Divine Purpose in Exile

צא ולמד מה ביקש לבן כו’ פרעה לא גזר כו’. Go out and learn, Lavan wanted to get rid of the entire Jewish Nation, and Paroh only decreed to kill the males בא לפרש כי גלות מצרים הי’ רק לטובה. The Haggadah is explaining to us that the actual exile in Mitzrayim was only for our benefit. (Not only was the redemption for our benefit, but the actual exile was also. כי לבן ביקש לעקור הכל. והי’ העצה ע”י ירידתנו למצרים. For Lavan wanted to completely uproot everything (the entire Jewish Nation), and the solution was to go down into the exile of Mitzrayim. כי בפרעה הי’ הגלות מה שבנ”י היו תחת ידו. וז”ש שגזר רק על הזכרים כי פי’ זכר המשפיע אשר לו הכח. וע”ז גזר פרעה שיהיו בנ”י בחי’ נקיבה שאין להם השליטה והכח. אבל לא לעקור הכל. כי בנ”י היו רק בגלות תחת ידו. For with Paroh the exile was that Bnei Yisrael were under his control. As the Haggadah says that Paroh decreed to destroy the males. The concept of male is the one that creates the energy, for he has the power. And Paroh’s decree on the males was that Bnei Yisrael should all be like females meaning that they don’t have control and power, yet Paroh did not want to uproot them completely he just wanted them to be under his control. אבל לבן ביקש לעקור הכל. As opposed to Lavan who completely wanted to uproot us. וע”י שירדו אבותינו למצרים וזכו לצאת משם עי”ז נדחית מחשבת לבן. וז”ש ארמי אובד כו’ וירד מצרימה שעל ידי לבן נצרך לירידת מצרים כנ”ל: Now through the exile of our forefathers into Mitzrayim, and their redemption from there, the evil thoughts of Lavan were pushed away. This is the meaning of the words “The Arami (Lavan) wanted to kill my father and we went to Mitzrayim”, that because of Lavan we needed to go down to Mitzrayim. As above. (The Sfas Emes does not explain the difference between these two levels. Perhaps we can explain it as follows: Both Paroh and Lavan are expressions of the negative force in the world. These forces can present themselves as either complete heresy and absolute denial of HaShem – represented in Lavan, or as misuse of the truth (Paroh). The difference between the two is that on the level of complete heresy, it is extremely difficult to recover from. However the second level may pose severe restrictions yet when we are able to recover from it, we are able to use all that energy of the negative forces for the good. [The power of the female is to take whatever it receives])