Redemption and Freedom

There are two aspects to the Exodus, the Jews leaving from Egypt, that culminates with this week’s Torah portion, Bo. One is גאולה, “redemption” and the other is חירות “freedom.” What exactly is redemption? Which aspect freedom or redemption came first, or did they happen simultaneously? Is there any relation between them?

The simple answer given by the Haggadah to the famous “4 Questions” asked at the start of the Pesach seder isלפרעה במצרים  עבדים היינו, “We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt.” Rabbi Soloveitchik, commenting on these words, distinguishes between two kinds of slaves, a slave to an individual and a slave who is property of the State. Both situations are degrading. However, in the first case, a slave to an individual master, the slave still has the possibility ascend to a certain level of power in the master’s household. Joseph, our forefather, comes to mind. Twice he ascended under a master, once while a slave to Potiphar; the second time as a lowly prisoner to the head warden of Egypt’s prison system.

However, when a person becomes a slave to the cold, impersonal, merciless dictates of the State, there is no opportunity for a relationship to develop that can lead to some level of advancement. Life trudges on day to day, month to month, year to year. There is no change in the routine and no sense of humanity in servitude to the State. It is this second situation of slavery that the Jewish people found themselves during their time in Egypt.

In that situation, it would be next to impossible to extricate oneself. The slaves are totally submerged and incorporated into the values of the society. There is no opportunity for individual advancement. Everywhere you turn, whoever you speak with has the same outlook on life. Perhaps you have experienced a small taste of this type of domination, “groupthink” and pressure to conform in your workplace. To avoid workplace ostracism or worse, loss of employment, a worker, against his or her will, may be told to express or not to express certain opinions or attitudes, or to conform to certain social values or political ideology. The recent attention and uproar brought upon Ivan Provorov, star defenseman for the NHL Philadelphia Flyers, for something completely unrelated to the quality of his work, not wearing a “message” jersey, comes to mind.

The Jews in Egypt had succumbed to their status as corporate slaves of the State. Their subjugation was almost complete. The Talmud tells us, the people of Israel were on the 49th level of defilement. They had fully accepted their position as slaves in society and they had embraced the culture and values of the Egyptian way of life. One more step down and there would be no chance for them to ever get out of their predicament.

This fact is evident from an earlier encounter a much younger Moshe had. While  he was still living in the house of Pharaoh, he went out one day and saw an Egyptian strike a Hebrew slave. Moshe killed the Egyptian. (The Talmud explains why the Egyptian was worthy of death.) The next day Moshe sees two Jews quarreling. He steps in to intervene. They respond, “Are you going to kill us like you did the Egyptian!” How did they know what happened with the Egyptian? Moshe took care that no one was around. “He looked all around.” (Shemot 2:12)

This event should have been kept quiet. Moshe had risked his own life to save this Jew. My teacher, Rabbi Yisroel Chait, explained: “We can deduce that the Jewish man must have thought that Moshe did the wrong thing. The man Moshe saved the day before informed on him to other Jews and to the Egyptian authority. Why would he do that? The Jews embraced the values of the Egyptian culture. The Jews were standing up for the rights of the Egyptian. This was a case where the enslaved and oppressed people embraced the values of the oppressor.”

This condition, to be enslaved not only by a ruling nation but by the values of the society, is not unique to the Jews in Egypt. It is prevalent in the Jewish-American experience. In America, however, enslavement is self-inflicted. We are socially free to integrate as much or as little as we want into the American culture. This was not the case with the Jewish experience in Eastern Europe, Russia, and the broader Pale of Settlement. There, Jews were mostly shunned and life was confined to the ghetto.  Consequently, in America many corrupt values are adopted outright or adapt, more like  wedged into Judaism.

What was the antidote, the remedy that would extricate the Jews from Egypt. God didn’t snap His fingers so to speak and “Walla!” the Jews were out of Egypt, out of slavery. No! Just to free and liberate Jews from slavery was not the goal. Freedom is valuable, mostly as an underlying basis for advancing a greater purpose. Moshe’s request of Pharaoh, almost up until the end of their negotiations, was just to give the Jews 3 days off from work. One day to get to Mt Sinai, one day at Mt. Sinai to receive the Torah, and then one day back to Egypt.  Moshe even offers to perform a sacrifice to God on Pharaoh’s behalf. The Jews would still be slaves in Egypt, but now living by the Torah. Eventually, the Jews would get to Israel as promised by Hashem but it would have come about via a different sequence of events under God’s divine providence.

Rabbi Soloveitchik often remarked that the personality of the Jew is to be a slave, a slave to man or a slave to God. All the plagues, signs and wonders God performed in Egypt only had value if the people internalized the lessons. Did they truly accept and acknowledge God as, “master of the universe.” The Jewish people had to demonstrate their total submission to God’s will. This demonstration would take place by performing all the commands, directives, “mitzvot” God gave  them: the preparation and eating  requirements of the Pesach lamb, matzah and maror; and smearing the lamb’s blood, the idol of the Egyptians, on the inside of their doorposts. By following these commands the Jews would demonstrate that they had broken all affiliation with Egypt, its society and culture.

That was the process of גאולה,“redemption.” Redemption is when a person through their actions returns to his or her former status. As descendants of the 12 sons of Jacob, their original status was to model a certain way of life based on their unique philosophy. It is a way of life that is truly redeeming and liberating.

The Torah points out the people were required to eat the Pesach lamb, “with their belt strapped around their waist, their shoes on their feet, their staff in their hand, and to eat in haste. (Shemot 12: 11) The physical freedom from Egypt came second. It would enhance the redemption by making it easier to fulfill the Torah. This prescribed manner of eating signified their total rejection of the Egyptian society. At that first Seder, they had already emotionally and philosophically left Egypt. They were redeemed, now ready be free on a moment’s notice.

Today, we must be vigilant to guard against falling into emotional and philosophic slavery of our surrounding culture and society. The antidote as always remains the same, Torah study and living a Torah way of life. In that merit may Hashem grant us continued redemption and freedom.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Robert Kaplan