G-d instructed Moses to say to Aaron,”Raise your staff and strike the dust of the earth, and it will turn into lice.”(Shemot 8:7)
Lice was the third plague that H”S sent the Egyptians to let the Jewish people go.
The lice is a parasite that lives off animals and people. It sucks their blood out and gives nothing in return. We could say that lice is a taker and not a giver.
The Rebbe compares lice to evil, since evil thrives by sucking the life force out of holiness rather by its own merits.
Evil can only be successful when we allow our Divine consciousness to lapse, falling either into misdeeds or the apathy towards anything holy, which leaves us vulnerable to be attacked by anything unholy and evil.
By infesting the Egyptians with lice, G-d was showing them what their indifference to Holiness made them into parasites, who’s achievements in the arts, architecture, literature,science and so on served only to inflate their egos and enhance their material lives without caring if they stepped on someone causing pain and suffering for their benefit.
Some excerpts taken from “Daily Wisdom” teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe
www.livealittlehigher.com
