Slavery

Slavery

הרב מרדכי גרינברג
נשיא הישיבה

Parshat Bo

From Slavery to Freedom

Rosh Hayeshiva Rav Mordechai Greenberg shlita

The topic of this week's parsha is the emancipation from slavery to freedom. However, the parsha also emphasizes many times that we enter into a new era of slavery: "You shall perform this service in this month." (Shemot 13:5) "You shall observe this service." (12:25) This was, in fact, the whole purpose of the Exodus from Egypt, as Moshe was told at the very beginning: "This is your sign that I have sent you: When you take the people out of Egypt, you will serve G-d on this mountain." (3:12)

Similarly, we mention in the Haggadah of Pesach: "One begins with disgrace and concludes with distinction." What is the distinction? "And now G-d has drawn us close to His service."

The notion of slavery entails two meanings: 1. Subjugation to the master, and the obligation to obey him. 2. The character of slavery. These are two different things. There can be a slave, who is officially subjugated, but is free in his character; there is also one who is free and not subjugated to anyone, yet his spirit is a spirit of slavery. A free person is one who is capable of living his life based on his individual nature, whereas one whose actions are determined by what others say, and who is not capable to break free of his desires and fears, or who always wants to find favor in the eyes of others – such a person is not free.

This was the root of the sin of Adam Harishon. When asked why he ate from the tree, he defended his action in that the woman and the snake influenced him. G-d asked him, "Where are you?" Rav Kook zt"l explains in Orot Hakodesh that the question was, "Where is your self?" "[Adam] did not know how to answer clearly to the question of 'Where are you,' because the true self was lost from him."

The Exodus from Egypt included two elements: freedom from the ownership of the Egyptians, but more significantly, the freedom of the self – the inherent change in the mind of the slave who became a freeman. This is why we always mention two exoduses: "You redeemed us (ge'altanu) out of Egypt, and liberated us (peditanu) from the house of slaves." "You redeemed us from Egypt, and liberated us from the house of slaves." Ge'ulah is transfer from one ownership to another, as in, "If he should redeem the field" (Vayikra 27:19), but pidyon is an inherent change, such as the change from sacred hekdeish to normal status.

This change, that we stop being slaves and turn into freemen, brings about service to G-d, as the true free man is one who is involved in Torah, and this service is freedom. "The servant of Hashem – he alone is free." (R. Yehuda Halevi) This was the purpose of the Exodus from Egypt, "You shall serve Hashem," and this is the distinction, "and now G-d has drawn us close to his service." Therefore, we say in Hallel, "Proclaim glory, servants of Hashem."

"On account of this, G-d did for me when I left Egypt." (13:8) The pasuk should have said the opposite, "I do all this because Hashem took us out of Egypt." The Ibn Ezra explains that this is the true order, the entire Exodus, was in order that we do this service.

This is why we say that the Exodus was "for eternal freedom." Had this been just an exodus from Egypt, it is possible that we would still be enslaved afterwards to another nation. But here the intention was the freedom of the self, that we were liberated from slavery to freedom, and our nature is that of freemen, and we can no longer be subjugated.

 

 

קוד השיעור: 3658

סרוק כדי להעלות את השיעור באתר:

(Translated by Rav Meir Orlian)

לשליחת שאלה או הארה בנוגע לשיעור:




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