V'heishivcha Hashem Mitzrayim b'aniyos... (28:68)
The Maor vaShemesh in P' Bo explains the pasuk by mattan Torah (P' VaEschanan) "anochi omeid bein Hashem u'beineichem" that the human ego, the "anochi" inside each and every one of us, is the biggest obstacle standing between man and G-d.
Similarly, I can't recall who says it, but there is a chassidishe vort on the pasuk in Yirmiyahyu (23:24)
אִם־יִסָּתֵ֨ר אִ֧ישׁ בַּמִּסְתָּרִ֛ים וַאֲנִ֥י לֹֽא־אֶרְאֶ֖נּוּ
as saying that אִם־יִסָּתֵ֨ר אִ֧ישׁ בַּמִּסְתָּרִ֛ים וַאֲנִ֥י even if a person is b'hisbodedus, locked away in an ivory tower separated from all sin, but he has his "ani," his ego, that is still in place, then Hashem says לֹֽא־אֶרְאֶ֖נּוּ I don't want to see such a person.
Maybe that's what our pasuk in the tochacha is telling us. In galus when we cannot see G-d openly there's more of an opportunity to think we are in control. Hashem says be careful, or that "Ani"-yos, that ego trip, will put you back in Mitzrayim, alongside Pharoah who though he was the master of the Nile. (See the Igra d'Kallah for a similar idea.)
Egosaurus Rex.
ReplyDeleteboarded the teivah when No One was looking.
or so he thought...