Why The Pain

This discourse was delivered by the Rebbe on Shabbat Parshat Vaera, 5727 (1967). The Sedra tells us that even though Moses came to redeem the Jewish people, they could not listen because of their distress from hard labour. Rabbi Shneur Zalman explains that the Jewish people's bitter suffering in Egypt was actually a necessary purification of the world, making it possible for the Torah to be given at Sinai and for the Mitzvot to have a transformative effect on reality.