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Golus A State Of Mind In order to clarify all these apparent contradictions, let's give the following example. Imagine a person has gone to trial in court and is awaiting the judge's verdict. The day of the verdict finally arrives, and the judge pronounces the sentence. The person is found guilty and must serve a 30-year jail sentence. The sentence will first begin in 30 days. Even though the person still has 30 days of freedom you can be sure that the moment the sentence was pronounced, the person will feel as if the prison term has already started. Not physically, but surely mentally. He already feels the terrible feeling of hopelessness, even though he's actually not behind bars yet. The mere fact that he knows for sure that in another 30 days he will be locked up is enough togive him a feeling of helplessness right now. Mentally and emotionally, his suffering has already started.Let's take another example. A mother is examined by the doctor and is informed that she is pregnant but that the baby she is carrying does not look healthy and will develop a terrible, dedly disease in about twenty years. While the child may not be born for another few months; nevertheless, the mother will feel the terrible desperation immediately. Though the disease may not be forthcoming till yearslater, the woman's pain and suffering will be felt immediately.So, too, it was with Avrohom Ovinu. Immediately upon being informed by Hashemthat his children would be in golus for 400 years, Avrohom's golus started right thenand there. Avrohom of course had absolutely no doubt in his mind that Hashem'swords would come true to their very last detail. It was no mere prophesey that can sometimes be changed. It was a ברית -there could not be any changes! And that'sprobably the reason why we don't find Avrohom davening to try to change the baddecree. He felt the terrible pain from the very first moment the tragic news hit him. His golus had started right then and there. Even though his child would not beborn for another 30 years, his mind already anticipated the terrible fate that awaited him. His thoughts were filled with worry about the golus his children would sufferin Mitzrayim. How would his children be able to survive such a harsh and cruelgolus? Remember! Golus is also a state or frame of mind- a mental anguish. For allintents and purposes, a person can be completely free, yet if he mentally isolateshimself from all those around him and doesn't speak to anyone, and is filled with fear, worry and depretion, then he is no different than the prisoner behind bars who is totally isolated from others by the bars in front of him. The only difference may be that the prisoner cannot easily escape from his prison, while the free person can mentally escape from his own imprisonment any time he makes the effort to doso. Avrohom's whole life was centered on having children and teaching them to serve Hashem. To him such news must have been devastating. Just imagine hisgreat concern and anguish. His children would have to spend 400 years as slaves in Mitzrayim! Would they be able to withstand the Egyptian culture? Could they survivethe tumoh? Could they go through so much pain and suffering without losing theirfaith in Hashem? He knew that Mitzrayim was the worst tumoh possible, and hewas frightened that not all his children would make it. The fact remains that from all the Yidden who were in Mitzrayim only 1/5 of them actually made it out. The other4/5 were killed during the plague of Darkness. They couldn't be rescued. They had sunk too far. Remember! 400 years is a very long time. It's only a little more than 200 years since the time of our first president, George Washington, yet it feels like an eternity. How would his descendants be able to withstand the temptations and lusts of the Egyptians for so long? The thought itself was frightful. 400 years was more than enough time for the Egyptians to totally assimilate the Jews into their culture. In fact, the geulah had to be done in the greatest of haste and with quick speed,for even one more moment and many more of Klal Yisroel would have fallen intothe lowest - the fiftieth - depth of tumoh, from where one cannot be extricated andrescued anymore! A frightful thought! And so from the moment Avrohom had been informed of what the future foretold, his mind was already in Mitzrayim. He felt their concern. He felt theirpain. His golus had already started. You can begin counting the 430 years fromthat very moment. To him, their fate was already sealed. It was as if the judge had pronounced the guilty verdict. As if the doctor had already foretold the mother of the fate of her unborn child. Hashem gave this nevuah to Avrohom in the form of a bris,and so there was no way out. In Avrohom's mind, the golus Mitzrayim had alreadybegun, even though, practically speaking, he had no children yet, nor was anyone in Mitzrayim.However, the prophecy clearly stated that his children would be in golus for 400years. Practically speaking, Yitzchak had still not been born. As far as his children's golus starting, he'd have to wait for Yitzchak's birth. It was then, at Yitzchak's birth,that the full weight of the golus began to bear down on him. Therefore now startedthe 400 years of golus of his children. One can well imagine that even at this greatmoment of joy, Avrohom's heart was filled with worry for his future descendants.After all, there certainly wasn't a more loving father than Avrohom. And so, even now, thousands of years later, we still call him Ovinu - our father. It's not AvrohomHaTzaddik or Avrohom HaChossid or Avrohom HaKodosh, but Avrohom Ovinu.That's because he was like a true father, concerned and worried for the future welfare of his every child. There is no way in the world we could even try to describe his worry and concern over the foreboding golus that was to come. Two hundred andten years may have been the Jews' practical and physical amount of time they had actually spent in Mitzrayim. but to Avrohom and Yitzchak, no matter how successfulthey actually were at the time, mentally the golus had already started the momentHashem told him what would happen and therefore we have a total of 430 years.Yet, for all practical purposes his son was still not born untill 30 years later. The moment his son Yitzchok was born Avrohom's pain and concern started. And so for him we can begin counting the 400 years. Postscript : The Baal Shem Tov is known to have said: that "wherever someone'sthoughts are, there the person is actually found". What a fantastic insight! A boysitting in his classroom thinking about a baseball game is not really in the classroom. He's at the baseball game. Where he happens to be physically is not important at all. It's where his thoughts are that really count. If a person is playing baseball, but his mind is thinking about some gemorah he was learning in the morning, then he is reallysitting in the bais hamedrash. It just seems as if he is playing baseball. We all knowthat when it comes to holy things like korbonos, even a bad thought can invalidatea korbon. If chas v'sholom a person's mind is filled with filth, the consequences aredrastic. Never mind where he is. He can be sitting in the bais hamedrash. He canbe standing in the kodesh hakodoshim yet it will do him absolutely no good. He iswhere his mind is. |
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