All in all, Zev is a good boy. He listens to his parents, respects his teachers, does his homework, and gets along with the boys in his class. Still, his parents and teachers are constantly encouraging: him, "C'mon, Zev, be a little more lebedik in your davening. Let's see a little bit more chayus in your learning."

Zev often shrugs his shoulders. "What do they want from me?" he thinks to himself. "I do what I am supposed to do. Isn't that enough?"

Perhaps we can help Zev by pointing out a lesson from this week's parshah. Here we learn about the makos that led to the geulah from golus Mitzrayim. But golus Mitzrayim is not just a thing of the past. We all have our own personal Mitzrayim that we should overcome and leave.

What does being in Mitzrayim mean to us today? It means behaving in a way that makes our neshamah feel that it is in golus.

Let's see how the makos that led to our people's geulah can teach us how to get away from our own personal Mitzrayim.

The first makah was dam - the water of the Nile River turned into blood. Why was the water struck first before the plants, animals, people, and houses in Mitzrayim? And why did it turn into blood rather than something else?

Water is cold and wet. Often, a person who does not get excited and is not enthusiastic is called a cold person. And when a person is not excited about something any more, we say he has "cooled down" - his spirits have been "dampened."

Kedushah, holiness, is bursting with life. It's warm and full of energy and lebedikeit - the opposite of coldness.

The first step in breaking the wall of Golus Mitzrayim was to change the water into blood. And the first step in overcoming our personal Golus Mitzrayim is to change our cool and unexcited attitude toward Torah and mitzvos into lebedik, warm enthusiasm to do HaShem's will.

In order to really change, it helps to understand how we become enthusiastic and how the yetzer hora tries to spoil everything. Sometimes, we see clearly how hashgachah protis works, or we may even experience HaShem's care for us through miracles. We feel very close to Him. We thank Him and are filled with enthusiasm for Torah and mitzvos.

For example, we may be learning the story told in the Talmud (Taanis 25a) about the daughter of Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa. She was very sad one Friday afternoon. By accident, she poured vinegar into her Shabbos lamps instead of oil. She knew that vinegar doesn't burn, but her father told her not worry. He said, "HaShem Who commanded the oil to burn can also command the vinegar to burn." Her wicks burned with the vinegar that Shabbos.

The yetzer hora can then come to us and say: "So you're excited about this miracle, are you? You're very enthusiastic and have decided to study more Torah and perform mitzvos more carefully? Well, just a moment. Really, you are getting all wound up just because of a miracle or two. It's not such a big deal. After all, if you believe HaShem can do anything, then He can make vinegar burn, too... Why get all excited?"

Well, we should get excited. It's not enough to just do what we're supposed to do coldly, without any spirit. We should have lebedikeit and serve HaShem with enthusiasm and energy. This is the first step toward leaving our own individual golus and the golus in the world.

(Adapted from Likkutei Sichos, Vol. I, p. 121)