In this week’s Torah portion the opening words, “Bo el’Pharaoh – Come to Pharaoh” are curious, as the normal terminology would be “Go to Pharaoh”.

Rabbi Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, explains that when the Torah uses the word “Come to Pharaoh” God is telling Moses “come with Me to Pharaoh”, reassuring Moses that God is right there by his side – delving in the depths of evil and impurity to help Moses in his endeavor and quest of being redeemed.

Our sages tells us that we all have a Moses and Pharaoh within us: a Moses that has aligned our will with God’s will, that clings to holiness and righteousness. And then we all have a Pharaoh: the part of us that is obstinate, selfish, stubborn, and keeps us enslaved. While we hope that we are more aligned to the Moses side of us, the Pharaoh side is important to address: to delve in the depths of our psyche – to discover that which is holding us back, that which keeps us enslaved to our self-imposed limitations. This could be based on our physical, emotional, and/or spiritual make up, history, experiences, etc. Often, it’s easier to go with the status quo than to shake things up. To address these issues, takes work, determination, and courage.

Even though things in Egypt were horrible for the Jews, four fifths of the Jews died during the plague of darkness because they wanted to remain in Egypt. Why would they want to stay there as slaves? Because change is hard. Addressing issues is hard. Getting past limitations is hard. Getting to truly know yourself to see where you can better fulfill your potential, connect to those around you and to God on a deeper, more expansive level, takes a lot of introspection and inner work. It takes change and that’s not always easy.

Yet, this is what’s needed to get to that next level and what God wants from us. So when we delve into the depths of ourselves, those parts of us that we’re apprehensive of exploring, of finding out why we are triggered by certain things in order to heal them, that Pharaoh part of ourselves – God encourages us and tells us that He is right there with us. He created us and created every situation - tailor made for us out of love to help fulfill our highest potential and to give us the highest pleasure.

Each part of ourselves that keeps us enslaved is just a door, waiting to be unlocked and explored, propelling us to further growth. God is there with us, just as He was with Moses. When we do this introspection and work, often those Pharaoh parts of ourselves are transformed to Moses – those parts of ourselves that then become aligned to God’s highest will and fully redeemed.

Exercise: When something triggers you, ask God to help you go inward to see why you were bothered by that. See if there is a bigger underlying reason and ask God to help you heal it.