“On the tenth day, a leader of the sons of Dan, Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai.”
The time of redemption is approaching and we must prepare ourselves for the light of redemption, which is the exodus from slavery to freedom. It is known that it is impossible to emerge from exile before one is in exile. It is also known that the holy Torah is eternal and applies to each and every generation. Also, we say in the Haggadah [Passover story], “Every generation, one must see oneself as though he came out of Egypt.”
For this reason, we must know the meaning of the exile we are in, and what it means that each generation we must emerge from this bitter exile.
The ARI says that the exile in Egypt was that the Daat [reason/knowledge] was in exile, meaning the knowledge of Kedusha [holiness]. Also, we must explain the meaning of Daat of Kedusha in exile. The Zohar says that sourdough and leaven are the same degree, which we call “the evil inclination,” “another authority,” “foreign God,” “other gods.”
Baal HaSulam interprets that the Sitra Achra [other side] and the Klipa [shell/peel] and the evil inclination are all but the will to receive, and this applies in both mind and heart. That is, the rule of Pharaoh king of Egypt and of Pharaoh’s servants is the rule of the will to receive over the organs, meaning that all 248 organs—when serving the will to receive—are called “slaves of Pharaoh.”
It is known that the first element in the work is the Lo Lishma [not for Her sake]. That is, by education, called “by rote,” one begins specifically relying on the will to receive, as one is made to understand that corporeal pleasures are worthless, since what are man’s years in this world?
Thus, through Torah and Mitzvot [commandments], he will be rewarded with a spiritual pleasure in the next world, which is an eternal world. Also, winning success in corporeal pleasures in this world comes by observing Torah and Mitzvot, by which we will have health and salvation, abundant income and success, and we will live long.
Naturally, because of the will to receive, man has the nature of idleness. That is, some people settle for bread and water, and some need meat and fish, too. Some also need accessories and fine clothes, and some even need luxurious houses. It is all according to one’s vigor, meaning they do not want to work more than is necessary for them.
Each one has his own measure of necessity, but working in order to bestow is not within man’s nature, since man was created with a will to receive for himself. Because obtaining the real pleasures requires being rewarded with Dvekut [adhesion] first, called “equivalence of form,” meaning that his aim will be for the sake of the Creator, called “in order to bestow,” which is the quality of the Creator, who is called “the Giver,” this is against nature.
It follows that he is placed in exile under the rule of the king of Egypt. And since the body is called will to receive, there is no point in serving the Creator against one’s will, since there is no pleasure in something that is compulsory, only a sorrowful life.
But only such is the way of Torah, the way until we achieve Torah Lishma [for Her sake]. Until then, life is a sorrowful life, meaning compulsory.