With all your essence

We learn from the Haggadah that Hashem redeemed us from Egypt with his Essence (“not with an angel, not with a saraf, not with a messenger”). This was done, because in our “levushim”, our external characteristics, we have fallen — Hashem had to evoke the Essence of our soul in order to awake our true identity.

The same way we learn that Rabbi Akiva argued that each plague consisted of five sub-plagues. These five levels correspond to the four levels constituting the fabric of reality¹, plus the fifth, essential level. This, again, shows the true nature of the Exodus — the miracles performed penetrated the world to its core, softening it up for both our redemption and the giving of Torah (which would allow the union of the spiritual and the physical, heretofore not possible).

The practical lesson for us is that we have to use our essence when serving Hashem. We cannot treat being a Jew as a levush, as a role. “I am a student, I am a brother, I am a husband, I am a citizen, nu, I am also a Jew.” We cannot just use an aspect of our personality for Yiddishkeit — an angel, a saraf, a messenger. We have to use our full self, “down to its innermost depths”.

And in learning and doing mitzvos, we have to get to the deepest level — to the fifth level of Torah. Everybody knows there is parde"s: the four levels of interpretation of Torah (literal, allegorical, homiletic and mystical). Just like there are four levels of the soul (nefesh, ruach, neshama, chaya). Just like there are for worlds (Asiyah, Yetzira, Briah, Atzilus). But behind all this there is the Essence. At the core of the worlds there is G-d Himself. At the beginning of Hashem’s four-lettered Name, there is the tip of the Yud. At the core of the soul there is Yechida. And at the core of Torah there is Chassidus.

Using Chassidus we can see the Essence in everything, and we can allow ourselves to “leap over” our internal and external limitations. I am not talking about just limud ha’Chassidus, the learning of Chassidus Chabad. I am also talking about darkei ha’Chassidus — the paths of Chassidus Chabad. These paths are the roadmap to geulah, the time when the hidden fifth level will be revealed in the outer four.

Just like the ten makkos, each consisting of five levels, “softened up” the world, preparing it for the Exodus and for giving of the Torah (the union of the spiritual and the physical), the same way Chassidus Chabad, when studied and practiced by every Jew, brings closer the time of our redemption and the union of G-d with His world.

__________________
¹ These four levels are traditionally knows as air, fire, earth and water, which the Rebbe says correspond to the electromagnetic, gravitational, strong nuclear and weak nuclear forces. The fifth level corresponds to hyulie — the aspect of reality which contains the potential for existence, out of which all reality comes out.

On the other hand, in the computer game Quest for Glory IV: The Shadows of Mordavia (my personal favorite in the series), the fifth secret element was pizza.