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THEMES of Featured Ari Articles
![]() Egypt is likened to a womb from which the collective Jewish Soul emerged on its path to maturity.
G-d forms the embryo inside its mother's womb; inside the embryo are internal organs as well as its spirit. The more the embryo develops and grows, the more the soul enters into it. Egypt is likened to a womb from which the collective Jewish Soul emerged on its path to maturity; the exodus from Egypt is analogous to birth.
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![]() Early generations set the pattern for nurturing evil in this world.
When the generation of the dispersion declared war on G-d and sinned with mortar and bricks to build the tower of Babel, this caused the Divine Presence to ascend to the fifth heaven. The Ari teaches that the Jews in the Egyptian exile were punished with mortar and bricks to atone for the sin of that earlier generation.
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During the Egyptian exile, the Jewish people elevated all its divine sparks.
The purpose of exile is to elevate the fallen sparks of holiness that were scattered all over the earth and were mixed in with evil due to the sin of Adam. As opposed to all the other exiles, we are forbidden to return to Egypt for the Jewish people already elevated all the divine sparks that inhered in that culture and country.
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![]() It is not apparent to everyone when the Good Inclination enters the child's consciousness; only G-d is aware of this.
Ideally, the parents educate their child in its youth to accept the "yoke of the kingdom of heaven", i.e. to fulfill G-d's commandments, study His Torah, and adopt the Torah's values, so that by the time a child reaches maturity, he or she has been fully inculcated into the Torah's lifestyle and is ready to accept his or her obligations.
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