This portion begins with a description of Israel leaving Egypt. Part of that account relates the following: “And the children of Israel went up armed from the land of Egypt” (Exodus 13:18). Rashi explains that the root word for “armed” (chamushim) is the same as that of the word “five” (chamesh). Thus, after first explaining that the peshat, the straightforward meaning of the word in context, is “armed,” Rashi then offers an interpretation on the derash level, that the word here means “one-fifth.” According to the Midrash four-fifths of the Jews died during the plague of darkness; only one-fifth of the Jews were actually redeemed from Egypt! As fanciful and horrific as it sounds, what relevance does this Midrash have for us today?
Had the twentieth-century Holocaust not wiped out more than a third of the Jewish people one might tend to view this Midrash as somewhat exaggerated or symbolic. Likewise, one might be tempted to read the Scroll of Esther in a similar manner, questioning whether Haman really intended to kill every Jewish man, woman, and child as the text indicates. However, in light of the very real destruction perpetrated on the Jewish people during the Holocaust, we need to approach the above Midrash open to the possibility that perhaps the figures are more than just symbolic. Perhaps only a small percentage of the Jews actually merited being redeemed. Additionally, we should learn the hard lesson that when a dictator arises who threatens to wipe out the Jewish people or eliminate Israel from the map, we should take his words at face value and plan accordingly.
There is an additional, psychological or mystical (sod), explanation for the Midrash’s assertion that only one-fifth of the Jews left Egypt. According to the Midrash, the soul has five names: nefesh, ruach, neshamah, chayah, and yechidah (Bereishit Rabbah 14:9). Kabbalah and Chassidut explain that the five names depict five ascending soul levels. Nefesh, the lowest soul level, refers to what is commonly named “the animal soul,” the instinctual, behavioristic drives most associated with the body that guide human actions. Ruach, or “spirit,” is related to the emotions; neshamah, the inner soul, is deemed the seat of the intellect; chayah, “the living one,” refers to the interaction between consciousness and its super-conscious origin; and yechidah, “the single, unique one,” relates to the Divine aspect of soul.
Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh explains that according to Chassidut when an individual seeks to go from a state of slavery to one of freedom, to ascend from one level of spirituality to a higher plane, the four lower levels of soul need to first experience an “ego death,” so that the fifth and highest soul level is then free to ascend to the next level. Only through such a nullification of the lower self can the Godly essence of the soul be truly redeemed.
