Torah Ohr · Sefer Shemos · Shabbos January 2
פרשת שמות
Parshas Shemos
8 maamarim of the Alter Rebbe on the parsha, in the Hebrew of the Kehot edition, with every marei makom opened right where it appears. Each small section with a faithful English translation and a short explanation.
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The maamarim 8
- ואלה שמות בני ישראל הבאים מצרימה את יעקב… “And these are the names of the children of Israel who came to Egypt with Yaakov” The two descents into Egypt, told in Vayigash and again in Shemos, are two stages in which G‑d’s wisdom is clothed in creation: first in the hidden worlds of His “thought,” then in the revealed worlds of His “speech.” Exile is the time when this light is concealed, yet the toil of clarifying Torah law in exile draws down His great Name, and the longer the darkness, the greater the revelation of the Torah’s inner dimension that follows.
- קול דודי הנה זה בא מדלג על ההרים… “The voice of my Beloved! Behold, He comes, leaping” Exile is G‑d’s “descent” into a narrow strait: His light is no longer seen, and love for Him must be awakened through the narrow throat of prayer, the hard labor of Torah study and the refining of one’s nature. This toil is the descent that brings the great ascent of the days of Mashiach, when G‑dliness will be seen openly and forever.
- ויאמר ה׳ אליו מי שם פה לאדם וגו׳ “And G‑d said to him: Who has given a mouth to man?” Moshe was “heavy of mouth” because his soul came from Tohu, whose lights are too great for vessels. G‑d’s answer, “I will be with your mouth,” joins Tohu’s great lights with the vessels of Tikkun, through which the end gains an advantage that even the head lacks.
- זה שמי לעולם וזה זכרי לדר דר “This is My Name forever, and this is My remembrance from generation to generation” The words of the Scribes, like the prohibitive commandments, come from a level too high to be held in a vessel or in writing: ayeh, “Where is the scribe?”, the source in Chochmah above the Written Torah, the “book.” This is why the Oral Torah stayed oral, and why the rabbinic blessings over the mitzvos, which draw down an encompassing light, are “sweet upon me” more than the mitzvos themselves.
- לבך יהגה אימה איה סופר איה שוקל וגו׳ “Your heart will meditate on dread: ‘Where is the one who counts? Where is the one who weighs?’” The divine power that measures and limits everything, the Zohar’s “scale” and “line of measure,” is not separate from G‑d: it comes from His very highest level, Ayeh, which alone can lower itself to measure every detail. Contemplating that the One beyond all grasp weighs every particle of existence brings a great awe of G‑d that leaves no room for lesser fears.
- הבאים ישרש יעקב יציץ ופרח ישראל Those Who Came, Yaakov Will Take Root The mitzvos are seeds: G‑d’s will, buried in physical deeds and in the soil of Israel, grows into a revelation of His hidden, infinite light that no comprehension, even in Gan Eden, could reach. Egypt and every exile are the planting that comes before the blossoming.
- ביאור על הנ״ל An Explanation of the Above Israel and the Torah are each higher than the other, from different points of view. As they are Above, the Torah and mitzvos surpass Israel; but they have come down into this world like tasteless seeds, and only Israel, the “earth” whose bittul is a power of growth, can make the divine delight hidden in them sprout into revelation, fully in the Time to Come.
- תוספת ביאור An Additional Explanation The mitzvos are like a seed: rooted in the 620 pillars of light drawn from Keser, they have descended into wool and parchment, where nothing of their light shows. The souls of Israel, through the fear of G‑d and self-nullification, are the “land of desire” whose infinite power of growth brings that hidden light into revelation, and what grows is higher even than the souls themselves.
Learn it in seven days Sunday to Shabbos
The Rebbe asked that all the maamarim of the week’s parsha be learned in that week, spread over its seven days. Here is the parsha in seven portions of about equal length.