Daily Tanya Chapter 31 Part 3: Rejoicing throughout the day when one serves G-d and the spiritual exodus experienced daily (Tuesday 7th Adar)

7^th Adar

1. Rejoicing throughout the day when one serves G-d:

• All of one’s life should be focused on performing this service of G-d [of repentance and study of Torah and Mitzvos] with great joy. During one’s study of Torah and Divine service one’s soul should rejoice over the fact that he is able to remove his G-dly soul from its state of exile in the repulsive body and return it to “its father’s home in which it grew up in its youth” [i.e. within G-d’s Divine light].
• To be in the state of repentance throughout all of one’s days: On this the sages state that one should be in a state of repentance throughout all of his days, [which refers to the returning of one’s soul to G-d from its state of exile, which can be done throughout the day].
• The greatest of joys: There is no greater joy than the joy experienced in leaving a state of exile and captivity, and it is similar to the son of the king who has been captured and works as a flour grinder and garbage collector in the prison, and is then freed to return home to his father’s palace.
• The joy is despite the sadness of one’s body and spiritual state: Although one’s body still remains in its state of disgust and abomination, and is hence referred to by the Zohar as a serpents skin, as the core and essence of the animal soul has not transformed from evil to good, to be incorporated within holiness, nonetheless, one should not allow the sad state of his body and animal soul to remove his mind from the ecstatic joy experienced by his G-dly soul. The G-dly soul should be of much greater value in his eyes to rejoice in its happiness [of being redeemed from its state of exile] much more than the sadness that is due to the lowly body. One should not mix and confuse the joy of the soul with the sadness of the body.

2. The spiritual Exodus-Yetzias Mitzrayim:

• The above experience of joy of the soul is similar to the Exodus in which it states that the nation fled from Egypt.
• Why did we have to flee from Egypt? Seemingly, it does not make sense as to why the Jewish people had to flee from Egypt, as they could’ve simply told Pharaoh that they are leaving forever, and he would have had no choice but to let them go. Rather, the reason we had to flee is because the evil within the Jewish people was still in its full strength within the left ventricle of the heart, as their impurity did not cease until the time of the giving of the Torah. Nonetheless, they earnestly desired to cleave to G-d and escape from the state of exile that their G-dly soul was found within the forces of evil, which is the impurity of Egypt, [and hence the term flee is used by the verse to describe our leaving Egypt even though technically we could have walked out with full permission from Pharaoh without needing to flee]. Indeed, we find many verses in Scripture which describe the running away from evil and finding refuge in G-d, representing the above concepts.
• In the future, we will not flee Egypt: The above however was only necessary by the redemption from Egypt. However, in the future, when G-d will remove all evil from the face of the earth, we will no longer need to flee from the evil, and hence regarding the future era the verse states that we will not run but rather walk before G-d.