This, then, should be one’s lifelong aim in the service of G-d with great joy—the joy of the soul upon leaving the loathsome body and returning, during one’s study of the Torah and service of G-d through prayer, to “her father’s house as in her youth,” i.e., to the unity with G-d that it enjoyed before it descended into the body.
וְזֹאת תִּהְיֶה עֲבוֹדָתוֹ כָּל יָמָיו בְּשִׂמְחָה רַבָּה, הִיא שִׂמְחַת הַנֶּפֶשׁ בְּצֵאתָהּ מֵהַגּוּף הַמְתוֹעָב, "וְשָׁבָה אֶל בֵּית אָבִיהָ כִּנְעוּרֶיהָ", בִּשְׁעַת הַתּוֹרָה וְהָעֲבוֹדָה,
This corresponds to the statement of our Sages11 that one ought to engage in teshuvah throughout his life.
וּכְמַאֲמַר רַבּוֹתֵינוּ־זִכְרוֹנָם־לִבְרָכָה: לִהְיוֹת כָּל יָמָיו בִּתְשׁוּבָה.
Surely, there is no joy as great as that of being released from exile and captivity. It is comparable to the joy of a prince who was taken captive and was subjected to the hard labor of turning the millstone in prison12 while covered with filth,
וְאֵין לְךָ שִׂמְחָה גְדוֹלָה כְּצֵאת מֵהַגָּלוּת וְהַשִּׁבְיָה, כִּמְשַׁל בֶּן מֶלֶךְ שֶׁהָיָה בְּשִׁבְיָה וְטוֹחֵן בְּבֵית הָאֲסוּרִים וּמְנֻוָּול בְּאַשְׁפָּה,
and who then goes free to the house of his father, the king.
וְיָצָא לַחָפְשִׁי – אֶל בֵּית אָבִיו הַמֶּלֶךְ.
Such a prince, descended from the Supreme King, is the soul—and by means of the Torah and the mitzvot, it is redeemed from the captivity and degradation imposed on it by the body.
True, the body remains abominable and loathsome, and as the Zohar says, it is called “a serpent’s skin,”13
וְאַף שֶׁהַגּוּף עוֹמֵד בְּשִׁיקּוּצוֹ וְתִיעוּבוֹ, וּכְמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב בַּזֹּהַר דְּנִקְרָא "מַשְׁכָּא דְחִוְיָא",
since the essential character of the animal soul has not been transformed to good so that it might be absorbed into the realm of holiness.
כִּי מַהוּתָהּ וְעַצְמוּתָהּ שֶׁל הַנֶּפֶשׁ הַבַּהֲמִית לֹא נֶהְפַּךְ לְטוֹב לִיכָּלֵל בִּקְדוּשָּׁה,
For, as explained above, the beinoni may indeed elevate the “garments” of the animal soul—the thought, speech, and action through which it expresses itself—by performing the mitzvot by means of his thought, speech, and action, but the essential character of the animal soul—its intellectual and emotional faculties—remains subject to the realm of kelipat nogah. How, then, can one be expected to rejoice, knowing that his body and animal soul are still in such an undesirable state?
Yet, let his divine soul be more precious to him than his loathsome body so that he rejoices in the soul’s joy at its liberation, through the observance of the Torah and the mitzvot, from the exile of the body, without letting the sadness on account of the lowly state of his body interfere with or disturb the joy of the soul.
מִכָּל מָקוֹם, תִּיקַר נַפְשׁוֹ בְּעֵינָיו – לִשְׂמוֹחַ בְּשִׂמְחָתָהּ יוֹתֵר מֵהַגּוּף הַנִּבְזֶה, שֶׁלֹּא לְעַרְבֵּב וּלְבַלְבֵּל שִׂמְחַת הַנֶּפֶשׁ בְּעִצְּבוֹן הַגּוּף.
This form of divine service—in which the divine soul breaks free of its exile within the body while the body and animal soul remain in their lowly state—is analogous to the Exodus from Egypt, of which it is written that “the people escaped.”14
וְהִנֵּה, בְּחִינָה זוֹ הִיא בְּחִינַת יְצִיאַת מִצְרַיִם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר בָּהּ: "כִּי בָרַח הָעָם",
The Jews told Pharaoh that they would leave Egypt for only three days, but upon being released from his land, they escaped.
At first glance, it seems strange: Why should it have been so, in a manner of flight? Had they demanded of Pharaoh that he set them free forever, would he not have been forced to do so, having been stricken by the Plagues?
דְּלִכְאוֹרָה הוּא תָּמוּהַּ, לָמָּה הָיְתָה כָּזֹאת? וְכִי אִילּוּ אָמְרוּ לְפַרְעֹה לְשַׁלְּחָם חָפְשִׁי לְעוֹלָם, לֹא הָיָה מוּכְרָח לְשַׁלְּחָם?
The explanation, the Alter Rebbe goes on to say, lies in the spiritual aspect of the Exodus, and this was reflected in its physical counterpart, just as every event in Jewish history reflects a parallel spiritual process.
The corporeal enslavement of the Jewish people in Egypt reflected the enslavement of their souls by the kelipah of Egyptian impurity. Their Exodus from Egypt likewise represented a spiritual liberation from this kelipah. Since the spiritual Exodus was an act of escape—i.e., their soul broke away and “escaped” from the impurity of Egypt, while the body and animal soul were still in exile within the kelipah—therefore, the physical Exodus likewise assumed the manner of an escape.
In the Alter Rebbe’s words:
But escape was necessary because the evil in the [animal] souls of Israel was still strong in the left part of the heart, the seat of the animal soul,
אֶלָּא, מִפְּנֵי שֶׁהָרָע שֶׁבְּנַפְשׁוֹת יִשְׂרָאֵל עֲדַיִין הָיָה בְּתָקְפּוֹ בֶּחָלָל הַשְּׂמָאלִי,
for their impurity (the impurity of kelipah) did not cease until the Giving of the Torah.15
כִּי לֹא פָסְקָה זוּהֲמָתָם עַד מַתַּן תּוֹרָה,
Yet, their aim and desire was that their divine soul leave the exile of the sitra achara—the impurity of Egypt—and that it cleave to G-d.16
רַק מְגַמָּתָם וְחֶפְצָם הָיְתָה לְצֵאת נַפְשָׁם הָאֱלֹהִית מִגָּלוּת הַסִּטְרָא אָחֳרָא, הִיא טוּמְאַת מִצְרַיִם, וּלְדָבְקָה בּוֹ יִתְבָּרֵךְ,
So it is written—that there is a divine service which consists of the divine soul’s “escape” from the impurity of the body and animal soul: “G-d is my strength and my fortress, my refuge in the day of affliction”17; “[He is] my high tower and my refuge”18; “and He is my escape….”19
וּכְדִכְתִיב: "ה' עוּזִּי וּמָעוּזִּי וּמְנוּסִי בְּיוֹם צָרָה וְגוֹ'", "מִשְׂגַּבִּי וּמְנוּסִי וְגוֹ'", "וְהוּא מָנוֹס לִי וְגוֹ'".
And the Exodus from Egypt exemplified this idea of “escape.”
Hence, it is written of the Redemption which will take place in the time to come, when G-d will remove the spirit of impurity from the earth and there will therefore be no evil necessitating spiritual escape: “[You will not go out in haste,] nor go in flight, for G-d will go before you.”20
וְלָכֵן, לֶעָתִיד, כְּשֶׁיַּעֲבִיר ה' רוּחַ הַטּוּמְאָה מִן הָאָרֶץ, כְּתִיב: "וּבִמְנוּסָה לֹא תֵלֵכוּן, כִּי הוֹלֵךְ לִפְנֵיכֶם ה' וְגוֹ'".
If the word teshuvah is understood only in the sense of repentance for sin, why the need for further repentance once one has already repented? However, teshuvah as explained here, returning the soul to its source, is something in which one may well engage throughout his life—whenever he studies Torah or performs a mitzvah.