89. Rabbi Elazar and Rabbi Yosi were journeying from Tiberias to Tzipori. While they were walking, a Jew met them and said, "The burden of Egypt. Behold, Hashem rides on a swift cloud and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at His presence" (Yeshayah 19:1). Come and behold, All the kings of the world and all the nations of the world are considered as nothing before the Holy One, blessed be He, as is written, "And all the inhabitants of the earth are considered as nothing: and He does according to His will in the host of heaven" (Daniel 4:32). Here in Egypt, despite all these acts of power and the raised hand that the Holy One, blessed be He, revealed, it is written, "Behold, Hashem rides upon a swift cloud and shall come into Egypt." What is the difference? This was not so by all the nations of the world, rather the Holy One, blessed be He, ordered a decree and it was done. Yet here IN EGYPT, He Himself came TO CARRY PUNISHMENT UPON THEM, as is written, "And shall come into Egypt," and, "I will pass over the land of Egypt... I am Hashem" (Shemot 12:12).
90. AND HE ANSWERS, Because the King came to take out the Queen that was there, and because of the honor of the Queen, WHO IS THE SHECHINAH THAT DESCENDED WITH THEM TO EXILE, He came. Since the Holy One, blessed be He, wanted Her honor, He came to raise Her, and extended His hand to Her so as to lift Her up, as the Holy One, blessed be He, will do at the end of the exile of Edom.
91. Rabbi Yisa said, If it be so, THAT THE HOLY ONE, BLESSED BE HE, CAME TO EGYPT because of the Queen, why was it not also thus in the exile of Babylon when the Queen was also there? He said to him, We have learned that the sin caused it, because they married foreign women, and they brought the Holy Covenant into foreign domain. Therefore, the miracles and signs were lost from them that should have been done for them. Not so in the exile of Egypt where they were all the Tribes of Yah. The children of Yisrael came INTO EXILE and the children of Yisrael left EXILE, MEANING WITHOUT SIN.
92. By the Exile of Edom, the Holy One, blessed be He, wishes to be honored in the world and to come Himself to uplift the Queen and shake the dust from Her. Woe to the one who is present before Him at the time when He will say, "Shake the dust off yourself, arise and sit down, O Jerusalem, loose yourself from the bands of your neck" (Yeshayah 52:2). Who are the king and the people who will stand up before Him?
93. "And the idols of Egypt shall be moved from before him" (Yeshayah 19:1). It is written, "the idols of Egypt," not of the stones and trees of which they made the idols; but on all the levels of the supernal appointees and those who worshipped them below, THEY ARE MOVED AND PUNISHED. Wherever Yisrael exiled, the Holy One, blessed be He, seeks them and they are accepted from among those nations.
94. Come and behold, it is written, "Thus said Hashem, 'My people went down aforetime to Egypt to sojourn there, and Ashur oppressed them without cause'" (Yeshayah 52:4). THIS IS the complaint that the Holy One, blessed be He, made against Assyria. He said, 'See what Assyria has done to Me. To Egypt, upon whom I have rendered all these punishment, My people descended to sojourn among them, and the Egyptians accepted them among them, and gave them the best of the land, which is the land of Goshen. Even though the Egyptians persecuted them in exile, they did not take away the land from them, as is written, "Only in the land of Goshen where the children of Yisrael were..." (Shemot 9:26). It was the best part of the land of Egypt, as is written, "In the best part of the land in the land of Ramses" (Beresheet 47:11), WHICH WAS IN GOSHEN. Moreover, they caused them no loss, as is written, "But of the cattle of the children of Yisrael..." (Shemot 9:6). SO WE SEE THAT THEY DID NOT STEAL THEIR ANIMALS, yet still altogether they were punished with many punishments.
95. "And Ashur oppressed them without cause." For they cast them in a land at the end of the world, and took away their land. Now the Egyptians, who had done so many favors for Yisrael, were punished with so many punishments. Then Ashur, Edom and the other nations that oppressed them, and killed them, and took away their money would most certainly be punished. For the Holy One, blessed be He, desired to glorify His Name over them, as is written, "I will magnify Myself and sanctify Myself and I will make Myself known" (Yechezkel 38:23). This happened in Egypt with one king, and IN THE COMPLETE REDEMPTION THAT WILL COME ABOUT, it will be with all the kings of the world.