Removing Exile from Inside of Us

In my previous article Welcome to the Land of Your Dreams!, I discussed the spiritual land of Goshen, where anyone who is strong in their emuna, believes in Hashem and His Divine Guidance, and has daat, meaning they know the spiritual truth and do their best to live accordingly, can go and be sheltered from the Hell that is currently being unleashed around us. As I always sing, “or emuna, or Gehinnom (Hell).” 

Now, let’s take this concept one step further. The Torah says in the portion of Beshalach, that the Jews left Egypt “chamushim” which is generally translated as “armed.” The Midrash tells us that it really means “chamishim” – one fifth of the Jews left Egypt. The rest had already died during the plague of darkness, because they didn’t listen to Moshe and were unworthy of redemption.  

I want to put forth an idea that I had – perhaps it wasn’t that only 20% of the Jews actually left. Perhaps they all left Egypt physically – but the Midrash is explaining that only 20% of them actually spiritually left Egypt. The rest left Egypt, but they still acted like they were in Egypt, and they were still mentally enslaved to Egypt.  It's easier to take the Jews out of Egypt than to take Egypt out of the Jews!

This is why the plague of darkness is mentioned. The essence of the redemption is “light,” as we say on Seder night, “and we were taken from darkness to light.” But if someone who still thought like an Egyptian remained “stuck” in the plague of darkness. Therefore, it’s no wonder that we read how the Jews complained over and over, each time mentioning their yearning to return to Egypt, and acting with an utter lack of emuna. 

Everything in the Torah is eternal. So, what is “Egypt”? Egypt and the Land of Israel are two opposites. The Land of Israel is the land of redemption, of emuna, of Divine Providence and guidance, and of miracles. Egypt is the opposite – it signifies exile, and a belief in nature that is so total that it is as if there is no Hand of Hashem planning and executing everything from Above, down to the tiniest detail, G-d forbid (Likutei  Moharan  7). 

Rebbe Nachman writes in Likutei Moharan 240: “And this is the primary suffering that the Jewish people experiences in exile, because we fell from daat (knowledge of the Truth), and instead blame everything on nature, luck and chance. This causes us to have suffering, and this comes because we are mixed in with the other nations and we learn from them, since we see them being successful, while the Jews are brought low and humiliated… but if the Jews would have daat, and they would know that everything is being done with perfect Divine Providence – they wouldn’t suffer at all.”  

Where Do You Live? 

Hence, today, we see these two opposing paths in life. 

There is the path of exile, and believing in nature, luck and chance. Automatically, people on this path are full of anxiety, fear, worries and despair. Life is dark and terrifying, filled with pain and suffering. Just as everyone thinks that life is about to go back to normal, here comes a new virus! People are afraid at home and afraid outside of the house too. For many years already I have seen a huge increase in emotional problems, anxiety, and depression – and now it is just exploding all that much more. 

However, there is another path in life – the path of emuna. Come, let’s go up to the World of Emuna. Here, everything is filled with light and redemption. Here this is perfect and exact Divine Providence, down to the tiniest detail. Life is calm and peaceful, because everything is good. As Rebbe Nachman says, here “there is no suffering at all!” 

You can live in this world a sweet and good life. However, this is only with the power of emuna. 

YOU ARE THE ONE WHO CHOOSES WHICH PATH IN LIFE YOU LIVE!  

Do you want to live in Egypt, in exile, in darkness, pain, and fear? 

Or do you want to “see the light” and leave Egypt, and get the darkness of Egypt out of you – and thus live in a virtual Heaven on Earth, with emuna, with Hashem’s constant protection and guidance, in the light? 

If you choose to connect yourself to the various communication channels and the news – you are choosing to listen to people who don’t have one drop of emuna, people who speak only about nature, chance, and statistics, people who are specifically trying to terrify you. It’s no big wonder that you then suffer all sorts of pain and suffering, fear, anxiety, and more – because with your own two hands, you are disconnecting yourself from God and Divine Providence, and putting yourself into exile – because you put exile inside of you! 

If on the other hand, you want to choose the path of emuna, then you must disconnect yourself from the exile, and start connecting to people who are speaking emuna, who can teach you emuna and daat, so that you know the real truth. Remember that G-d, and only G-d, decides what will happen at every moment, and He personally oversees all of Creation, from every single human being, all the way down to G-d’s tiniest creation – the virus itself. Everything is executed with Divine precision.  

Therefore, recognize that “if G-d does not protect the city, in vain does the guard stand watch” (Psalms). If Hashem will not guard our health, then all of our physical efforts to protect ourselves will be for naught, as we have all heard stories of people who didn’t leave their house for weeks and still fell ill with Corona.  

Therefore, we have to focus primarily on our spiritual efforts, and only then can the physical efforts actually help us. However, we cannot forget for one moment that ultimately, our efforts (hishtadlut) is just that – and the results are up to Hashem. Our mind and hearts must be deeply entrenched in emuna, and our bodies make reasonable efforts as well. That’s a winning combination! 

Emuna in Every Circumstance 

Emuna doesn’t change ever. It doesn’t matter what happens – everything is from Hashem, for a good purpose. Even in the most difficult circumstances, we must put only emuna and Hashem in front of our eyes, and not nature or any other physical cause. We must know that Hashem loves us no matter what, guards us always, and we are only in His Good Hands.  

If we look at the situation with the eyes of this world, we will immediately begin to complain and lament over the difficult situation. However, someone who looks at the situation with emuna, sees a golden opportunity for incredible spiritual advancement. 

We must stand firm! Don’t get confused by what’s happening around you for one second! There is Someone who is worrying about all of your needs, about your health, and about your income. All we must do is constantly remind ourselves of this truth, and choose to place ourselves under His shelter.  

We must put emuna deep into our minds and hearts – because only this is called truly leaving exile!