetting Hashem’s love.
The geulah was the return of Daat, brought about through gilui Shechinah — the revelation of the depth of love and attachment between Hashem and Israel.
This Daat itself was their redemption.
As it is written:
“וְיָדְעוּ מִצְרַיִם כִּי אֲנִי ה’”
— “And Mitzrayim shall know that I am Hashem.”
Even those Yehudim who were in the lowest possible state — called “Mitzrayim” — came to know Hashem.
Therefore it is written:
“לְמַעַן תִּזְכֹּר אֶת יוֹם צֵאתְךָ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם כֹּל יְמֵי חַיֶּיךָ”
— “So that you shall remember the day you went out of the land of Mitzrayim all the days of your life.”
For a Yehudi is obligated to remember Yetziat Mitzrayim every day — in the morning and in the evening — not only in times of illumination, but also in times of constriction, in moments of difficulty, and in the peak of darkness
(שִׂיא הַחֹשֶׁךְ – si ha-choshech).
For the remembrance of Yetziat Mitzrayim is not merely historical memory.
It is the remembrance of gilui Shechinah — that even כַּחֲצוֹת הַלַּיְלָה (at midnight), and even בְּתוֹךְ מִצְרַיִם (within Mitzrayim), Hashem descends to be with His people.
When a Yehudi holds clear emunah — that Hashem is with him in every state, that the Melech ha-Gadol stands over him and sees his deeds — this itself is geulah.
This is the true Daat:
that a person remembers he is a ben Melech,
that he is never abandoned,
that even in descent there is closeness.
This is why the greatest danger is not sin itself, but the fall of Daat — forgetting one’s identity as a ben Melech. For when Daat is present, there is no place for despair.
This was the counsel of the yetzer hara — to cause a person to fall in spirit, to forget who he is. As it is taught regarding Yosef, when it says:
“וַתִּתְפְּשֵׂהוּ בְּבִגְדוֹ” —
b’vigdo can be read as betrayal — the claim that one has already fallen, already betrayed, already lost one’s place.
And Yosef’s response was:
“אֵין גָּדוֹל בַּבַּיִת הַזֶּה מִמֶּנִּי”
— “There is none greater in this house than I.”
Meaning: I am a chelek Eloka mima’al, a ben Melech — and therefore, “How could I do this great evil?”
This is the inner meaning of the command:
“לְמַעַן תִּזְכֹּר אֶת יוֹם צֵאתְךָ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם כֹּל יְמֵי חַיֶּיךָ” —
that a Yehudi must remember the gilui Shechinah of Hashem’s immense love that was revealed at Yetziat Mitzrayim.
For the greatest revelation of love was precisely כַּחֲצוֹת הַלַּיְלָה,
precisely בְּתוֹךְ מִצְרַיִם,
when Hashem descended into the deepest place to declare:
You are My people.
You are My child.
You are a ben Melech.