Musar על גיטין 112:18

We are told in 14,20 that after the angel of the Lord took up his position between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of the Israelites, ולא קרב זה אל זה כל הלילה, "that one did not approach the other during the entire night." We may understand the word לילה to be an allusion to לילית, one of the perennial accusers of the Jewish people. The Torah tells us that the efforts of Lilith during that night to accuse Israel at the Celestial Court failed. When the Torah writes in 15,26 that if the Jewish people listen to G–d's voice and perform His commandments: כל המחלה אשר שמתי במצרים לא אשים עליך, "I will not set the whole מחלה against you but against Egypt," the Torah refers to the "harlot" Machalat. I have found in the commentary of Rabbenu Bachyah that the word אשר which can also be rad as ראש, has the same numerical value as the abbreviation of the Ten Plagues mentioned in the name of Rabbi Yehudah in הגדה של פסח, דצ"ך עד"ש באח"ב =501. .

We find that the שר של מצרים, Egypt's spiritual representative in the Celestial Spheres, was called בכור, i.e. he was the first or senior of the representatives of the seventy Gentile nations. We have explained previously that this spiritual representative of Egypt was described in פרשת מקץ as the מרכבת המשנה, G–d's secondary chariot or carrier. Egypt was second only to the land of Israel in this respect. The land of Israel was G–d's own share in this world. Egypt, however, played the role of first-born amongst the 70 Gentile nations. As a corollary we find that physically speaking, Esau was a first-born, for it was his respective שר who appeared first at the Celestial Court. This שר is a powerful force seeing that his protege became the instrument that destroyed the Holy Temple because of our sins, as mentioned in Psalms 137,7 where the Jewish people are reported as asking G–d to redress that outrage. Alas, this שר is still very powerful. We must view the שר של מצרים as the first of a number of forces who succeeded in dominating Israel in exile. G–d humiliated that force at the time of the Exodus. The שר של עשו, on the other hand, is the very last of such forces. He is so powerful that the present exile is called the גלות אדום. He may therefore be considered the head of the existing שרים. It is this force that Jeremiah refers to in Lamentations 1,5: "Its (Israel's) oppressors have become לראש, a head." Whenever an oppressor of Israel is temporarily successful, he becomes a ראש, head. What all this means is that whereas the שכינה, G–d's Presence, does not depart from Israel, does not ignore what happens to Israel, these happenings are nonetheless delegated by G–d to a שר. When our sages frequently describe the שכינה as being in exile, this is what they mean. When a שר assumes a role as ראש, this means that G–d's Presence has subordinated itself, so to speak. In practice this means that Esau has regained his position as Isaac's first-born and will retain it until the redemption, when G–d will de-throne him. All the above is an "external" view of things.

We have been handed over to the dominion of a force which after all originated in the regions of sanctity and purity, i.e. we have been subjected to their ראש, which is metaphor for their origin in Holy Spheres. These pagans are not allowed, however, to have sin-offerings presented on their behalf on the altar of the Holy Temple because their sin-offerings are impurity personified. All of this is the mystical dimension of the 70 bulls the Jewish people offered on behalf of the Gentile nations during the course of the holiday of Tabernacles as described in Numbers 29,14-34. It will be explained there in greater detail. While we have said that Esau was first-born from the physical aspect, i.e. that he was born first, we nonetheless look forward to the time of the redemption when it is he who will become the עקב, heel, not Jacob. When the Torah describes Jacob as holding on to the heel of Esau in Genesis 25,27, this is an allusion to Esau being the last of the שרים to have dominion over Israel at any time.