Welcome to our special Shovavim mini-series, on the topic of humility. If you ask people what the purpose of Yetziat Mitzrayim was, you'd probably get a few different answers. Most people would say that it was a Gezera/decree. God told Abraham at Brit Ben HaBetarim that we'd be in Galut. What was the reason? Was it due to a sin? The Abarbanel in Bereshit chapter 15 tells us in the name of the Ran that this Galut was not due to any sin. Rather, it was in order to humble the hearts of the Jewish people so that they should be fit to receive the Torah, or what we call, Yisurim shelAhava/ suffering that Hashem gives, not as a punishment but out of love, to make us better. The Chida, in his sefer Chomat Anach, Chapter 54, pasuk 11, he says that since the Torah is a spiritual existence, it can't be held by a person who has improper thoughts, namely arrogance. So the purpose of Galut Mitzrayim was to break that arrogance, in order to allow them to receive the Torah.
The Chida, in his sefer Yosef Tehilot on Tehilim 119,72 offers an additional nuance. He asks, Why are we in exile so long? What did we do that was terrible? He answers that the Torah we have today is like hot air compared to the Torah that's going come in the time of Mashiach, which will reveal all the secrets. And in order to be a receptacle for that high level of Torah that we're going to receive in Mashiach's time, we need to have extreme humility that can only to come through a long and difficult exile. This is a whole different way of looking at what we're going through. It's not that Hashem is just beating us up for no reason. No. He's purifying us. And the purification is specifically in the area of humility. When things don't go right, when things are difficult, man becomes humble and realizes he's not in control.
The Bnei Yisaschar, in his essays on Nissan (essay 9) quotes this Chida, and says that this is the meaning of the pasuk in Shemot 1,11:
וַיָּשִׂ֤ימוּ עָלָיו֙ שָׂרֵ֣י מִסִּ֔ים לְמַ֥עַן עַנֹּת֖וֹ בְּסִבְלֹתָ֑ם וַיִּ֜בֶן עָרֵ֤י מִסְכְּנוֹת֙ לְפַרְעֹ֔ה אֶת־פִּתֹ֖ם וְאֶת־רַעַמְסֵֽס׃
Paroah put taskmasters on the Jewish people to humble them. The purpose of Galut Mitzrayim was to humble them, to get them ready to receive the Torah. It says in Shemot 3,12, that Hashem told Moshe, בְּהוֹצִֽיאֲךָ֤ אֶת־הָעָם֙ מִמִּצְרַ֔יִם תַּֽעַבְדוּן֙ אֶת־הָ֣אֱלֹהִ֔ים עַ֖ל הָהָ֥ר הַזֶּֽה /Take them out of Egypt. You will serve Hashem on this mountain.. So the there's a goal here. It's not just for no reason. The Bnei Yisaschar gives a beautiful Mashal- If, lo Alenu, someone is sick, the doctor gives him all kinds of difficult medicines and treatments and he suffers through it. But at the end, when he is totally healed, and he sees how this difficult treatment cleansed him and purified him, he hugs and kisses his doctor for bringing him the Yeshua/salvation by healing him.
That's the way we're going to look back at all the things that happened to us in Galut. We'll see how it purified us. The Bnei Yisaschar, in essay 12 on Nissan, says that's why every single year between Pesach and Shavuot, we have Sefirat HaOmer, a time to work on our Middot, specifically being humble. The students of Rabbi Akiva did not respect each other. So every year we reaccept and recommit ourselves to the to Torah, and go through that purification process to get rid of our arrogance.
And now for the real clincher, which now seems so obvious and simple: The Kli Yakar in Vayikra 6,9 says that the whole Pesach is all about staying away from hametz, which rises. Hametz symbolizes arrogance, whereas Matzah is Lechem Oni, לחם עני The bread of affliction, And as we said, Oni, has the same as the root as the word Anava ענוה .
So the goal of the days of Pesach is to eliminate every drop of arrogance; hametz, is completely forbidden, even a drop. Rambam says that for all Middot, we are supposed to take the middle road, except when it comes to arrogance, as it says in Pirkei Avot 4- מאד מאד be extremely humble.
So since the whole purpose of Galut Mitzrayim was to humble ourselves, come out humble people and eradicate our arrogance, it's no wonder that the whole theme of Pesach is all about getting rid of the hametz and humbling ourselves. It's black on white. Of course the purpose of Galut Mitzrayim was to humble ourselves, and to eventually get ourselves to have a heart that's pure, with proper Middot and get ready to receive the Torah, whether at the original Yetziat Mitzrayim, or every single year.
One final point from that Bnei Yisaschar on Nissan: it says we count 49 days which is numerical value of לב טוב . So we are going to get ourselves a good heart. And a good heart is a humble heart.
As it says in Tehilim 51,19
זִ֥בְחֵ֣י אֱלֹהִים֮ ר֤וּחַ נִשְׁבָּ֫רָ֥ה לֵב־נִשְׁבָּ֥ר וְנִדְכֶּ֑ה אֱ֝לֹהִ֗ים לֹ֣א תִבְזֶֽה׃The sacrifices of God is broken spirit, a broken heart, a humbled heart, God does not despise.
The best heart is the broken heart. As the famous Kotzker Rebbe once said, there is nothing more whole than a broken heart.