This week's parsha features Moshe's "Mateh", the stick with which he and Aharon conduct the plagues. The Mateh is mentioned no less than five times in connection with the plagues, and a further two times in the presence of Pharaoh - when Moshe turned it into a serpent, and when it ate the sticks of Pharaoh's magicians.

The stick is also featured in last week's parsha, during the episode of Moshe and the Burning Bush. In that episode, Moshe claims that if he goes to the Bnai Yisrael and tells them that Hashem is about to take them out of Mitzrayim, they won't believe him. Hashem then asks Moshe "What is that in your hand," and Moshe responds, "A Mateh - a stick".

Several question are raised by these episodes. First, why does Hashem need to ask Moshe what he has in his hand? Doesn't Hashem know that it is a stick? Second, why does Hashem prove His intentions to Moshe through the stick? Why not in a more direct manner? And in the episode before Pharaoh, why does the stick revert to being a stick before it consumes the others? And lastly, why is the stick such a necessary part of the plagues?

We begin the answer by going back to the Sin of Adam Harishon. As we discussed in that parsha, the snake convinced Chava and Chava convinced Adam to eat from the Etz Hada'at. Once this happened, their eyes were opened and they knew good from bad, just as the snake had said they would. In fact, Hashem banishes them from Gan Eden and places a firey angel and overturning sword to block the path, "since he is now one of us, knowing good from bad, lest he eat from the Etz Hachaim as well and live forever." Was the snake right, that Hashem was now "afraid" as it were that Adam would become His equal?

The Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim answers that there are two levels of "knowledge". The first is knowledge of truth and falsehood, while the second, lower level of knowledge, is the knowledge of good and bad. In the first level, our vision is so clear and lucid that the truth is clear to the viewer, and the opposite is clearly falsehood. Under these conditions, the entire will of man would be to do truth and to follow the truth.

On the second level, our vision is much more clouded. Truth is not clear. From an objective state of truth and falsehood, man moves to the subjective reality of good and bad. A certain person considers one thing good, while another person considers it bad.

The Rambam compares these two levels to reality and imagination. The first level, the level of objective truth and falsehood, is the level of true reality. The second level, the level of subjective good and bad, is the level where imagination lies, and it is on a lower level. This is the level where a person can imagine, for instance, a plane that claps its hands with its wings, then turns and offers coffee to all of its passengers. Of course, this could never happen in reality, but it can certainly happen in the world of imagination.

The world of objective truth is represented by "sechel" - the intelligence - while imagination can also be represented by the imaginary "truths" that are demonstrated by magicians or sorcerers.

Adam Harishon knew with his intelligence what he had been told by Hashem - that he was prohibited from eating from the Etz Hada'at. Yet the snake worked sorcery on Chava and Adam by showing them that they would not die if they ate from the tree. In fact, the word "Nachash" is compared in Tanach to magic and falsehood: "Ki Lo Nachash BeYaakov Velo Kesem BeYisrael", and "Lo Tenachashu Velo Te'onenu"). So we see that the "nachash", the snake, is the source of all sorcery, of the false reality that is passed off as true in order to mislead others.

As a result of this fabricated reality that the snake conjured for them, Adam and Chava lowered themselves into the world where imagination gets mistaken for reality, and where true objective reality cannot always be seen because it is blocked by imagination. In this reality, the imagination takes over and subverts the body's strength and intelligence.

The only correction for such a reality is death - where the neshama and its ability to view objective truth is extracted from the body and the fact that the body limits the neshama to the world of imaginary truth. It is only through such a separation that a person can once again achieve the world of objective truth and finally see the world for what it really is. If Adam were to eat from the Etz Hachaim, he would never have the ability to rise above the world of imagination and reclaim the world of objective truth.

The Torah provides the world with the path to achieving an awareness of the objective truth. And the Bnai Yisrael is the nation that is meant to be the correction in this world for Adam's sin. But in order to begin that correction - that tikkun - we needed to be put into the depths of Mitzrayim - the place that was more immersed in sorcery and magic than anywhere else, and precisely from within that society, to rise up and come out into a world where that sorcery could be defeated.

So the Bnai Yisrael spent 210 years living in Mitzrayim, where they were exposed to every form of false magic and sorcery. People believed that they were gods, the Pharaoh was believed to have created the Nile and all sources of water, and magicians and sorcerers were the most honored people in society, and held advisory roles in the royal court.

And when Hashem's salvation was set to begin, He began by asking Moshe "What is that in your hand?"

Moshe could have answered one of three words. "Makel" - a stick used to hit and scold. Moshe was a shepherd, who needed a stick to keep his flocks in order. That could have been the purpose of his stick. Or, he could have said "Mishenet" - a walking stick used by the elderly and infirm - Moshe was 80 years old, and that could have been the stick's purpose. Or, he could have said "Mateh", which is a term denoting honor and respect. The Torah refers to the shvatim as "Mateh", not as "Shevet". The word "Mateh" also comes from the word "LeHatot" - to divert. Through the stick, things would be diverted back to their true roots.

Moshe claimed that the Bnai Yisrael wouldn't listen to him, and Hashem wanted to see which quality of the stick was Moshe's tendency - to hit and scold, to rely on others, or to show the way back to the true roots. Moshe said, "Mateh", and Hashem then showed him how to use the stick as a true "Mateh" and show the way toward the true roots.

Hashem told Moshe to throw the stick down. It turned into a snake, which the Malbim says was to illustrate the imagination's attempt to take over and dominate the intelligence. Hashem then told Moshe to grab the snake by the tail, illustrating that the intelligence once again took control of the imagination, and the snake turned back into the stick.

And when Moshe stood before Pharaoh, he threw his stick on the ground and it turned into a "tannin" - not a snake, but a serpent. Here, before Pharaoh, it could not be the source of all evil that the snake represented, because this was the beginning of Hashem's mastery over Pharaoh. Instead, the Torah uses the word "tannin", to indicate that its essence was different.

Pharaoh's magicians threw down their sticks, which also turned into serpents. The Maharal relates that they didn't actually turn into serpents, but they moved around in such a way as to make those watching think they were serpents - part of the falsification and sorcery for which the Egyptians were trained from a young age.

Then the Torah relates that "Aharon's stick consumed their sticks". It was the "Mateh" that did the consuming, not the serpent. This is because it had already turned back into the objective truth connecting events in this world with their true roots, and only in this state could it overcome the sorcery and deceit of the Egyptian magicians.

Adam Harishon sinned because of a snake, and brought human existence into the world of subjectivism and sorcery, where untruth is passed off as truth, and where the subjective is designed to confuse the objective. The correction for that sin began with a "Mateh" - a stick that is meant to divert people's attention back to the root of objective truth - consuming the snakes of the sorcerers and inflicting plagues upon the society that made sorcery the epitome of achievement.