Parshas Shemos
1. The second of the five books of the Torah is called by the name Shemos. Seemingly, this is because of its beginning: "ואלה שמות בני ישראל הבאים מצרימה" ("And these are the names of the Children of Israel who came to Egypt"). However, since the entire book is called by this name, we must say that the name expresses the general content of the book1, and not merely its beginning.
At the beginning of the first parsha of the book of Shemos, the names of the Children of Israel who came to Egypt are enumerated. The well-known question on this is: The names were already enumerated, and in even greater detail, in Parshas Vayigash; why, then, does the Torah need to enumerate them again in Parshas Shemos? In Parshas Vayigash, too, we need to understand: The names of the sons of Yaakov already appear in Parshas Vayeitzei and in Parshas Vayishlach, so it would have been enough had the Torah said briefly in Parshas Vayigash that Yaakov and his children came to Egypt, and we would already have known who they were. True, we would not have known the names of Yaakov's grandchildren, but why does the Torah need to count them out in detail?
The Midrash states2 that the Torah enumerates the names in order to hint that the entire two hundred and ten years of the Egyptian exile could not cause the Jews to change their names: "לא שינו את שמם" ("They did not change their names"). The same names that they had when they came to Egypt remained with them also when they went out from there. Therefore the Torah emphasizes their names as they came to Egypt, in order to show that these are indeed the very same names by which the Children of Israel are called in the later parshiyos, at the Exodus from Egypt.
This, however, is seemingly not a sufficient explanation of why the Torah should relate which names the Jews had at the time of their descent to Egypt, "Reuven, Shimon," and so on. According to the Midrash, all that matters is to know that they did not change their names. From the fact that the Torah says "And these are the names of the Children of Israel," and relates that their names were "Reuven, Shimon, etc.," it is understood that in the enumeration of the individual names, too, there is a particular intent, beyond the knowledge "that they did not change their names" — for in the Torah everything is precise.
2. The Midrash also states3 on the verse "And these are the names": "שקולים הן ישראל כצבא השמים, נאמר כאן שמות ונאמר בכוכבים שמות, שנאמר (תהלים קמז) מונה מספר לכוכבים לכולם שמות יקרא. אף הקב"ה כשירדו ישראל למצרים מנה מספרם כמה היו, ולפי שהם משולים לכוכבים קרא שמות לכולם, הדא הוא דכתיב ואלה שמות בני ישראל וגו'" ("Israel is equivalent to the host of heaven. Here it says 'names,' and regarding the stars it says 'names,' as it is said (Tehillim 147), 'He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by names.' So too, when Israel went down to Egypt, the Holy One, blessed be He, counted their number, how many they were; and because they are likened to the stars, He called them all by names. This is what is written: 'And these are the names of the Children of Israel,' etc."). That is: Jews are compared to the host of heaven. Just as G‑d counts the stars and calls them all by names, so too He counted the Jews when they went down to Egypt and called them all by names.
This means that G‑d called them here by names in order to express their importance. When Jews go into exile, they could, G‑d forbid, become lost there. Therefore G‑d counts them and calls them by names, so that also in exile they should not become nullified, for "דבר שבמנין לא בטל" ("a thing that is counted is not nullified")4; and all the more so is a thing that is called by a name not forgotten, for that is of even greater importance than "a thing that is counted"5. This is like the law regarding shichechah (forgotten produce): When the owner forgets grain or fruit in the field, it is shichechah and belongs to the poor. But when he forgets a thing that is called by a particular name, as the wording of the Mishnah6 puts it, "כל זית שיש לו שם בשדה" ("any olive tree that has a name in the field"), it is not shichechah. This means that although, for the moment and outwardly, the owner did forget it, it is not like all other forgotten things, which become ownerless for the poor; because of its importance, the forgetting is not a true forgetting, and inwardly the owner never forgot it. So it is also with the exile. What outwardly looks like forgetting, G‑d forbid — "ותאמר ציון עזבני ה' וה' שכחני" ("And Zion said: G‑d has forsaken me, and the L‑rd has forgotten me")7 — since Jews are an important thing, of whom it is said "the Holy One, blessed be He, called them all by names," the Jews cannot become nullified or become ownerless, G‑d forbid, for G‑d never forgets them.
Therefore — although at first the Midrash compares the Jews to the host of heaven in general, which also includes the sun and the moon — the Midrash concludes that Jews are "likened to the stars." For within the host of heaven itself, the stars have an advantage over the sun and the moon. Regarding the sun and the moon it is said8: "וחפרה הלבנה ובושה החמה" ("The moon will be confounded and the sun will be ashamed"). But the stars endure forever, and so too do the Jews9.
As has been discussed several times10, the various interpretations of one verse are connected with one another. So it is also with the two Midrashim cited above: Through G‑d calling the Children of Israel by names, they became an important thing that is not nullified; and this itself gave them the strength (as stated in the second Midrash) "that they did not change their names" — that the Egyptian exile had no effect on them, and they went out from there with the same names with which they had come there.
3. There is another nuance11 in the verse "And these are the names, etc.," in which it is hinted that tzaddikim are "דומים לבוראם" ("similar to their Creator"). The Midrash says12: "הרשעים הן קודמין לשמן — גלית שמו, נבל שמו וכו', אבל הצדיקים שמן קודמין — ושמו קיש, ושמו שאול, ושמו ישי וכו', דומין לבוראם, שנאמר ושמי הוי' לא נודעתי להם" ("The wicked precede their name — 'Golyas was his name,' 'Naval was his name,' etc. (with the wicked, they themselves, Golyas and Naval, are mentioned before 'their name'). But with the tzaddikim, their name comes first — 'and his name was Kish,' 'and his name was Shaul,' 'and his name was Yishai,' etc. — similar to their Creator, as it is said, 'And My name, Havayeh, I did not make known to them'" (with tzaddikim their name comes first, similar to G‑d, regarding Whom it first says "And My name" and afterwards "Havayeh")). And this is also hinted in our verse: first it says "And these are the names," etc., and afterwards the tribes themselves, "Reuven, Shimon," etc.
This hint, too, is connected with the two interpretations of the Midrash cited above: The fact that Jews are "likened to the stars" and that "they did not change their names" comes from the fact that the Children of Israel, tzaddikim, are "similar to their Creator."
4. It is explained in many places in Chassidus that the G‑dly light that comes down to give life to the world and bring it into being is only the level of the "name" of G‑d, which is merely an illumination, a reflection, of Him. As the saying goes, "מלך שמו נקרא עליהם" ("A king, his name is called upon them"): only the name of the king is called upon his country. A name is something that does not touch the essence of the one who is called by it; rather, it exists so that another should be able to connect with him. But G‑d Himself is holy and separate, and created beings have no comparison to Him at all.
Because of the bond of Jewish souls with G‑d's Essence — for they are "חלק אלקה ממעל ממש" ("truly a part of G‑d above")13 (a part of G‑d Himself) — all the worlds, too, have no comparison to them, and no created beings have any grasp or comprehension of Jewish souls. And what is drawn into the body is only an illumination of the soul. For, as stated, tzaddikim — and by this is meant all Jews, as it is written14, "ועמך כולם צדיקים" ("And Your people are all tzaddikim") — are "similar to their Creator"; and just as only an illumination of the Creator is drawn into the world, so too only an illumination of the soul is drawn into the body15. For the body is not a vessel capable of receiving the essence of the soul. And this is the hint in the verse: "And these are the names of the Children of Israel who came to Egypt" — only the "names," an illumination of the souls of Israel, came to Egypt, into the limitations of this world in general and of exile in particular (Mitzrayim, Egypt, from the word meitzar, constraint and limitation); but the essence of the soul cannot come into exile.
And since exile has no relevance to the soul itself, it also gives a strength to the illumination of the soul, so that it should have the fortitude not to be affected by the concealments and hiddenness, and to remain whole even when it descends below and into exile.
5. Just as the essence of the soul, which is higher than descending into the body, gives strength to the illumination of the soul, so it is also the other way around: the service of the illumination of the soul, which comes below into the body, brings an elevation also to the essence of the soul. The purpose of the soul's descent below is, after all, for the sake of the ascent that the soul gains from the descent; and it is known16 that this ascent is not only in the illumination of the soul, but that also the essence of the soul as it is above is elevated and attains a level which, on its own (without the service of the illumination of the soul in the body), it could not have reached.
The reason that the illumination, the name of the soul, can bring an elevation also to the essence is that the name touches the essence, even though it is only an illumination. As we see, when someone is called by his name, he turns around with his entire essence. It is likewise well known that one of the ways to revive a person from a deep faint (a swoon, when the revealed powers of the soul are not functioning in the person) is to say into the ear of the one who has fainted the name by which he is called according to the Torah; in this way the essence of the soul is aroused, so that it should again give life and function in the body.
In this, too, the tzaddikim are "similar to their Creator": Through the service of Jews in the world — even though it is done in this world, where only an illumination of G‑dliness shines — there comes about a nachas ruach (gratification) for G‑d Himself, as our Sages say17: "נחת רוח לפני" ("It is a gratification before Me"). G‑d says: It is a gratification for Me Myself, the Essence, that Jews have done My will.
6. The service below in the body must be to refine the body and the animal soul, and each person's portion in the world. It is not only that one must not be affected by, and must not take into account, all the disturbances and concealments of the body and the animal soul, and must act with strength in the matters of the soul — studying Torah and fulfilling mitzvos — in which all Jews are equal. Rather, the service must also be to refine and transform the body and the animal soul and one's portion in the world, so that they become a vessel for G‑dliness — and in this, each person has his own kind of service, for he must work with his own body, his own animal soul and his own portion in the world.
Therefore the Torah emphasizes the individual names of the Children of Israel: "Reuven, Shimon, etc." The name of a Jew points to the form that comes about in the soul through its bond with the body. The soul itself has no name, for it has no form; and precisely because of its bond with its body it receives a form and a name18. And since one body is distinct from another, every Jew has a separate form, a separate name, which also alludes to the particular manner of service of each individual Jew.
And precisely through "the names of the Children of Israel" — through the service of each Jew individually to refine his body and animal soul and his portion in the world — the purpose of "who came to Egypt" was accomplished: the ascent that comes about through the descent.
7. With this we can also understand why the book is called "Shemos," for this name expresses the general content of the book. The first book (Bereishis) is called "ספר הישר" ("the Book of the Upright")19, because it speaks of the Patriarchs, who are called "upright," and for whom the matter of a true exile had no relevance. When Yaakov came to Egypt, the Egyptian exile had not yet begun. Moreover, the Midrash says20: "כל זמן שיוסף הי' קיים לא הי' להם משוי של מצרים" ("As long as Yosef was alive, they did not have the burden of Egypt") — as long as Yosef lived, the Jews did not yet bear the burden of exile. For the Patriarchs were above being in exile; and, after all, "ואלה תולדות יעקב יוסף" ("These are the generations of Yaakov: Yosef") — Yosef brought down and revealed the matters of Yaakov21. Only when "מת יוסף — נתנו עליהם משוי" ("Yosef died — they placed a burden upon them"), after Yosef died, was the burden of exile laid upon them. And therefore it was then, with the sons, that the service of "the names of the Children of Israel" began — the descent into exile and the service that brought about the Exodus from Egypt.
And therefore the name "Shemos" relates to the general content of the book, for it points to the general manner of service of the sons who come into exile: a) In exile there is only a name, an illumination of the essence of the soul; and the essence of the soul, since it is higher than being in exile, gives strength to the service of the illumination of the soul. b) The service must be on the level of "name": to refine and elevate the body, the animal soul and one's portion in the world, through which comes about the Exodus from Egypt and the ascent also in the essence of the soul — to the point of making a Mishkan, "ושכנתי בתוכם" ("and I will dwell among them") — within each and every one.
8. As in all the narratives of the Torah, here too there is an eternal instruction for every generation and place:
At all times, and in the most difficult circumstances of exile, a Jew must know that he need not be afraid, and he certainly must not despair, G‑d forbid, for the essence of a Jew is never in exile; no one can conceal or hide it. Moreover, the essence also gives the Jew here below the strength not to be affected by the exile, and to carry out his individual service with the body, the animal soul and his portion in the world — and a very great service, a service that brings an elevation also to the essence of the soul, up to "and I will dwell among them," which will be revealed in the complete Redemption, very soon indeed.
(From the sicha of Shabbos Parshas Shemos 5709.)
9. The true life of a Jew is not physical life but spiritual life22. Accordingly, it is understood that when the Torah relates "וימררו את חייהם וגו'" ("And they embittered their lives, etc."), that the Egyptians embittered their lives, it means (together with the plain meaning of the verse — for "אין מקרא יוצא מידי פשוטו" ("a verse does not depart from its plain meaning")23) that the Egyptians embittered the spiritual life of the Jews through the hard labor "בחומר ובלבנים וגו'" ("with mortar and with bricks, etc."). This needs to be understood: Through crushing labor one can embitter life physically, but how can hard labor "with mortar and with bricks" embitter the Jewish life in spirituality? It is indeed certain that hard work can interfere with spiritual life, with Torah study and the fulfillment of mitzvos; but the wording of the verse is "And they embittered their lives" — not merely that the crushing labor interfered with their spiritual vitality, but that the spiritual life itself became embittered. How does a spiritual life become embittered through physical crushing labor?
10. On the law that a Hebrew servant may not be made to do "עבודת פרך" ("crushing labor"), the Rambam24 explains that this means one may not make him do "עבודה שאין לה קצבה ואין לה תועלת" ("work that has no limit and no purpose") (work that is not bounded and brings no benefit). The Hagahos Maimonios there explains that this is learned from the crushing labor that the Jews did in Egypt. Accordingly — that the crushing labor in Egypt meant such "work that has no limit and no purpose" — we can understand how it embittered also the spiritual vitality of the Jews in Egypt. When a Jew is occupied with physical matters as he should be according to the Torah, it is then work that has a limit and a purpose. For the Torah has set a limit, a measure, of how much a Jew may be absorbed in business: he should be occupied with earning a livelihood only as much as is required in order to make a vessel for G‑d's blessing. Consequently there is a boundary as to which powers he should use for it — "יגיע כפיך כי תאכל" ("When you eat of the toil of your hands") — the toil of the hands, of the external and lower powers, but not the toil of the head and the higher powers25. Business involvement also has a "limit," a measure in time: he should be engaged in matters of livelihood only for a set time, so that even a businessman should have enough time every day for prayer with a congregation, set times for Torah study, and so on. Also, the business then brings a "purpose": since he conducts his business in the manner that the Torah commanded, his "doing" becomes a vessel for "וברכך הוי' אלקיך" ("and the L‑rd your G‑d will bless you")26. But when someone conducts business with the toil of his head, laboring with his mind to seek out various schemes and stratagems to make ever more profit, it is then "work that has no limit and no purpose."
There is no purpose in it — as it is said, "לא לחכמים לחם" ("bread is not to the wise")27 — for it is G‑d Who gives livelihood, and a person's schemes cannot accomplish anything here; on the contrary, they can even spoil things28.
It is also then "without limit" — there is no measure at all to such toil. It is already evening, the workers and employees are getting ready to go home, the shop must already be closed — but he, the businessman, is still thinking about business. And even when he finishes with his business and already comes home, instead of having a set time for studying Torah, both the revealed Torah and Chassidus, he is still constantly running around — in actual fact, or at least in his thoughts — about his business. And even when he already goes to sleep, "רעיונך על משכבך סלקו" ("your thoughts came up upon your bed")29 — he is still seeking out various business stratagems; and it is understood that even while he sleeps, his dreams too are filled with the business matters about which he thought the whole day30. With one who sits in the tent of Torah, too, there can be a similar situation. He is indeed not immersed in business, but he can be immersed in imaginary honor and the like: If someone has offended him — and he is, after all, a Torah scholar — he must stand up for "the honor of the Torah"; and since "tzaddikim are similar to their Creator," he must walk in the ways of the Holy One, blessed be He — and just as G‑d, so to speak, pays measure for measure, he too must conduct himself so, and he must settle accounts with the other. And if "the honor of the Torah" is very dear to him, he must even pay the other back "double" and "four and five times" (four or five times as much as the other deserves). And he constantly thinks about this; and also when he already goes to sleep, his "accounting of the soul" before sleep consists of this too. And it is understood that this then affects his dreams as well.
When someone thinks about guarding the health of his body, he presumably does it with a reckoning: "היות הגוף בריא ושלם מדרכי השם הוא" ("Keeping the body healthy and whole is among the ways of G‑d")31 — for the service of G‑d one needs a healthy body. And especially if he has studied Chassidus and knows the saying of the Baal Shem Tov on32 "עזב תעזוב עמו" ("You shall surely help along with him") — with the body — and also knows what is written in Tanya33, that G‑d Himself chose the Jewish body. Since a Jewish body is so precious, one must surely see to guarding it. All this has a purpose. But the stratagems in business, and thinking about and being immersed in imaginary honor — in these there is no reckoning at all; this is "work that has no limit and no purpose."
11. And this is the meaning of the statement that through crushing labor they embittered the Jewish life — "And they embittered their lives" — the spiritual vitality.
Everything that G‑d created in the world is with a boundary and with a reckoning. From where can there come something without limitation ("no limit") and without reckoning ("and no purpose")? Specifically from the G‑dly soul. For the G‑dly soul is bound up with G‑d, and He is unlimited; therefore in the soul, too, there are unlimited powers that are higher than reckoning and boundary (like the power of self-sacrifice in every Jew, a power that is higher than reason and understanding). And through this one can also reach a service "that has no purpose" — service for its own sake in the ultimate sense34.
When, however, one takes the powers of the G‑dly soul and uses them for the opposite side — "שמים חשך לאור ואור לחשך, שמים מר למתוק ומתוק למר" ("who make darkness into light and light into darkness, who make bitter into sweet and sweet into bitter")35 — in a crushing labor "that has no limit and no purpose," one thereby embitters the vitality of the G‑dly soul: "And they embittered their lives."
12. The matter of "And they embittered their lives" can also take place in a subtle manner: He does indeed use the spiritual vitality in matters of holiness and not in matters of this world, but he does not use it for the service that he needs to do — to the point that, on the contrary, it interferes with his service.
Every Jew has his mission, for the sake of which his soul came down below. When the evil inclination wants to disturb him from his service — and knowing that if it starts by persuading him not to engage in the service of G‑d at all, the Jew will not listen to it — the evil inclination agrees that the Jew should engage in the service of G‑d; but what, then? It persuades him to do not his own service, but the service that belongs to someone else.
In general, Jews are divided into two categories: a) Those who sit in the tent of Torah, and especially yeshivah students, whose main occupation is studying Torah. They must indeed also act in the line of acts of kindness — giving tzedakah (materially and spiritually), and especially spreading the wellsprings — for "כל האומר אין לי אלא תורה, אפילו תורה אין לו" ("Whoever says, 'I have only Torah,' does not even have Torah")36: one who wants to content himself with studying Torah alone and not engage at all in acts of kindness does not have Torah either; he must also occupy himself with acts of kindness. But his main thing is Torah37. b) Businesspeople. Their main thing is the fulfillment of mitzvos — and the principal practical mitzvah is the mitzvah of tzedakah38 — giving tzedakah materially, and spreading the wellsprings of Yiddishkeit, Torah and Chassidus, which is tzedakah spiritually. But since all matters of holiness are bound up with one another in a manner of mutual inclusion, the businesspeople too must have set times for Torah study, in addition to their main service in the line of mitzvos and tzedakah39.
There are, however, such "נשמות התועות" ("straying souls") (wandering souls) who do not want to carry out the duty that was placed upon them, and seek out matters that belong to others. There are householders who, when they are asked for tzedakah and for spreading the wellsprings, answer that precisely now they cannot give their time to someone else, because they need the time for themselves: suddenly he becomes one who prolongs his prayer, a diligent student; and right after the diligent study he must already run to his business, and consequently he has no time to give tzedakah and to act for the benefit of another Jew. Likewise there are those who sit in the tent of Torah and yeshivah students who occupy themselves with tzedakah precisely at the time that is set aside for Torah study.
And often the pattern among the "straying souls" is that precisely in the other line, which does not mainly belong to them, their involvement is with energy and with vitality (but only at the beginning). Although these are indeed matters of holiness, since this is not the soul's task, it is a matter of "And they embittered their lives," for one uses the vitality of the G‑dly soul for matters that are not its task — to the point, and in a manner, that it interferes with the task40.
13. This is also what we find: the going out from the Egyptian exile came through "משכו וקחו לכם" ("Draw forth and take for yourselves"), through taking the idol of the Egyptians (a sheep) and slaughtering it before the eyes of the Egyptians — which came from a power that has no limit, self-sacrifice that is above reason and understanding. With this, they took the strength of the G‑dly soul and used it properly, in its proper place, as G‑d had commanded. And this brought "חרות" ("freedom"), as the wording of the Tikkunei Zohar puts it: "חרות מטפשותא" ("freedom from foolishness")41 — a liberation from foolishness: they received the correct understanding, to know what comes from the soul… [The source page ends here, mid-sentence; the rest of this section continues on the next page.]
Notes
1) See Midrash Tadshe, ch. 20: "All the holy books have in them wisdom, understanding and knowledge as to why they were written and why they are called by their name, etc. — why is it called Bereishis, etc."
2) Pa'aneach Raza, beginning of Parshas Shemos, citing a Midrash. See also Baal HaTurim here.
3) Shemos Rabbah 1:3.
4) Beitzah 3b. Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De'ah 110:1.
5) "A thing that is counted" is not nullified by Rabbinic law (Rema, ibid.). That a thing that has a name is not considered forgotten is derived from the verse, and is by Torah law (Rambam, Hilchos Matnos Aniyim 5:23).
6) Pe'ah 7:1.
7) Yeshayahu 49:14.
8) Yeshayahu 24:23.
9) Devarim Rabbah 1:14.
10) See above, Parshas Toldos, p. 782.
11) See Or HaTorah, beginning of Parshas Shemos.
12) Rus Rabbah 4:3. See also Bamidbar Rabbah 15:5 [OCR unclear]; Esther Rabbah 6:2 [OCR unclear].
13) Tanya, beginning of ch. 2.
14) Yeshayahu 60:21.
15) See Berachos 10a: "Just as the Holy One, blessed be He, fills [the whole world], so too the soul [fills the whole body]," etc.
16) See the maamar beginning "Zeh HaYom," 5709, sections 2 and 3.
17) Sifri, Bamidbar 15:7; 28:8.
18) Likkutei Torah, Balak (66c).
19) Yehoshua 10:13. Avodah Zarah 25a.
20) Shemos Rabbah 1:4.
21) See above, Parshas Vayeishev (p. 805) and Vayechi (p. 832).
22) See Iggeres HaKodesh, sec. 27, on the matter of the life of the tzaddik. And behold, "And Your people are all tzaddikim." And the advantage in an actual tzaddik is that their life is nothing but spiritual life [the note appears cut off in the source].
23) Shabbos 63a, and sources cited there.
24) Hilchos Avadim 1:6.
25) See above, Parshas Vayeitzei, p. 792.
26) Devarim 15:18.
27) Koheles 9:11.
28) See Sefer Derech Mitzvosecha, 106b.
29) Daniel 2:29.
30) See Berachos 55b, end.
31) Rambam, beginning of ch. 4 of Hilchos De'os. See also above, p. 806, note 9.
32) Quoted in "Hayom Yom," 28 Shevat.
33) Ch. 49. See also the sicha of Simchas Torah 5669 (Toras Shalom, p. 120 ff.).
34) See Rambam, end of Hilchos Teshuvah; Likkutei Torah, Re'eh (28d).
35) Yeshayahu 5:20.
36) Yevamos 109b. See also Sefer HaMaamarim 5708, p. 266, note 7.
37) See also above, Parshas Vayigash, p. 830.
38) See Tanya, ch. 37.
39) See the sicha of Chai Elul 5722.
40) Along the lines of the teaching that Torah study is interrupted [for a funeral or a wedding procession] (Kesubos 17a).
41) [The text of this note is not on this source page.]
Key Lesson
The essence of a Jew's soul never enters exile, and it gives every Jew the strength not to be shaken by exile and to carry out his own individual mission with his body and his portion in the world. True spiritual life is embittered when the soul's unlimited energy is wasted on endless worldly schemes or even on holy tasks that are not one's own; it is set free when that energy is used in its proper place, as G‑d commands.