The Role of Daat in Overcoming Exile

Based on Likutey Halakhot, Taaruvot 3:2–3

“And the Israelites were fertile and prolific; their population increased greatly. They became so numerous that the land was filled with them” (Exodus 1:7).

The Torah recounts a Jewish population explosion right before the narrative of the Exodus. What’s the connection?

We know that whenever God chastises the Jewish people, He always prepares the solution/cure before the problem/disease (Megilah 13b). The surge in the Israelite birth rate immediately preceding the pain and humiliation of the Egyptian exile was a seed for the geulah (redemption) that would follow. This offers us a profound lesson: how we can bring the future, final geulah that much sooner.

Reb Noson introduces a powerful concept: the more Jews there are, the more sacred daat (God consciousness) exists; the more sacred daat there is, the sooner the geulah arrives. How does this work?

From our own experience and from history, we know that pain is a defining feature of exile. The root of this pain—whether inflicted externally or internally—lies in misguided thinking. When non-Jewish values and perspectives dominate, faith declines: faith in God, His Torah and its teachers. This inevitably leads to the deterioration of core Jewish values like kindness, modesty and compassion. Such misconceptions, whether held by Jews or gentiles, result in various forms of enslavement—mental, emotional, physical, financial and spiritual.

When Moshe Rabbeinu (our teacher) saw the vast number of Israelites freed from Egypt and journeying to receive the Torah, he thought mankind’s redemption was imminent. He believed there were enough Israelites with pure thoughts and attitudes to inspire the rest of the world—starting with the Mixed Multitude (non-Jews who joined the Israelites in their exodus)—to accept the truth that “God is One and His Name is One.” That ultimate redemption will definitely happen, and soon, we pray, but the conditions were not ripe then. The Mixed Multitude proved incorrigible and ultimately caused harm to the Israelites.

In subsequent “Egypts,” we have always been accompanied by great tzaddikim, reprising the role of Moshe Rabbeinu, working to correct the damage caused by the Mixed Multitude. That damage is undone when every Jewish soul is born and grows up thinking and behaving as a Jew should. It is also undone as each of us undergoes daily spiritual rebirth—striving to think and act more Jewishly, day by day and hour by hour.

May we soon witness the fulfillment of the prophecy: “The smallest will number in the thousands, and the least will be a mighty nation. I, God, will hasten it in its time” (Isaiah 60:22), Amen.

agutn Shabbos!
Shabbat Shalom!