Parshat Beshalach - Freedom and Slavery: A Jewish Perspectuve

The Torah teaches us (״ויסב אלקים את העם דרך המדבר ים סוף״ (יג:יח - “Hashem turned the people towards the desert to the Sea of Reeds.” Rashi, quoting the Medrash, says we learn from this pasuk that at the Pesach Seder: even a poor person cannot eat until he reclines, עד שיסב, because that is what Hashem did to the Jews. Rashi’s assumed connection here is based on the language in the pasuk ויסב, literally “and he turned,” but is similar to the word הסבה, to recline.

What does this mean? Although the words look and sound similar, there is no apparent connection between Hashem turning the Jews to the desert and the obligation of a poor person to recline in freedom at the Pesach Seder. What was Rashi trying to impart to us?

The Chatam Sofer explains this in an unbelievable way. By the exodus from Egypt the Torah says ״ויוצא את עמו ישראל מתוכם לחירות עולם״ - And Hashem took out the nation to a free world. חירות עולם is to be defined as freedom “from the world.” Even kings and the wealthy are slaves; they are slaves to their material desires. In other words, when Hashem took the Jews out of Egypt, their freedom was not just that they were no longer slaves in a physical labor sense, but they were free from the material desires of this world. Hashem brought them to the desert, a location that was totally barren, but they had everything they needed. They had all the food they needed and they didn’t need to buy new clothing, as their clothes grew with them.

From here we learn that even a poor man has to recline like a king at the Seder because freedom refers to a man who rules over his own world. Freedom is about breaking free of our physical desires.  Even the poor are able to do this,  and when they do, their life turns into one of freedom. For this reason, even they must recline at the seder.

Rashi is teaching us an invaluable lesson in what freedom really is; it is not freedom to do whatever you want. Rather, it is freedom from your physical desires so that you can focus on the spiritual side of life.

With this in mind, perhaps we can shed light on the opposite of freedom: slavery or עבדות.

אנכי ה' אלקיך אשר הוצאתיך בארץ מצרים מבית עבדים (שמות כ:ב)

Hashem tells us that He saved us from being slaves to פרעה so that we can become עבדי ה׳.

Unlike the rest of the world who view not being slaves as the equivalent of freedom -  free to do whatever you want whenever you want to, we as Jews have a very different perspective on freedom. Judaism views חירות like this: we were freed to become slaves, but not slaves of a physical kind. We were freed to become slaves of G-d, and serve Him.

We see this in the beginning of Hashem’s appointment of Moshe:

בהוצאתיך את העם ממצרים תעבדון את האלקים על ההר הזה.

Rashi and the Sforno explain that Hashem says  the entire reason for taking the Jews out of Egypt was to bring them to הר סיני three months later to give them the Torah. We see that עבדות = קבלת התורה.

Q: How exactly is עבדות about קבלת התורה?

A: Based on the Sforno one could say that עבדות = קבלת עול מלכות שמים. When a person accepts upon himself the entire Torah it is like an עול, a yoke; accepting it whether it is easy or not, whether it appears  good or not. That is what the Jewish people said at Har Sinai, נעשה ונשמע. First we will do and only afterwards will be try and learn the reasons for those commandments.

Rav Yisrael Salanter explains that an individual’s purpose in the world is to toil in fulfilling mitzvos and learning Torah. It is a lifelong battle of a מלחמת מצוה always trying to do what is expected of you. If you are rich, are you using your money the way Hashem wants you to? If you are poor, how are you responding?  Our responsibility is to toil; the outcome is not always what is important, rather it is our effort that matters most. Our obligation is להתייגע בעבדות ה, but not just in the areas of things that are easy for us, but we have to toil in the areas that are harder for us and not in our nature to perform as well.

R’ Yisrael explains this is the problem with many people: They do what is easy for them, or they do what they seem to understand, but if it is against their nature or they do not understand, then they don’t do it. They rationalize why they don’t have to be concerned with it. That is not serving Hashem! That is serving your master halfway. So the חידיש is to serve Hashem in ways that are not as easy for us.

We learn the following lessons from all of this:

1. Freedom means to be free of physical desires so we can focus on the spiritual.
2. Hashem freed us from the slavery of Egypt so we can become servants of Hashem and devote our lives to following His ways. This means to follow His ways even if we don’t understand the why.
3. Hashem put us on earth to toil; to struggle. It is hard work. We are supposed to work on ourselves and try to keep growing in our commitment to Torah and Mitzvot.