A vort of the Rebbe on this week's parshah, Parshat Shemot. The pasuk says וימררו את חייהם, that the Mitzrayim, the Egyptians, made the life of the Yidden bitter בעבודה קשה, with hard labor, בחומר ובלבנים, with cement and with bricks, ובכל עבודה בשדה, and with all kinds of work in the field, את כל עבודתם אשר עבדו בהם בפרך. Everything that they made them work, they made them work very hard. Now, from here we see that they made them work all kinds of works. Nevertheless, the Torah specifies בחומר ובלבנים, cement and bricks. Why does this Torah specify that when really they made them work all kinds of work? So the Chazal tell us, this is the lashon in Gemara, in Midrash: בתחילה בחומר ובלבנים, it started off by making them work with cement and with bricks, ולבסוף בכל עבודה בשדה, and later it went on to other types of work. But we have to understand that even though it seems like they only started with חומר ובלבנים, with cement and with bricks, and later it changed, it's not so. The whole time, the main work that they did was בחומר ובלבנים. As we actually see that even towards the end of the galut, when it got a little bit worse, how did it get worse? Pharaoh told him, \"Till now I would supply the straw for you for the bricks, and now you have to find it yourself.\" So we see that even at the end, the main thing was the making the bricks out of the cement, that's why when he wanted to make it harder, he did it concerning the bricks. So be'emes, when it says בתחילה and the Chazal tell us בתחילה, first it was חומר ובלבנים, it doesn't just mean first in time. It means first in importance, that the most important thing for Pharaoh was that the Yidden should work in making חומר ובלבנים, cement and making bricks out of it. Why? Why was that the main work he wanted?

So to explain it על פי חסידות, על פי פנימיות, the Rebbe explains it like this: we know that Pharaoh represents kelipah, the evil forces of the world. We know that the evil forces try to do exactly what kedushah does, what there is supposed to be done in the holy way, but complete opposite. In kedushah, our job is, as it says in מדרש, נתאוה הקדוש ברוך הוא להיות לו יתברך דירה בתחתונים. Hashem desired, wanted that he, להיות לו, he should have a dwelling place in this world, which means the Aibershter wanted a house for the Aibershter, for Hashem in this world. And that's why we know that every time we do a mitzvah, we do a good deed, we're adding another stone to the dirah, to the house that we're building for Hashem. Now, kelipah wants the same. The evil forces of the world also want you to make a dirah, a house, but not for Hashem, but a house for kelipah, a house for the evil forces. So really what kelipah wants is that the Yidden should make a dirah for the kelipah, a house for the kelipah. Now, we know a house is made up of stones or bricks, and that's what they want. So in order to symbolize that, Pharaoh made the Yidden work by חומר ובלבנים, with cement and with bricks, for Pharaoh, representing the idea that he wants them to make a dirah, make a dwelling place, a house for Pharaoh, for kelipah, which is represented in the bricks.

But we do see a difference. To make a house, you could make it out of stones, אבנים, or you could make it out of bricks, which is לבנים. What's the difference between אבנים and לבנים? So it says in Chassidut, in sefarim, that אבנים are בידי שמים. Stones are natural, made by Hashem. They're made naturally in the mountain, and you chop out from the mountain stones. Bricks is בידי אדם. Bricks is made by human beings. So in kedushah, which everything is connected to שמים, the house that we make for Hashem is represented in stones, in אבנים, because that's בידי שמים. That represents the idea that we're making a house for Hashem, for שמים. Kelipah, which is not שמים, the opposite of שמים, so kelipah, when it wants a house, it's represented in making bricks, because bricks is בידי אדם, something that's human. Kelipah is nothing to do with שמים. So there it was with לבנים, and that's why Pharaoh wanted that the Yidden should work with חומר ובלבנים, דוקא לבנים, which is bricks made by a human, not אבנים, which is בידי שמים, which represents kedushah. And from here we have to see, we see that the lesson that the Yid has to know that every mitzvah that he does, he adds another brick, another stone mean to the דירה לו יתברך, to the house of Hashem in this world. Every time someone does something wrong, an aveirah or something wrong, he's adding a brick to the dirah, to the house for klipah. So we have to be very, very careful. And practically speaking, when we add to make the dirah for Hashem, now any mitzvah we do we bring Hashem into this world, but the real, real dirah is the Beit Hamikdash, which will be rebuilt by Mashiach. So we have to remember every time we do a mitzvah, we're adding another stone to the Beit Hamikdash. Chas veshalom, if you do an aveirah, you add a stone, which is really a brick, to the klipah. And by understanding the difference, we know how important it is for us to do mitzvot, and this will hasten the coming of Mashiach, and the rebuilding of the Beit Hamikdash with stones, when Mashiach will come, במהרה בימינו בקרוב ממש.