On Pesach we celebrate the emancipation of the Children of Israel from slavery in Egypt. Less then two months after the Children of Israel left Egypt they stood at the foot of mount Sinai to receive the Torah from God. The Torah is a book of Laws that govern our relationship with God. These Laws effect every part of our lives, from the most mundane to the most sublime.
The Jews seem to have gone from one form of slavery straight in to another. The former, slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt and the later, slaves to God. So why do we celebrate emancipation on Pesach by observing rituals on the Seder night that express freedom when in truth we are not free at all? The answer is that the receiving of the Torah symbolises bona fide freedom
I recently had a conversation with an Iranian fellow who had immigrated to the U.K. I asked him whether he was grateful that he had left Iran and was now living in a ‘free’ country. ‘Free’ he said to me in surprise, this is not a free country at all. He explained that whereas in Iran he was under the tight rulership of the Ayatollah, in the U.K he felt restrained by the need to make money and have a high standard of living, this too, he said, is a form of slavery.
Contrast this with the Chasid who was exiled by the communists to fifteen years of forced labour in Siberia; his felony was, spreading Jewish teachings. When he was released he did not seem to have been affected by his ordeal at all. He explained that he had, in truth, not been confined by anyone, because during his exile in freezing Siberia he had had the freedom to serve God to the best of his ability.
This is what freedom really is. Freedom is being able to do what one really wants to. This Chasid’s essential desire was to serve God. As long as no one infringed upon his ability to do this, he did not feel that his freedom had been violated.
By virtue of the fact that we have a soul, with out which we would cease to live, we are all essentially spiritual beings. Essentially we need and crave for spiritual fulfilment. We may not realize this when we are caught up with the corporality of mundane live, but if we stop for a moment and really listen to our soul we will hear it crying out for spirituality.
If we make spiritual fulfilment our main objective, our physical pleasures won’t seem so significant anymore. Suddenly, we will have emancipated ourselves from our animal instinct for bodily gratification. This is what every Jew really wants for him/herself.
When the Children Of Israel were enslaved in Egypt they were subservient to physical powers. The exodus from Egypt gave them genuine emancipation and freedom. They went on to do what they quaint-essentially wanted to do but couldn’t when they were in Egypt – to receive the Torah at mount Sinai and serve God.
Lets all emancipate our selves from our own Egypt this Pesach, by focusing on our spiritual development and our relationship with God.