Parshas Shemos

The maamarim 9

1. 1 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. Maamar 1.41 paragraphs~1 h 40 min235 sourcesEnglish
2. 2 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, so love for Him must be awakened by crying out through the narrow throat in prayer, the “hard labor”; the halachah must be “whitened” by study with joy in G‑d; and one’s nature must be refined. This toil is the descent that brings the great ascent of the days of Mashiach, when G‑dliness will be seen openly and forever. Maamar 2.28 paragraphs~45 min84 sourcesEnglish
3. 3 ויאמר ה׳ אליו מי שם פה לאדם וגו׳ “And Havayah 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. Maamar 3.16 paragraphs~45 min82 sourcesEnglish
4. 4 זה שמי לעולם וזה זכרי לדר דר “This is My Name forever, and this is My remembrance from generation to generation” The light of the prohibitive commandments is too lofty to be held in a vessel or a deed, and the words of the Scribes, of the same kind, too lofty to be held even in writing; their root is ayeh, “Where is the scribe?”, aleph with yud-hei, the source in Chochmah above the Written Torah, the “book.” This is why the Oral Torah was given only by mouth, and why even the Written Torah leaves its loftiest matters unwritten. Maamar 4.9 paragraphs~20 min28 sourcesEnglish
5. 5 להבין מארז״ל ע״פ כי טובים דודיך מיין To understand the saying of our Sages on “For your love is better than wine”: “The words of the Scribes are sweet upon me” The love of self-sacrifice beyond reason, hidden in every Jew, is brought out by the mitzvos, “the wine of the Torah,” and is revealed on Shabbos. Yet the blessings over the mitzvos, from the words of the Scribes, draw down an encompassing light above the inner light of the mitzvah itself, and so they are sweet “upon me” (alai) more than the wine of the Torah. Maamar 5.14 paragraphs~20 min41 sourcesEnglish
6. 6 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. Maamar 6.2 paragraphs~10 min30 sourcesEnglish
7. 7 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 the present exile are the planting that comes before the blossoming. Maamar 7.25 paragraphs~35 min118 sourcesEnglish
8. 8 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. Maamar 8.Biur22 paragraphs~30 min67 sourcesEnglish
9. 9 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. Maamar 9.10 paragraphs~15 min15 sourcesEnglish

The Rebbe’s maamarim on this parsha 13

The Rebbe built 13 of his maamarim (5716–5747) on the Alter Rebbe’s maamarim of this parsha. Each maamar’s page summarizes them, with what the Rebbe adds; or see them all together.

• Maamar 1ואלה שמות בני ישראל הבאים מצרימה את יעקב…8 maamarim · 5716–5746
• Maamar 7הבאים ישרש יעקב יציץ ופרח ישראל5 maamarim · 5730–5747

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.

1. SUNMaamar 1, ¶1–20~43 min
2. MONMaamar 1, ¶21–36~49 min
3. TUEMaamar 1 ¶37 – maamar 2 ¶25~46 min
4. WEDMaamar 2 ¶26 – maamar 3 ¶15~46 min
5. THUMaamar 3 ¶16 – maamar 5 ¶14~46 min
6. FRIMaamar 6 ¶1 – maamar 8 ¶2~48 min
7. SHABMaamar 8 ¶3 – maamar 9 ¶10~47 min