Send Forth My Son, Part 2

Translated from Rabbi Arush’s feature article in the weekly Chut shel Chessed newsletter. The articles focus on his main message: “Loving others as yourself” and emuna. 

Summary of Previous Article 

Last week (Part 1) we spoke about our “collection” of new beginnings and fresh starts. In other words, the countless times when we decided with much fanfare to start serving Hashem in Torah or tefilla (prayer), and then very quickly lost our resolve and were left broken and in despair. 

We explained that serving Hashem consists of ups and downs. During an “up” time, Hashem is helping us, we receive spiritual light, we are enthusiastic, and we declare a new beginning. But when we’re experiencing a “down” time, we tend to give up and stop trying. 

The cure for this is to hold on to our emuna (faith) with all our strength during the down times. There can be changes in one’s level of enthusiasm, but emuna never changes. And so, the main battle during the down times is our battle over emuna – to hold on to it staunchly. That is the only thing that can prevent the downward movement from turning into an outright fall. Because emuna never changes! 

And the main point of emuna is having the faith and the knowledge that Hashem loves me, and that it is forbidden to forget it, and it is forbidden even to allow ourselves to be distracted from it no matter what might happen. This emuna that Hashem loves me is critical even more so during times of darkness and difficulties. 

That is the secret of the Redemption from Egypt. We stopped being slaves to the descendants of Cham, who are all considered slaves, and we moved on to becoming children [of Hashem], eternally free. Hashem announced to us that we are His children: “Send out my son…”¹ “…so that he may serve Me.”² 

Connection to the Days of Shovevim 

The Redemption from Egypt is the model and symbol of all the redemptions of every Jew from the straits of his soul – his base desires and bad middot (character traits). The greatest subjugation of the soul is pgam habrit (sexual blemish), as Rabbeinu says, anyone who causes a blemish in the shmirat habrit (sexual purity) takes on the aspect of slavery.³ 

Therefore, the person who paved the way to the Redemption from Egypt was Yosef HaTzaddik, shomer habrit (maintains sexual purity). The klipa (forces of spiritual impurity) overtook Yosef and wanted to take the aspect of ‘son’ away from him — in other words, the aspect of emuna that Hashem is a good Father. The klipa would leave Yosef with the aspect of ‘slave’, as in the pasuk “Yosef was sold as a slave”⁴, and in that way make him fail the nisayon (test) of pgam habrit. 

But Yosef withstood the temptation, thanks to his remaining a ‘son’, as we will see very soon.  

The book Lashon Chassidim explains this. Chazal tell us: How did Yosef have the merit to withstand the temptation? He saw “his father’s image.” And the Lashon Chassidim explains this in the following way, which is very illuminating and strengthening and speaks for itself: 

“What many have mentioned in the matter of ‘his father’s image’ that appeared to him, it must be said that it was the matter of his father in particular; the name Yaakov is not mentioned, because the issue was that  he was strengthening himself regarding his Father in Heaven that He loves him and that is how he had the strength to withstand the temptation!”⁵

Withstand Every Temptation Easily 

In a moment we will see the continuation of the above text, which is no less amazing. But before that, we will pause to contemplate this revolutionary idea: 

Yosef is a young and handsome man; he has been betrayed by his brothers in the worst way, due to their hatred of him and for the sake of money. He has been torn away from his father’s house and from the entire holy culture that had enveloped him until then. He has gone from being a pampered favorite son to being a slave – unimportant, of low status, whose life is considered worthless; he has no future to look forward to, no future of freedom. And all this in a place that is swamped with base desires. And it was there that a woman latches on to him and every day does everything – everything! – to make him fail! 

Even if we would want to describe to ourselves the hardest nisayon, we would not be able to come up with a more impossible test than this! 

What does a person do in this situation? What could you say to him? “Be strong”?! — you can be strong for a day or two, a week, a month. But every person has days of weakness, days of katnut mochin (lesser abilities) and especially in such a situation as he was in. And the yetzer hara is crouching there, waiting to seize the person during these moments especially. So what is the solution? What should one do? 

The Lashon Chassidim brings up a most valuable and indescribable principle: “Strengthen yourself with emuna that your Father in Heaven loves you – and that way you will be able to stand up to any nisayon!⁵ 

What Gives Yosef his Vitality? 

What the Lashon Chassidim says next is even more strengthening: 

“I now come to explain the words of Yosef in Parashat Vayigash – where Yosef says, “I am Yosef, is my father still alive?” He said to them, if you ask me how I merited the level of Yosef, it is because I was always examining myself and asking myself about ‘avi’ (my father), in other words, a father’s love for his son. And I always made sure to see that it is alive and kicking within me, and that is how I reached the level of ’Yosef’ and that is how I am still living.” ⁵ 

There is nothing to add to such clear words – only to exert ourselves with all our power to simply live this knowledge, to always see that this point is still living within us! 

And now we understand why the entire Redemption from Egypt depends upon Yosef, because the rule is that only a soul that was not ‘broken’ can be ‘repaired’ (tikkun). Bnei Yisrael had descended to the level of being ‘slaves’, and the entire redemption from Egypt was intended to bring them back to the level of being ‘sons’. Who is the only one who can do this? Only he who held on to emuna in every situation and never descended to the level of a slave.  

And that is Yosef HaTzaddik, who reached a place that was the ultimate slavery: he was a lifelong slave in a house of slaves and in a land of slaves – and he never became distracted from the fact that he was a son and that Hashem is his loving father. Only he could get Bnei Yisrael to move from being  ‘slaves’ to being ‘sons’. 

Personal and General Geula 

The future Geula and the coming of the Mashiach for whom we await both depend on our living wholly with the idea that we are children and Hashem is our loving Father. As is hinted in the pasuk in Yeshayahu: “…the Wondrous Adviser, Mighty G-d, Eternal Father called his name, ‘the Prince of Peace’.”⁶ Who calls the Mashiach “Prince of Peace”? Hashem yitbarach, who is the Wondrous Advisor, Mighty G-d, Eternal Father. Why is Hashem presented specifically here with such special names? 

Because the wondrous advice upon which depends the complete Geula and all our power to overcome the yetzer hara and all our enemies with the aspect of “Wondrous Advisor, Mighty G-d” is the “Eternal Father”, that we should know that Hashem is our Father forever and ever, and in every situation.  

And therefore, this advice to hold on with all our power to the knowledge that Hashem is a Father, and He loves me, and to live that truth at every moment – that is the best advice for the days of the Shovevim and for tikkun habrit (rectification of sexual blemish). Only from there is it possible to muster all our abilities to overcome the yetzer hara and to be redeemed from all base desires and bad middot for good. May we overcome the yetzer hara during the times when we ascend and descend, so that we not continually start and fail! 

Teshuva of Sons 

This also explains parsha Va’eira, where Pharaoh is always willing to give in and then hardens his heart. This is exactly what happens to us when we are in the process of teshuva and tikkun: We start and we fail. What is the rectification for that? 

Rabbi Nachman says in Likutei Moharan that there are two types of repentance.⁶ There is the “everyday repentance”, in which a person is constantly rising and falling – sometimes the food is kosher and sometimes not, sometimes his eyes look at pure sights and sometimes impure. But there is a “Shabbat teshuva”, in which the person is completely redeemed from all the bad in him and the bad is rejected and completely uprooted! That is the teshuva with the aspect of Shabbat. 

What’s the difference between the weekdays and Shabbat? In a different section,  Rabbeinu explains according to the Holy Zohar that the weekdays have the aspect of ‘slave’, and Shabbat has the aspect of ‘son’.⁷ From this we understand that all the upward movements and the crashes come from the fact that we are doing a weekday teshuva. In other words, we are not holding on to the aspect of ‘son’ who knows that Hashem is his good Father. But by knowing that Hashem is our Father and that we are His beloved children, we will merit to do a Shabbat teshuva and reject the bad completely and experience a full, eternal Redemption. 

Editor’s Notes: 

¹ Shemot (Exodus) 4:23 

² Found immediately after Kriyat Shema in “אמת ויציב” (Shacharit) and “אמת ואמונה” (Maariv) 

³ Likutei Moharan II, 1:10 

⁴ Bereishit (Genesis) 37:28, 37:36, 39:1, 45:4-5

⁵ Lashon Chassidim, Parshat Vayeshev

⁶ Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 9:5  

⁷ Likutei Moharan II, 79:3   

⁸ Likutei Moharan II, 2:5 citing Tikkunei Zohar, 70:131a and Zohar I, 58b