Insights into Pesach
April 11th-12th, 2003
10 Nisan, 5763

Since Pesach is less than a week away, it would probably be helpful to begin to think seriously about the meaning of this most significant holiday.

I know it’s not so easy with all the preparations we are busy making--the endless cleaning, the innumerable trips to the supermarket to stock up on supplies. (Let’s see how many packages of kosher-for-Passover marshmallows my S.U.V. can hold…) But, nonetheless, as with every festival, G-d expects us to make some mental and spiritual preparations also, to set aside time to do an internal inventory (or in this case, "housecleaning"), so that we will be able to absorb the unique divine blessings (and spiritual benefits) it offers. And if we are just too harried during the weekdays, well then, we thankfully have Shabbos to get some thinking/learning done, and this Shabbos is known as "Shabbos Hagadol," or "The Great Shabbos," because it specifically is meant to serve as a prelude to Pesach. [There is a widespread custom, in fact, to read part of the Haggadah this Shabbos afternoon.]

The more thought we put in before Seder night arrives, the more the ancient words of the Haggadah will actually seem interesting and relevant to us, rather than just an annoying formality to be hurried through on the way to the Matzoh Ball soup!

If you look in the prayer book, you’ll see that we refer to Pesach as "z’man chayruseinu," the season of our freedom. No surprise there. After all, everyone knows that this festival commemorates the Jewish people’s miraculous deliverance from Egyptian bondage--the 10 plagues, culminating in the death of the firstborn, the hasty departure that left no time for the dough to rise, and so on. But let me ask a weighty question. When all is said and done (and Pharaoh’s army has drowned, and the kids have fallen asleep after reciting the four questions and finding the afikoman), what was the ultimate purpose of the freedom we Jewish people gained through the Exodus? Even more broadly, what importance, or value, does freedom itself possess?

This question, of course, could not be more timely. I’m sure we all had the pleasure this week of seeing pictures of Iraqi people rejoicing in the downfall of the ruthless Saddam Hussein--who was truly a modern-day Pharaoh to his oppressed people, as well as a danger to the rest of the world. It is no coincidence, I think, that G-d brought about this liberation just days before our own holiday of liberation. We Jews can give thanks not only for the destruction of that evil regime itself, but also for the gift Hashem has given us to help us prepare for Pesach! We can make use of those images of Iraqi jubilation to help us better enter into the mindset of our ancestors when they were liberated from the brutal Egyptian regime. We can take to heart the words of these Iraqi men (quoted in a news story I read), and remember that to gain freedom from enslavement is--in some sense--to gain (or reclaim) life itself.

""It is a great feeling. I have never felt this way before," said Ayass Mohammed, a 20-year-old student. "It was only two hours ago when suddenly I feel freedom, when I saw the American tanks and heard that the regime had run. All my life all I know is Saddam. Now we are free."

"I'm 49, but I never lived a single day. Only now will I start living," said Yussuf Abed Kazim, a local imam. [my emphasis]

All their lives, our ancestors in Egypt knew only Pharaoh. Then, when G-d took them out with great judgments and an outstretched arm, they were suddenly free.

Although the Iraqi liberation is a cause for simchah (joy), we have to pause and consider that this is only the beginning of the real story for the Iraqi people. What they will do with their freedom (besides loot government buildings, and dance in the streets) is the real question. Similarly, the Exodus from Egypt was really only the beginning of the story of our people as a nation. What were we supposed to do with our freedom?

The Torah itself informs us (naturally). G-d Himself told Moshe (in the Book of Exodus) of the ultimate meaning of this freedom, and commanded him to pass it on to the Children of Israel.

"I shall take you out from under the burdens of Egypt; I shall rescue you from their service; I shall redeem you with an outstretched arm and great judgments. I shall take you to Me for a people, and I shall be a G-d to you." (Exodus: 6, 6-7; my emphasis)

In fact, even before that, at the Burning Bush--the formal initiation of Moshe’s career as prophet and redeemer--G-d had made it clear that the point of liberation was not just to be able to pull down statues. The Exodus was not an end in and of itself, but the means to our becoming G-d’s people!

"When you [Moshe] take the people out of Egypt, you will serve G-d on this
mountain." (Exodus: 3, 12) [The Torah tells us that Moshe was at that moment standing at Sinai, the future site of the Revelation.]

The ultimate purpose of the Exodus from Egypt was to bring us to the point where we could accept our destiny as a "light to the nations," becoming (at Sinai) a nation committed to upholding G-d’s Word (the Torah) in our lives. "Freedom" for the Jewish people meant becoming free of a human master…in order to be able to enter into a unique covenant with the Master of the entire universe, G-d Himself. Freedom meant gaining the ability to choose to accept the responsibility (and discipline) of upholding the Torah, so that we could commit ourselves to the path of becoming a "holy nation."

Put another way, we can say that freedom means being able to choose what I really want to do, rather than what I feel compelled to do. That feeling of compulsion can come from a human tyrant, or from an inner impulse or perceived "need." This is why our Sages termed our evil inclination, a "false god," for when we are in its grip, when we don’t see and feel that we can escape its bidding, we end up serving it blindly. We in America may not have any external Pharaoh to contend with right now, but we all have our internal false gods. And "exile" in Jewish thought (whether the Egyptian exile or later ones) always signifies spiritual enslavement as well as its physical manifestation.

The Haggadah not only mentions that we were redeemed from being slaves to Pharaoh. It also goes out of its way to mention that Avraham’s father was an idol worshipper--a bit of very ancient history that seems to be unrelated to the proceedings at hand. But that fact is not irrelevant at all. For the story of our redemption/liberation from Egypt (and of every redemption in our history) includes the restoration of our spiritual freedom. As the Prophets (and our oral tradition) tell us, we worshipped idols in Egypt, we were powerfully affected by the prevalent religious practices of the Egyptians. The Egyptians deified natural forces (like the Nile), and were blind to our Jewish concept of One G-d above all, Creator of everything in this world, Who has endowed every individual human soul with a divine potential to achieve mastery over natural forces (i.e., to reach true freedom through connection to G-d Himself, Who is free).

The Exodus from Egypt taught us (and all mankind) that through serving the Holy One, Blessed be He, we remove ourselves from servitude to every false god, and to the evil inclination itself.

Freedom is a great rallying cry, to be sure, but as we sit down to our Seder, we should remember that there is more to it than just pulling down statues, more than just running wild in the streets (though I don’t begrudge anyone that exhilaration in the initial stages). Unless it’s used for something constructive, it may not mean all that much in the long run. For us as a people, freedom from Pharaoh was not the end of the story. It was the beginning. We went from slavery in Egypt to the foot of Mt. Sinai 50 days later, where G-d revealed Himself to us and gave us the Torah. (That event is commemorated in the Jewish holiday of Shavuos.) Physical freedom was the means to a higher end, to finding our ultimate purpose as a people--serving G-d, and striving for sanctity in our lives with the guidance of the Torah.

Maybe living according to that divine code is the way to true freedom, to spiritual freedom--from natural forces that seem to blindly rule our lives, and compel our obedience. As our Sages tell us, the only truly free person is the one involved in the study and practice of Torah--the Divine wisdom that elevates us above the apparent tyranny of nature itself.

At least I hope I’ve given you something to think about as you munch your matzah, and perform the other mitzvos of Pesach. As a great (aging) singer has told us—and I’ve quoted it before—"You’re gonna have to serve somebody." Serving Hashem is truly liberating….while serving everybody (or everything) else is in this world is enslavement.

GOOD SHABBOS…AND HAVE A HAPPY AND HEALTHY PASSOVER! CHAG SAMEACH!!!!

My e-mail address is yosefe@comcast.net

Archives

Insights Into Genesis | Insights Into Exodus | Insights Into Leviticus
Insights into Numbers | Insights Into Deuteronomy

Rabbi Yosef Edelstein, Savannah Kollel. Phone: 912-351-0469; fax: 354-9923