MARCH 25 • 2021 | 5

for openers
Who Inspires Us,
Moses or Pharaoh?
T

here are many ways
to think of the drama
that took place
between Pharaoh and Moses
in Biblical Egypt. Some think
of it as history; others see it
as folklore, and
still others see it
as an allegory to
teach us morals.
The wisdom
of Kabbalah has
a completely
different take on
the story of the
Exodus of the
people of Israel from Egypt. It
views it as a process that leads
to one’s defining moment in
life: The liberation from the
ego and the entry into a new
reality, where the ego is the
servant and care for others is
the king.
This is why today, when
egoism is our sole ruler, it is
so important to introduce the
concepts of the wisdom of
Kabbalah, since only caring
for others will prevent the
world from exploding into
pieces.
In Kabbalistic texts,
Pharaoh represents the ego,
our inclination to focus on
ourselves and strive for supe-
riority over others. The peri-
od that humanity is in today
is indeed a “Pharaoh” period.
These days, Pharaoh, peo-
ple’s untainted and unhinged
egoism, is coming to the fore.
It controls our lives, organizes
them, and we have nowhere
to run from its control. Even
when we realize that it is not
good for us to let Pharaoh

govern and enslave us, we opt
for “bread and circuses” since
we feel helpless against it.

A PLEASURE HUNT?
Nevertheless, bit by bit, the
realization that our situation
is not as it should be is form-
ing within us. Gradually, we
are realizing that the endless
pleasure hunt leaves us empty
in the end. We are born,
mature, get a job, perhaps a
career, have children, grow
old, get sick and die. Why do
we go through these cycles?
If in the end we die and
stop existing, then why be
born in the first place? The
little pleasures we have in life,
if we have them at all, allevi-
ate some of the pain we expe-
rience the rest of the time,
but if there is nothing left of
our lives when they end, then
what is the purpose of living,
and what is the purpose of
the suffering?
When we begin to ask these
questions, and today more
and more people are asking

them, it is a sign that we are
beginning to disagree with
Pharaoh’s governance over us.
This is the beginning of the
emerging of the Moses within
us — a new perspective on
life that wishes to pull us out
of the shackles of egoism and
deliver us from the metaphor-
ic land of selfishness: Egypt.
The wisdom of Kabbalah
does not relate to physical
locations or to flesh-and-blood
people. Every persona in the
drama is a force within us, and
every land, a type of desire.
Egypt represents the desire
for self-indulgence, con-
centration on oneself, while
Israel stands for the desire
to give, to care about others,
to connect with their hearts.
Both “lands” exist in every
person in the world; there-
fore, every person can choose
with whom to sympathize:
the inner land of Egypt,
egoism, or the inner land of
Israel, giving.
When Moses begins to
grow within us, we begin

to feel our stay in Egypt as
pressing and oppressive.
When the Passover story
tells us that the people of
Israel were in exile in Egypt,
it means that they began to
want to free themselves from
the shackles of egoism, but
Pharaoh, the kernel of ego-
ism, would not let them go
out free.
After some time in that
state, the Moses force within
us begins to gain strength and
makes all the pleasures that
the ego offers seem pointless
and tasteless. It isn’t that we
suddenly fall from riches to
rags, but that the same riches
that felt so good before, feel
pointless and meaningless,
and we lose all joy from hav-
ing them. But in the absence
of having any other pleasures,
we feel it all as emptiness and
hunger. Worse yet, since we
are not yet free from egoism
and must still serve it, though
we no longer want to, we feel
that we are slaves, enslaved to
Pharaoh.

WORTHWHILE GOALS
Today, many thousands of
people already feel like that.
They are especially common
among younger people, who
grew up seeing their parents’
lifestyles and simply do not
want them. They find no
pleasure in them, but they
also find no pleasure in any-
thing else. This is why so
many of them turn to sub-
stance abuse to forget about
life, or to extreme sports or
violence, frantically search-

Michael
Laitman
Times of
Israel

PURELY COMMENTARY

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