Parshat Yitro In memory of Shimshon Ben Shalom

And it appears based on what came up in my mind to explain the following verse from the Prophets -

According to the words of the Holy Baal Shem Tov, may his merit be upon us, the following is said -

Before the arrival of the Moshiach (Redeemer), there will be a double layer of darkness in the world, a hiddenness within a hiddenness. Which means that there will be a great amount of concealment and a very mighty darkness on the land.

And behold, the purpose of this hiddenness is to understand and contemplate that even within the hiddenness, there too can be found the Lord! And that there is no place void of him, and only to HaShem is salvation. And if you come to this recognition, you then immediately become worthy to pull down heavenly kindness and mercy towards you, and you will be worthy for your own personal salvation filled with goodness.

As it has been explained by the Holy Rabbi of Ruzin, may he be remembered for eternal life, based on the following verse from Psalms.

The explanation on this verse is that King David is saying, until when HaShem will this darkness and the hiddenness of your face last? And within the verse is hidden the answer - עַד־אָ֨נָה אָשִׁ֪ית עֵצ֡וֹת בְּנַפְשִׁ֗י, which instead of reading as 'how long will I have cares on my mind' we can see it to mean that you will be in darkness all the while you think that you are the one to come up with solutions and you rely on yourself, and you don't internalize the darkness you are experiencing as a sign from the universe to your intellect that you need to put your trust in HaShem, which until then you won't experience salvation. However, when you come to recognize and know that salvation only comes from HaShem, then immediately you become worthy for that salvation.

And this is the secret of the verse in Jeremiah - ' If a man enters a hiding place, Do I not see him? —says the LORD.'

We see from the Talmud that -

All this is as if to say that all the while that this man, (which is secretly referring to The Holy One Blessed Be He), is in hiding in concealment, which is written in a plural language, implying a double level of being hidden, and then when that happens the advice there is אִם־יִסָּתֵ֨ר אִ֧ישׁ בַּמִּסְתָּרִ֛ים וַאֲנִ֥י לֹֽא - V'Ani Lo - to tell yourself that this has nothing to do with you, and you must know within your soul and to truly believe that you can't effect this hiddenness, and only from HaShem can come salvation, and then you will be worthy to seeing the declaration of HaShem, which then leads to being worthy to see the salvation of HaShem in your life.

And this is the interpretation of the verse, 'Moses approached the darkness', and over there Rashi explains this darkness as the following -

As we can see from Rashi, we are dealing with a double and triple level of darkness where HaShem is hidden. You can see and find the Lord there within that concealment, and you should know and believe that everything issues forth from HaShem. And through this mindset you become worthy to be like Moses in which the verse says, VaYomer HaShem El Moshe, using the name for the attribute of mercy from HaShem, which can be explained as HaShem being reveled via the attribute of mercy, and in the merit of faith especially when things are dark, we are worthy to pull down and receive kindness and mercy from the above.