In this chapter the Alter Rebbe continues and explains the exodus from Egypt that takes place every single day: «והיא יציאת הנפש האלקית ממאסר הגוף, משכא דחויא, ליכלל ביחוד אור אין סוף ברוך הוא», «and this is the going out of the divine soul from the prison of the body, the skin of the snake, to be absorbed into the unity of the blessed Ein Sof light».
What is the body? «Mashcha dechivya»: «mashcha» means skin and «chivya» means snake. The snake is the symbol of the lowest impurity and descent, the source of filth, and the skin that wraps around it points to the very lowest part of all. That is the body of every single one of us.
And what is this going out of the «mashcha dechivya»? It is a departure from the limitations of the body, «to be absorbed into the unity of the blessed Ein Sof light». Every single person is given the opportunity to be included in the infinite light of the Creator, in such a way that the body, with all its limitation, does not get in the way of a constant connection with the Creator.
And how does this going out happen? «על ידי עסק התורה והמצוות בכלל», «through the occupation with Torah and mitzvos in general». When a Jew performs a mitzvah, in that moment he becomes one with the mitzvah and with the Creator; when he learns Torah he is joined with the Holy One, and in that moment he has gone out of the prison of the body and is united with the Creator. Every mitzvah a Jew does is yetzias Mitzrayim, and every word of Torah he learns is yetzias Mitzrayim.
In the Alter Rebbe's words: «ובפרט בקבלת מלכות שמים בקריאת שמע, שבה מקבל וממשיך עליו יחודו יתברך בפירוש באמרו ה' אלקינו ה' אחד», «and especially in accepting the kingship of Heaven in Krias Shema, in which he receives and draws down upon himself His blessed unity explicitly, by saying Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad». In any mitzvah a Jew's attention is directed to the mitzvah itself, to the tefillin, to the mezuzah, to the tzitzis, and that is what connects him to the oneness of the Creator. In Krias Shema, though, he is dealing directly with the matter of the Creator's oneness: he accepts that oneness upon himself, he grasps that everything in the world is bound up with Him, and he does everything he can to connect to Him.
For that reason, the moment a person takes upon himself the yoke of the kingship of Heaven he becomes united with the Creator with far greater intensity, and his personal yetzias Mitzrayim is that much more concrete and pronounced: right now he is accepting upon himself the yoke of the King, and not the dictates of the prison of the body.
In the previous chapter we learned the meaning of the wording of the brachah, «asher kideshanu bemitzvosav». Just as a chassan gives his kallah a ring and says to her «harei at mekudeshes li», and she becomes his, so too the Holy One says to the Jewish people: you are Mine, I am Hashem your God, I am your Eloka.
There the Alter Rebbe mentioned what is said of the Avos, which we say every day in Shemoneh Esrei: «Elokei Avraham, Elokei Yitzchak, veElokei Yaakov». Why does the Holy One attach His Name to Avraham and to Yitzchak? Because the Avos were a merkavah, a chariot, for the Shechinah, meaning they were in a state of constant bittul to the Creator; and therefore it is fitting that the Creator attach His Name to them, that He be present and shine upon them constantly. That is «Elokei Avraham».
And this very thing the Holy One says to every single Jew: I am now your Eloka. When? At the moment you accept upon yourself the kingship of the Creator and say «Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad». «Elokeinu» means my God: just as He is «Elokei Avraham», so is He now the God of this particular Jew who is saying these words in Krias Shema.
In his words: «כמו שנתבאר לעיל, כי אלקינו הוא כמו אלקי אברהם וכו' לפי שהיה בטל ונכלל ביחוד אור אין סוף ברוך הוא», «as explained above, that Elokeinu is like Elokei Avraham etc., because he was nullified and absorbed into the unity of the blessed Ein Sof light». Avraham Avinu was in a state of constant bittul to the Creator, and therefore the Creator is called by the title «Elokei Avraham». And the same holds for us: at the moment when a Jew nullifies himself to the Creator and accepts the yoke of the mitzvah, the Creator is right then his own God.
«רק שאברהם זכה לזה במעשיו והילוכו בקודש ממדרגה למדרגה», «except that Avraham merited this through his deeds and his going in holiness from level to level». Avraham Avinu merited to reach the state of «Elokei Avraham» by his own strength, by his own avodah, by his deeds and by his going: he went and did and invested, he searched for the Creator, he toiled and rose little by little from one level to the next, until he merited the title, I am your God.
As the verse says: «וכמ"ש ויסע אברם הלוך ונסוע הנגבה וגו'», «and Avram journeyed, going and journeying toward the south». The «negev» is the south, and in the south it is hot, and heat is love; Avraham Avinu went and journeyed to love the Creator. The Torah is not merely telling us the story of Avraham Avinu's travels and where he wandered. It is speaking about matters far more essential, only that it writes them in picture language, so that even someone who understands only the simplest layer sees what is written there. The meaning of these words is that Avraham Avinu kept going, kept advancing and rising in his love of the Creator from level to level, and through this he merited to be the one upon whom the Creator attaches His Name.
And in contrast, with us: «אבל אנחנו ירושה ומתנה היא לנו», «but for us it is an inheritance and a gift». We received it as an inheritance and as a gift.
Let us stop and look deeply at these three lines we have just read. In the previous chapter the Alter Rebbe mentioned the idea briefly, without going into the differences between the Avos and ourselves: he mentioned that the Avos were a merkavah and absorbed in the Creator, and so are we. Here he goes into detail about the differences, and at first glance a question arises: which is higher, and in whom is the intensity of this greater, «Elokei Avraham» or «Elokeinu»? After all, Avraham merited it through his deeds and his going, while for us it is an inheritance and a gift.
On the face of it, one's own avodah and effort are the great virtue: Avraham toiled and earned it, while we received it as an inheritance and a gift without having worked for it. But if so, what is the Alter Rebbe doing in this chapter, diminishing us? The whole tone of the chapter and its entire thrust is to explain that with us too there can be «Elokeinu», that through a Jew accepting upon himself the unity of Heaven the Creator attaches His Name to him. He comes to speak about the virtue that we have, not to conclude that we do not have so much and that they had more. (As far as we are concerned, the Avos earned what is theirs, and we who received it as an inheritance have the practical avodah placed upon us, and that is precisely the matter we are learning here.)
The explanation is that the Alter Rebbe comes to present our virtue as being incomparably greater than that of the Avos: when a Jew says «Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad», there is infinitely more in that than in «Elokei Avraham, Elokei Yitzchak veElokei Yaakov». And why? For several reasons.
The first reason lies in the flow of the whole chapter: from the beginning of chapter 46 the Alter Rebbe has been trying to explain to a Jew how much the Holy One loves him. That is the entire subject and the entire thrust.
To understand this, picture two people who received the very same object:
The first invested and worked, and as a result of his labor he received it.
The second was told, here, take it, and he received it as a gift.
Which of these two acts expresses love? Someone who invested and worked has it coming to him; there is an exchange of value here. Even though one could say there is some expression of love in it, still, he worked and he received. But someone who on his own account is not worthy of it, and they give it to him anyway, there you can see how much he is loved.
It is worth noting that in other contexts the greatness of the Avos is certainly emphasized, and their greatness is immense: they were a merkavah for the Shechinah, and the Baal HaTanya himself stresses in other places that they were in that state at every moment and every hour, whereas we, at best, are there one moment and not the next; and even what we do have is in their merit. But here, in the context of expressing the magnitude of the Creator's love for us, the Alter Rebbe comes in these three lines to emphasize specifically our virtue: with them it came through their deeds, while with us it is a gift, a sign that the expressions of love toward us are stronger.
To summarize: in this section we learned that every single day a person is obligated to see himself as going out of Egypt, the going out of the divine soul from the prison of the body, the «mashcha dechivya», to be absorbed into the unity of the Ein Sof light, through the occupation with Torah and mitzvos, and especially through accepting the kingship of Heaven in Krias Shema. We saw that «Elokeinu» is like «Elokei Avraham», who was nullified and absorbed in the Ein Sof light, except that Avraham merited this through his deeds and his going from level to level («and Avram journeyed, going and journeying toward the south»), while for us it is an inheritance and a gift. And we examined the first point in explaining our virtue: specifically a gift, which is not payment for labor, expresses a greater love.
In the next section we will take up the further points in the explanation of this idea.