Escaping the imaginative slavery by Reb Noson of Breslev.

We left Egypt more than 3,000 years ago. But it is likely that subconsciously to this day, we are still enslaved to Pharaoh in Egypt as if God had not yet redeemed us.

What was so bad in Egypt?

The Torah tells us: 

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The Egyptians enslaved the children of Israel with back-breaking labor. And they embittered their lives with hard work, with mortar and with bricks and with all kinds of tasks in the fields. (Exodus 1:13-14)

Reb Noson of Breslev teaches us that the cruel story described in these verses above is not just a story that happened many years ago. This story is happening now!

But this time, sadly, those who exert us are not a foreign and alienated nation, but none other than ourselves.

We often become the same cruel Egyptians who enslaved us. And to be more precise, it is not we ourselves, but our power of imagination that drives our lust for money.

Just as the Egyptians enslaved us back in time--our imaginative power is ruthlessly enslaving us today. It embitters our lives with hard work, with mortar and bricks - working like donkeys from morning to night, abandoning our souls to earn a few more pennies, "with all kinds of tasks in the fields" - willing to leave our homes and travel far away for the lust of money.

The power of imagination convinces us that to be satisfied, we must work hard, exert ourselves to build the Pithom and Raamses - tall buildings and luxurious houses, and work endlessly to make more money.

To be saved from this back-breaking labor, we must rise above the "Egyptians" of today.

How do we subdue them today as we defeated them then?

Our Sages write in several places that the Exodus from Egypt was accredited to Yosef HaTzaddik. 

What was the essence of Yosef HaTzaddik? 

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(?????? ??, ??).

And Yosef sustained his father and his brothers and his father's entire household [with] bread according to the young children. (Genesis 47:12).

Yosef HaTzaddik gave charity.

That is why we always refer to Yosef as "Tzaddik" - "Yosef HaTzaddik" - "Yosef the righteous." Because giving is the attribute of the righteous, as the verse in Tehilim says:

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"the Righteous one is gracious and gives." (Psalms 37:21).

Thanks to Yosef HaTzaddik, thanks to charity - we left Egypt.

Even today, by giving charity, the supernal colors that are hidden within money begin to shine, and the power of imagination for the lust of money is subdued. We become serene, content, and happy with what God has graced us and stop enslaving ourselves with back-breaking labor.

Thanks to charity, we left Egypt back then, and thanks to charity, we will likewise get out of the slavery of 2021.

(based on Reb Noson's Likutei Halachot, Yoreh Deah, Laws of Idol Worship 3:4)