Kabbalah Library

1. “I am the Lord your God.” I am afraid to ask. If I ask, I am afraid I may be punished. If I do not ask, I am bewildered in my heart.

2. The fact that the Creator reminds Israel in every place, “I am the Lord your God [in singular form], who brought you out from the land of Egypt,” “I am the Lord your God [in plural form], who brought you out from the land of Egypt,” what advantage does He teach us by this? After all, it is a complete condition that He said to Abraham, “For your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and after that, they will come out with many possessions.” Thus, why should He remind them of this everywhere?

3. The Creator made a condition with Abraham that He would bring Israel out from the exile in Egypt, and not that He would bring them out from enslavement under other gods. Certainly, when Israel were in Egypt, they were defiled and made themselves dirty with all kinds of impurity, until they were dwelling under the forty-nine forces of impurity, and the Creator brought them out from the enslavement under all those forces.

4. Also, He brought them into the forty-nine gates of Bina, which correspond to the gates of impurity. He made a condition with Abraham only to bring them out from Egypt, but He did His favor and mercies with them, to bring them out from forty-nine gates of impurity and admit them into forty-nine gates of holiness.

5. For this reason, the exodus from Egypt is mentioned fifty times in the Torah, to show to all the people in the world the mercy that the Creator did with Israel—that He took them out from those forces of impurity, and led them into the forces of purity, which are the fifty gates of Bina.

6. But we count them forty-nine gates of Bina from the good day of Passover to the festival of Shavuot, and we count days and weeks, since each day, He took us out from the force of impurity, and opposite that, led us into the force of purity.