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"Praise the Lord, all you nations"(Psalms 117:1)
One of the perennial questions asked on Seder night is: Why was it necessary for Hashem
to punish the Egyptians with so many plagues? Would Pharoah and his people not have
caved in with less pressure? Indeed, the Rabbis in the Haggada, complicate the problem,
by arguing that tens or hundreds of additional plagues were meted out both in Egypt and
at the Reed Sea. Were these too necessary?
The mystical tradition teaches us that the reason so many plagues were meted out was so
that even absolute evil would cave in and declare Hashem's sovereignty. The
combination of additional plagues and hardening Pharoah's heart were designed to smelt
the evil ore and purify it of any good until not even a spark of goodness was left in it. For
Hashem desired evil itself to surrender and acknowledge Him.
Stage One: Reward and Punishment
The main ingredient necessary to implementing
this new approach is weakening free choice and banishing it from center
stage. Freedom of choice is the philosophical basis for reward and
punishment; if I am free to choose, than I deserve to be rewarded or
punished for my actions. And, thus, choice has its roots in the existential, material, survival-oriented foundations of
Creation and so it constructs a relationship with the
Creator on this basis. Choice does not provide the basis for a
relationship stemming from spiritual quality, the quality of
heart-felt divine worship (avodah she-ba-lev
), of cleaving
to Hashem, worship in keeping with the credo "do not behave as servants who serve their
master in order to receive a reward". Rather it builds a relationship built upon the
survival-oriented mechanistic world.
Therefore, the exodus from Egypt created only the basis for a relationship; merely laid
the groundwork for the further readying of G-d's tiny patch of land, the field of Torah
study. In the context of Torah study, true free choice triumphs and effects divine
providence creating the perfect track for divine worship; a track wherein the Temple
functions as the meeting place where quality divine worship is formulated. However,
even there, the sacrifices belong to a reward and punishment system, so the Temple too
only belongs to the first stage, is just a step on the way to the final objective.
The Israelites' controversial "borrowing" of the silver vessels and the garments from the
Egyptians afforded the Egyptians a concrete opportunity to express their empathy for the
Jews and admit the justice of their cause.
The paschal
sacrifice introduced the Israelites to the regimen of Temple
sacrifices.
Sacrifices to express the divine dimension in the reward and punishment system. In
Egypt, G-d meted out reward and punishment in a vulgar and primitive way via the ten
plagues. In the Temple, this crude version of reward and punishment was replaced by the
freely-willed, mature connection between man and his Creator expressed via a reward
and punishment style. Admittedly, this version though comprehensive still remained an
external representation of the divine worshipper.
The Temple, itself, expressed the internal
picture. For the Temple functioned as a meeting place where spirit
and matter, heaven and earth, the individual and the congregation,
man and his world met and completed one another. The wholeness or
perfection found in Creation will be a source of great joy and will
serve as a proof of the Creator's presence in the world. Israel's
true redemption will occur when this process of reaching perfection
is completed and the divine presence spreads beyond the Temple's
walls to the whole world. The divine presence will finally be
acknowledged as recognizable truth, not as a
function of reward and punishment. Humanity's perfection will bring
about the Divine presence's realization of its perfection. The goal
of "O Lord, for your salvation, I have hoped
" will be attained; the goal which began with "For your
salvation, I have hoped, O Lord"(Gen 49:18).
Living by the reward and punishment system is like grasping the horns of the altar,
instead of establishing profound contact with one's Self - climbing upon the altar.
Grasping reality via the Ego predicates being in the clutches of desires and diseases, of
"lust and jealousy and [the search for] honor", and does not deliver the goods. Even
experiencing life through one's intellect or creativity may be a refuge or replacement for
really experiencing it, if the thought or creativity is not authentic and does not express the
authentic Self.
Translated by
Rabbi Meshulam Gotlieb
www.MGtransEd.com
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