 Components of Freedom | Schooling During Pesach |
Sacrificing Slavery
....It is possible that a person will imagine, delude himself and all around him, that he is an independent person, with a mind of his own, his own feelings etc. And when it is pointed out to him that he is very much enslaved and worships the idolatry of the environment and of the nations around - he insists nevertheless, that he is free and independent.
How is such a depravity and such an appalling delusion possible? The answer is that it is the result of "selling" himself into bondage: To ape the thinking of the environment, of the nations of the world ("head"), or to gratify the lust for honor or other cravings (falling under the general caption of the craving for food - "innards"), or to gratify even the lower instincts (symbolized by "legs"), or all of them together - until he becomes no more than "an unborn baby within its mother".
However, having succumbed to self-bribery in the form of envy, self indulgence and pursuit of honor, or, as mentioned above, to the passions symbolized by "head, innards, and legs, "he does not even sense his appalling and miserable slavery of being a "slave to slaves", worshippers of idolatry - to the extent that he deludes himself into thinking that he is a free man.
Comes Pesach and teaches that even when a person finds himself in such a lowly state, there is hope of liberation for him, provided that he remembers what "G-d said to Moshe", remembers the Torah of Moshe, for this will give him the strength to "slaughter" (the lamb), destroy the idolatry, "roast by fire, its head with its legs and its innards" - purifying it all by the fire of the love of G-d, in accordance with the commandment, "You shall love G-d, your G-d, with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your might, arousing in him a burning desire to attach himself to G-d body and soul, as it is written, "My flesh and my heart are consumed, for G-d is the strength of my heart and my lot forever."
The process of liberation is then completed when G-d intervenes to "take unto Himself a nation from the innards of a nation," transforming the individual from one extreme to the other, from the nadir of slavery to true freedom, as it is written: "When you will bring the people out of Egypt, you will serve G-d on this mountain" - Yetzias Mitzraim (the Exodus from Egypt) and true liberation is linked with the service of G-d, or to quote our Sages: "They (the Jews) are My servants (hence) not servants to servants."
(Excerpt of a letter dated 11 Nissan, 5734)
| Components of Freedom | Schooling During Pesach |