A vort from the Rebbe on this week's parshah, Parshas Shemot. In the beginning of Parshas Shemot, it says ואלה שמות בני ישראל, the Torah counts the names of the Yidden who entered into Mitzrayim. And Rashi says, אף על פי שמנאם בחייהם בשמותם, even though Hashem counted them already in their lifetime with their names, חזר ומנאם במיתתם, he counted them again after they died, להודיע חיבתם, to show their love, how much the Eibershter loves the Yidden, שנמשלו לכוכבים, the Yidden are compared to the stars. And by the stars we find שמוציאם ומכניסם במספר ובשמותם, that Hashem takes them in and brings them in with their number, he counts them, and with their names, שנאמר, like it says, המוציא במספר צבאם לכולם בשם יקרא. That means that Rashi compares the Yidden to the stars, that there is a love that the Eibershter has to the Yidden in these two ways like by the stars. He loves them by counting them and by calling them by their names.

And the Rebbe explains, what are these two inyanim of love that we show by counting them and by also calling them by their names? These two inyanim seem to be two opposites. When you count things, you're counting the things because of the common denominator that's there in all the things. You have a lot of things which are the same and you want to know how much you have, so you count each one as one, and it doesn't matter each one of its own maalos, its own specialties. One that's special and better does is not counted like two, the one that's less is not counted like half. They're all counted because of their common denominator that they all have something in common. On the other hand, when you call things by their names, it's the opposite. It means that you're relating to it according to each individual thing. The name represents the individuality of the things, so you're connecting to the individuality of each thing. So here we have two opposites. And what Rashi is trying to tell us that the Eibershter loves the Yidden with both things. The Eibershter loves the Yidden, each Yid, because of something that he has in common with every other Yid. There's one thing that every Yid has, which is the neshamah. The neshamah is a נפש אלוקית, which is a חלק אלוקה ממעל ממש, which is the part of Hashem. Every Yid has that, every Yid is the same. Then every Yid has his own maalos that he has, his own qualities. And the Eibershter loves the Yidden for both ways: he loves every Yid because he's a Yid, he's part of Klal Yisrael, so he is a Yid, so he has the same neshama as everybody else has, and that's a way the Aibershter loves every Yid, but he also loves him because of who he is as an individual. And that's what Rashi is trying to say here, that the Aibershter loves because he calls them, he counts them, counting means the stress of everyone being the same, the fact that you're all one unit, and also because of the individual of every Yid. Which means the Aibershter loves every Yid for two, from two points: he loves every Yid as being just because he's a Yid, and that is what Klal Yisrael is, every Yid is part of Klal Yisrael, and he loves every Yid specifically b'yechidut, every Yid as who he is, as a yachid, as an individual.

It's similar a little bit to what happened by Matan Torah, when Hashem said the עשרת הדיברות, he started off with saying אנכי השם אלקיך, \"I am Hashem, your God\". The word אלקיך is לשון יחיד, it's singular. And the Chazal tell us that why did Hashem use the singular? Two opposite reasons. One is because when you speak to a group as a whole and they're all part of the same group, you could use לשון יחיד, you could use singular לשון. Another peshat is that he spoke to every Yid individually, לשון יחיד, every Yid felt that he's speaking to me individually. And it's not a contradiction, it's true, Hashem spoke and gave the Torah to every single Yid because he's part of Klal Yisrael, so everyone in Klal Yisrael is the same, and he gave the Torah to Klal Yisrael, and also he spoke to every Yid singularly, specifically, because he gave the Torah to every single Yid as who he is himself. And the same thing here, the Aibershter shows the love to every Yid based on these two things: by counting them, which means it's the common denominator every Yid has, that Klal Yisrael is the same, and also to every Yid individually, the Eibershter loves every Yid specifically because who he is as an individual.