The Creator never left Israel in exile, before He came to place His Shechina with them. It is even more so with Jacob, that when he went down to exile, the Creator and His Shechina and the upper holy ones and the Merkavot, all came down with Jacob, as it is written, “Who came to Egypt with Jacob.” This settles the question that even though He said, “I will go down to Egypt with you,” it does not mean He alone, but rather with His Shechina and armies and Merkavot. This is the conduct of the Creator in all the exiles, as Ezekiel revealed in the exile in Babylon (Zohar for All, Vol. 4, “Shmot,” Chapter 59).

What does it mean that He came to place His Shechina with them? We think that there is something in which the Creator does not act. But in reality, there is only one force operating in all of creation, within us: the Creator, the light.

Exile is a special state of creation that the light deliberately generates in it, in the desire it created, in order to lower it, to distance it from Himself, and to create a desire for Him in it.

The light precisely measures all the states of exile, which includes all the troubles that will manifest in the desire to receive, all the emptiness, all the suffering.

The reverse side of the light, of the Creator, operates in exile, as it is written: “I have hardened Pharaoh’s heart.” The Creator was also present within the flood and in other such events.

After all, “There is none else besides Him.” Exile is a form of the action of the light, of the Creator, in its opposite, reverse side in a clearly measured, precise way, in all gradations of qualities corresponding to each desire, each soul, in all their interconnections.

Therefore, it is evident that the Creator, the light, is together with the people in exile, continuously acting upon and sustaining them. He Himself creates this exile through His reverse, shadow side, as King David said: “You surround me from the front and the back (with light and darkness).”

And when there is no longer a need for the light to act through its reverse side, that is, through darkness—when He has sufficiently stirred and awakened the desire (Kli) and it truly strives toward the direct side of the light, toward bestowal—then He draws the Kli out of exile into redemption.

Only the light is the sole active force—whether through its reverse or direct side. And thus, all of exile is His preparation for us for our redemption.
[12661]
From Daily Kabbalah lesson 4/12/10, The Zohar “Shmot”

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