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Orchard of Delights
powerful positions in their host countries. Among the most famous
examples are Mordecai and Esther in ancient Persia, Daniel in
ancient Babylonia, Abarbanel in Spain, Disraeli in England, Trotsky
in Russia, and Kissinger in the United States of America. The same
pattern has repeated itself throughout history in similar ways in
other countries and smaller localities around the globe.
Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh explains that the letters of the Hebrew
word for “second to [the king]” (mishneh) when permuted spell the
Hebrew word for soul (neshamah). The Jewish soul is “second to the
king,” to God, the King of Kings, and this pattern is manifest in
the Jews’ relationship with earthly kings and governments as well
(Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, The Hebrew Letters, p. 48). God’s blessing
that all the nations of the world would be blessed through Abraham
is partially realized when Jews attain high positions whether in
government, literature, law, medicine, economics, art, or science.
One day when the true history and development of humankind is
revealed the world will learn not to forget the immense contribution
the Jewish people have made to humanity.
£I Will Be That I Will Be£I Will Be That I Will BeI Will Be That I Will Be exile and redemption in Egypt is in fact part of a bigger picture.
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When Moses asked God at the burning bush what he should tell the
Jewish people when they ask who sent him, God names Himself as
“I Will Be That I Will Be” (Exodus 3:14). However, in the following
verse, He reveals the Tetragrammaton, the four-letter name by which
he shall be known forever. While God is never again referred to as
“I Will Be That I Will Be” in the Tanach, the Kabbalah associates
this name with the sefirah of Keter, the highest of the ten sefirot,
and accordingly assumes that it represents the most elevated and
hidden aspect of God. This name and its significance will only be
truly revealed after Mashiach comes.
Moses’ conversation with God at the burning bush is one of the
longest and most intriguing dialogues recorded between a human
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signified by the word “to know” demarcates the beginning of the
people’s redemption:
During those many days, it happened that the king of Egypt died,
and the children of Israel groaned because of the work and they cried
out. Their outcry because of the work went up to God. God heard
their moaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham,
with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the children of Israel; and God
knew. (Exodus 2:23-25)
Immediately after this verse describing God’s, as it were, realization,
He appeared to Moses at the burning bush thus beginning the process
of the children of Israel’s redemption from Egypt.
In Kabbalistic terms, “to know” means to be united with the object
of the knowing. For this reason the verb “to know” is a euphemism
for intimate sexual relations, as in the verse, “And Adam knew Eve,
his wife” (Genesis 4:1). When Israel, under the unbearable weight
of oppression, cried out to God, His compassion and love for His
people was aroused to such an extent that He knew that the time for
redemption had come. He knew that the exile had fulfilled its purpose
of rectifying Israel and the turning point had now been reached.
However, within a Kabbalistic framework, the entire story of the
The Egyptian exile is associated with the exile of knowledge (da’at),
which is rooted in the sin of Adam and Eve and their decision to
eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. When they did
so, knowledge “fell,” and with its diminishment, the first exile – the
banishment from the Garden of Eden – ensued. In order for humanity
to reenter the Garden of Eden, it will first have to rectify the aspect
of knowledge that has fallen.
The Arizal reveals in his writings how the generations from Adam
until the Egyptian redemption were all connected through the secret
of reincarnation and how humankind struggled with the very real
consequences of the diminishment of da’at (for a more in-depth
treatment of this fascinating subject see the fifth chapter in Return
Again: The Dynamics of Reincarnation). In fact, the Jews’ daunting
task in Egypt was to rectify knowledge; this is why the word
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