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7
Orchard of Delights # Shemot
#
These three plagues, all connected by darkness, indicate that on a sea change in human consciousness. In the Messianic era, the entire
spiritual level, the “darkest hour is before the dawn.” world will finally perceive the Divine unity underlying reality and the
consummate union between the physical and spiritual spheres.
In as much as all the Torah’s stories relate on some level to the
individual and his or her own spiritual and material struggles and Rashi alludes to this future reality in an intriguing commentary on
advancement, here too we learn an important lesson. Moses does not the verse that describes Moses’ preparations to return to Egypt and
give in to his fear; rather, he follows the prompting of his intellectual redeem Israel: “And Moses took his wife and his sons and put them on
faculties (in this case following God’s voice) and allows them to a donkey and he returned to the land of Egypt” (Exodus 4:20). Rashi
triumph over his emotions of fear and uncertainty. The Ba’al Shem explains that this was no ordinary donkey: rather, it was the same
Tov taught that one should “think good and it will be good.” Modern donkey that Abraham saddled before the binding of Isaac, and it is
psychology and virtually every self-help system and philosophy the same donkey that the Mashiach will ride in the future. Obviously
adhere firmly to this principle. In the healthcare field, the notion has this statement is not to be taken literally. The same donkey has not
also taken hold that our attitudes towards life and the ability of the lived thousands of years! Rather this Midrashic tradition alludes
mind to tame our emotions have a direct effect on how our bodies to the ongoing historical development of an idea. Rabbi Yitzchak
deal with stress. Indeed, our outlook on life is now believed to be Ginsburgh explains that the letters comprising the Hebrew word for
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crucial to preventing and even curing illness and disease. donkey (chamor) are the same as those comprising the Hebrew word for
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“physicality” or “materiality” (chomer). Mastering and transforming
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The neck as the bridge between the head and the rest of the body physicality so that it may serve the spiritual is both humanity’s
and as the slenderest part of the body inherently embodies the and, in particular, the Jewish people’s ongoing mission. Abraham
difficulty of uniting mind and heart, intellect and emotions. Chassidic symbolically began the process by saddling the donkey, while Moses
wisdom relates that the greatest distance in the world is between the went further by placing his wife and children on the donkey. The
mind and the heart. We all know that our knowledge that something Mashiach will complete the process by riding on the donkey himself,
is true or correct does not always translate into our responding with symbolizing his mastery of the material in the service of the spiritual.
the appropriate actions.
(The Maharal also alluded to the connection between the Hebrew
The root word for “Egypt” in Hebrew connotes “constriction” or word for donkey and the notion of materiality in Tiferet Yisrael 37
“a narrow place”; thus the land of Egypt represents those forces that where he declared that “the slave in bondage is [tied to the] physical
limit progress and the ascension to a broader consciousness. Pharaoh, [realm], just as the donkey is [inherently of the] physical [realm]”).
whose permutated letters mean “neck,” represents an additional As the Midrash states, Moses “is the first redeemer and he [his
measure of constriction. soul reincarnated as Mashiach] will be the last redeemer” (Shemot
Paradoxically, the Jewish people are often referred to in the Torah Rabbah 4:2). This statement links the souls of Moses and Mashiach
as a “stiff necked people,” a stubborn and obstinate nation. On the together. The connection between Moses and Mashiach is further
one hand, this characteristic has a negative connotation, describing stressed by both their Hebrew names beginning with the letters mem
the nation as too stubborn to listen to God. Yet, on the other hand, and shin. This link hints that both men are entrusted with the same
this characteristic also has positive implications. Someone who is basic mission: leading the Jewish people from slavery to freedom and
obstinate and stubborn can also be referred to as determined and from exile to redemption by revealing God’s essential unity and the
resolute. On occasion Moses actually uses this description to defend harmony and union of the physical and the spiritual.
the children of Israel; indeed, what other people has endured so

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