The storyline of our exodus from Egypt is a story about [והוצאתי, והצלתי, וגאלתי], which reflects Hashem’s complete control over nature, (as He demonstrated through all of His incredible miracles), and His kindness and love for the Jewish people (as He demonstrated when He performed many miracles on our behalf as He saved us from our enemies, held them accountable, and gave us great wealth as we left their land. It is also a story about [ולקחתי, והבאתי], which adds a dimension to the story that focuses on Hashem choosing us to be His nation, Hashem preparing us to receive the Torah, Hashem bringing His presence to dwell among us, and Hashem bringing us to land of Israel as He had promised.

The Or Hatzafun teaches us that there is another significant dimension to the story as well. It is important to focus on the spiritual development of the Jewish people in the land of Egypt.

At the time that the B’nei Yisroel went to Egypt, they were not yet worthy to be the nation of Hashem, to receive the Torah, to have Hashem’s presence dwell among them, and to be given the land of Israel. They needed to improve themselves in order to be worthy of these matters. The situation got worse with the fact that when the Jewish people did go down to Egypt they began to sin. As a result, they had more work to do in order to be worthy of their destined mission, and in the meantime, Hashem brought the slavery upon to hold them accountable for their sins and now they needed to both be worthy of being redeemed from their slavery and to be worthy of being given their destined mission.

The story of their spiritual journey can be used as a guide for all of us in our personal and spiritual development; to guide us in general, and specifically in relation to our preparing ourselves to properly fulfill our mission as Hashem’s chosen nation, to be worthy of redemption from our current exile, and to be worthy of Hashem dwelling among us.

The Or Hatzafun and Reb Moshe teach us that part of the mitzva of talking about the story of Yetzias Mitzraim is for us to learn from the spiritual growth that we had in Egypt and for us to follow in their footsteps as well with our own spiritual growth.

In the introduction to the Sefer Chofetz Chaim, it explains that the reason that Hashem gave us the Torah and the mitzvos and that He brought us into the land of Israel was to give us the opportunity to develop ourselves to become holy people, so that we will be worthy of receiving the greatest benefits in this world and in the next world.

At the time that Hashem gave them the Torah, built the Mishkan, and brought the B’nei Yisroel into Israel they were on the spiritual level to be worthy for those opportunities, however when Hashem exiled us from our land and took away the Beis Hamikdash it was a sign that we weren’t spiritually ready for them. The fact that close to 2,000 years later we are still in Exile and we still don’t have the Beis Hamikdash is an indication that for all of those years we have remained unworthy of these great opportunities and unfortunately there is an “iron curtain “ between us and Hashem.

However, the same way that when the B’nei Yisroel entered Egypt they weren’t worthy yet but they developed themselves to become worthy, we can do that as well.

For us to learn from the Jewish people’s experiences, we need to know the details about their story. We need to know what their sins were (to know which areas that they needed to improve), and we need to know how they improved them. When we know the details of their journey, we will be able to learn many important lessons from it and we can apply it to ourselves in a manner that can help us to improve ourselves as well and hopefully to get to the point where we are worthy for redemption from our exile and of the return of the Shechina to our midst.

The Spiritual Level that Was Necessary for Matan Torah

The Spiritual Limitations of the Jewish People in Egypt.

The gemara in Nedarim (32a) tells us that despite the fact that Avraham Avinu loved Hashem and he was nearly perfect in his Avodas Hashem (and he was thereby chosen to be the father of Hashem’s chosen nation, he had one area that he had not fully perfected (his faith and trust in Hashem), and as a result Hashem decreed that his descendants will be in slavery; which will serve as a means of correcting this limitation (of Avraham’s lack of perfect faith and trust in Him).

The Chofetz Chaim quotes the Rambam (in De’os) who says that we all have a powerful desire to fit in with the people who surround us, and as a result, we try to behave like them so that we will be accepted and respected by them. He says that when we got to Egypt, we had the same drive and as a result we started to change our ways. The Medrash (in the beginning of Sefer Shemos) tells us that we stopped doing the bris mila for our children as a means of trying to fit in with the Egyptians.

The Sforno (beginning of Sefer Shemos) tells us that as time went on, we had a significant decline in our spirituality and we began to sin more and more. The Medrash tells us that the Egyptian culture was steeped in idol worship, and their influence crept into the Jewish community as well. The Zohar tells us that we reached the 49th level of spiritual impurity during our days in Egypt.

After we experienced this extreme spiritual decline, we were not prepared for our mission, to say “נעשה ונשמע”, to accept the Torah with our full hearts and to be worthy of Hashem’s presence to be in our midst. We were not even worthy of being redeemed at that time.

When Moshe Rabbeinu killed the Egyptian man to protect his Jewish brother, he found out that there were Jewish people who were publicizing the story in a manner that put Moshe’s life in danger. Rashi tells us that when Moshe recognized that we were speaking Lashon Hara about each other, he said that he now had a better understanding of the reason that we were being held accountable by Hashem to such a great extent. It seems that the level of moral decay that is necessary for us to be hurting each other with our words is so significant that it justifies an extreme measure of accountability.

Hashem Created the שיעבוד as an Opportunity for Our Growth – to Enable Us to be Worthy of Redemption and to Prepare us for our Mission of Receiving the Torah and Having Hashem Live Among Us.

The Ramban teaches us (Parshas Vayeira) that when Hashem gives us a test it is not to test us. Hashem doesn’t need to test us to know whether we would pass it or not. Rather, Hashem created us in a manner in which we grow from our commitment to doing the right thing even when it is difficult to do so. Therefore, Hashem puts us into situations that are challenging and gives us the opportunity to overcome the challenges and to become better people through the process.

The Sha’arei Teshuva (4,23) explains that one of the reasons that Hashem brings difficulties in our lives to cleanse us from our sins, and he says that it is especially beneficial for us when we accept the hardships with faith and trust in Hashem. When we have faith and trust in Hashem, we know that everything that Hashem does is for our best interest, and even when we don’t see the benefits, we know that it’s for the best.

When Moshe Rabbeinu was sent to Pharoh to tell him that Hashem commanded him to let us leave, Pharoh responded by making the work much more difficult for us. Moshe couldn’t understand why Hashem was making us work harder right after Hashem told us that He would redeem us. Rabbeinu Bachaya (at the end of Parshas Shemos) explains that the reason that Hashem caused Pharaoh to make the work harder for us was to give us the opportunity to express our faith and trust in Hashem, that we know that He has our best interest in mind, even in the most difficult situations. Rabbeinu Bachaya says that the Jewish people stepped up the challenge and they were able to recognize that the extra work must be for the best and they were able to grow from that experience.

The Torah tells us (Devarim 26,7) that toward the end of our stay in Egypt, we called out to Hashem and that was when Hashem answered. The Rishonim explain that throughout all of the years of our slavery we were obviously calling out to Hashem to ask for His help. However, at this point their calling out was different. The Rashbatz and the Sforno explain that at this point we had a clearer recognition of the fact that we should place our trust in Hashem and our trust in Hashem was with our full heart. Rabbeinu Bachaya and the Zevach Pesach explain that we had a clear recognition that we needed to daven and to do teshuva. The adversity of the slavery had led to our clear recognition that we can only rely on Hashem and that we need to change our ways and do teshuva.

When we prayed to Hashem, we told Hashem that we want to do teshuva and we want to serve Him, and we are asking for Him to help us serve Him by making our lives easier and more comfortable. When we daven with this mindset we are more likely to be zoche to be saved by Hashem.

In a similar manner, the Torah teaches us (Devarim 4,30) that when we face adversity we should do teshuva. We should recognize that we are moving away from Hashem and we should return to Hashem. The Sha’are Teshuva teaches us that when the pasuk tells us that we should return until Hashem, it means that we can literally be as close to Hashem as humanly possible. The adversity that we experience can change the spiritual course of our lives to the extent that it can bring us from headed downhill spiritually to being on top of the spiritual mountain!

As we left Egypt and made our way to the Yam Suf, our challenges continued. We found ourselves surrounded, we had the sea on one side and we had the powerful Egyptian army on the other side and we felt trapped. The Torah says that we called out to Hashem at that time. Rabbeinu Bachaya explains that our calling out was in a heartfelt prayer to Hashem to save us. We had reached a high level of trust in Hashem while we were still in Egypt, but at the point when we felt completely trapped and hopeless without Hashem it brought us to a higher level of recognition of how much that we truly needed Hashem.

Growth Through the Mitzvos

It is brought down in the Mechilta and in the Haggada as well that when Hashem had determined that it was time for us to be redeemed, there was a significant hurdle that we needed to overcome. We didn’t have the merit of the mitzvos that we needed in order to be worthy of being saved. To rectify this matter, Hashem gave us the mitzvos of bris mila and korban Pesach.

These mitzvos were certainly “statement mitzvos”. One of our initial challenges that we faced was related to the bris mila, where the Medrash had told us that we avoided doing the bris because we wanted to fit in with the Egyptians. The desire to fit in was a significant part of our spiritual decline. When we did the bris, we were making the opposite statement. We are ready to be different. We are ready to do the will of Hashem even when it means that we are different than our neighbors!

Similarly, the mitzvah of the korban Pesach was a mitzva where we made a big “statement through our performance of the mitzva. The Egyptians worshiped sheep as a God of theirs. Hashem told us to take this sheep and tie it to our bed post for four days and to slaughter it and eat it. This would enrage the Egyptians and it would cause them to want to kill us. When we listened to Hashem it reflected the fact that we had come to trust that Hashem will protect us and that we didn’t have to be concerned that the Egyptians would be able to cause us any harm. This experience brought out our true faith and trust in Hashem and through this experience we were able to be worthy of being redeemed.

Hashem knew that we were ready to successfully overcome these challenges and that we would become more committed to our service of Hashem through our actively going through these experiences and therefore Hashem gave us these opportunities for growth. The fact that throughout our years in Egypt we had been drawn toward idol worship made it that we needed to go through the process of actively making the clear statement that we don’t believe in the Egyptian idols. We are ready to tell that to the world in an open and clear manner. Throughout our years in Egypt we were not fully putting our trust in Hashem that He would save us. However as we openly took the Egyptians sheep God’s and prepared to slaughter them we were actively expressing a deep trust in Hashem that He would save us from the wrath of the Egyptians. This enabled us to actualize our trust in Hashem and to become worthy of being redeemed.

Growth Through the Miracles

The Or Hatzafun (in his piece Avdus and Cheirus) tells us that each of the miracles that we witnessed gave us a new opportunity to focus on the fact that Hashem is in complete control of the world and that nature is merely the tool that Hashem uses to run the world, but Hashem manipulates nature at His will. This gave us the opportunity to increase our faith and trust in Hashem, and through that increased level of faith and trust in Hashem we became more worthy of redemption.

This process of growth continued even after the Jewish people left Egypt. The Torah tells us that when we saw the splitting of the sea, it enabled us to have a higher level of belief in Hashem than we had previously.

Our Job

The Orchos Chaim says that the same way that only a percentage of us had developed the faith and commitment to Hashem that caused them to be worthy of being redeemed from Egypt, so too in our days it’s very possible that many people haven’t yet developed enough faith and dedication to Hashem to be worthy of being redeemed. To be redeemed it is not good enough to merely not be actively antagonistic toward Hashem or toward His Torah. We need to be sincerely motivated and dedicated to serve Hashem and to fulfill His mitzvos properly for us to be worthy of being redeemed and to have Hashem’s presence back in our midst.

As the Chofetz Chaim says, we need to break down the spiritual iron curtain that is a barrier between us and our creator. The lack of connection and commitment toward Hashem and His mitzvos (both those that are between man and Hashem and those that are between man and his friend).

We should all be blessed to develop our faith and trust in Hashem and we should be blessed to be motivated to commit ourselves to serve Him with all of our heart, all of our soul, and all of our resources. We should also be blessed to see the fulfillment of all of the promises that Hashem made to our forefathers.