The Kabbalists, when they talk about the exile in Egypt, talk about it as galut hada’at, the exile of the mind. When we talk about going out of Egypt, it’s not going out of physical work, out of physical difficulties. Most importantly, at its core, it’s about going out of limited consciousness. Galut Hada’at, lack of understanding, lack of vision, lack of seeing.

The Kotzker Rebbe said that when souls come down to this world, the souls are on a ladder. As the ladder comes closer to this world, the souls jump off, step off the ladder. Then the ladder slowly rises up again towards the heavens.

Some people jump up to try to grab the ladder again. They jump up once, and twice, and three times. They see that they haven’t been able to grasp it and they stop. Then there’s a second group that keeps on jumping for months and months, and years and years, but eventually, after all that time when they can’t grasp the ladder, they stop jumping. The third group, a much smaller group, is the group that keeps on jumping and never stops jumping. Those souls are taken by the Creator back up to that connection, back up to that ladder.

The striving and pushing that is needed is way beyond what we allow ourselves to do

The idea, and this is true in many of the teachings of these great Kabbalists, is that the point which we came to this world to accomplish, to connect, the type of striving, the type of pushing, is way beyond what we allow ourselves to do.

There are many awakenings, both in understanding and in feeling, that one has when one goes to the graves of the Righteous. For me the two of the most powerful are Rabbi Elimelech of Lejensk and the Bal Shem Tov.

We should all think about how weak and limited we are in pushing ourselves

What it awakened for me, and something I think we should all awaken within ourselves, and think about, is how limited we are in pushing ourselves, how limited we are in pushing ourselves.