Next weekend we celebrate Pesach, our Festival of Liberation. We will focus on the idea of freedom. “On this night we became free.” It would be even more meaningful if we also directed some thought to the question “freedom from what?” and “freedom to what?” during the Seder.
Many families, especially those with a family member who went through the Holocaust, the Gulag, a terror attack or hostage situation, will utilize the Seder night to tell their personal story of liberation and survival as a continuation of the Pesach narrative. This is very valuable and important. After all, we declare “In every generation they arise to destroy us and the Holy One saves us from their hands.”
Yet, there must be more to this “freedom thing” than just freedom from persecution. If not, how could Pesach be discretely observed in the Concentration Camps and Gulags? How could our people celebrate their “freedom” in a secret Spanish cellar during the Inquisition? How could the hostages in Gaza speak of freedom on Passover, while in captivity?
The Maharal of Prague writes that on Pesach, Am Yisrael (Jewish people) were given the gift of inherent freedom. When Hashem took us out of Egypt, brought us to Sinai, and gave us the Torah, we became an essentially free people. We were given the soul of freedom that could not be taken away from us by any external force. So, while our enemies could subject our bodies to persecution, they had no power over our souls.
From that point on, the only force capable of enslaving our souls is ourselves. When a Jew places himself or herself in a slavery mindset, in that moment we are not free. When we impose restrictions on our souls’ ability to soar and operate, in that moment we are slaves. However, the gift of freedom is also in our hands. We can snap free of that enslavement with a shift of consciousness.
Let’s use the Israel issue as an example. There are some who insist that using Biblical or “religious” arguments for the Jewish right to Israel is not going to work. Amazingly, millions of non-Jewish people make full throated declarations that Israel is the G-d given homeland of the Jews. But a Jew is uncomfortable advancing that narrative and therefore would rather squirm through arguments about colonialism, the UN, the Holocaust, and other far less compelling points. Why? Because he is uncomfortable with his own inherent freedom and continues to engage in self-imposed slavery.
This Pesach let us embrace our essential freedom. We are free from anything that tries to keep us from our freedom to serve and have a relationship with Hashem. Freedom… what a concept!
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Mendel Rivkin