Passover: Fredom of Body and Mind

[botach <botach...>]

Passover: Freedom of Body and Mind by Rabbi Shmuel
Boteach

        The festival of Passover celebrates the grand finale of
G-d's efforts against Pharaoh and Egypt, namely, the
exodus of the children of Israel from their land.
Enigmatically, one of the final commandments given the
Jewish people immediately prior to their departure from
Egypt, five days to be exact, was that they take a lamb, the
deity of Egypt, and slaughter it, placing the blood of the
offering on their doorposts. So great was the importance
of this offering that it constituted the fundamental
means by which the Jewish people commemorated Passover
in Temple times, and remains the single most important
obligation associated with Passover (although it
cannot be offered) until this very day.         Among the
various explanations offered as to the reason for this
offering, the most interesting involves a profound
psychological insight. There are two types of freedom:
freedom of the body, and freedom of the mind (or soul). We
are all familiar with the 'Jewish mother syndrome' which
has become the butt of many jokes. When a mother is too
overbearing with her children, she induces a state of
dependency from which it is difficult for the child to
escape. The result is a kind of bondage. The child cannot
independently make decisions and feels the need to
consult or be accompanied by his parents in every
important sphere of life.       Before they were freed by
G-d's intervention, the Jews had been slaves in Egypt for
210 years. This was enough to  induce a suffocating state
of dependency. The Jews relied upon the Egyptians for
their food, clothing, and daily decisions. There was no
aspect of their lives so private that the Egyptians did
not enjoy supreme authority as to how it should proceed.
Thus there remained the possibility that although G-d
might free the Jewish bodies from enslavement, they
might always remain psychologically intimidated and
dependent on the Egyptians, and thereby remain forever
enslaved.       In addition, slavery, by definition,
involves a total subjugation and a state of fear imposed
upon the slave community by their masters. And just as
reclaiming physical independence involves casting off
the master's physical oppression, so too achieving
psychological independence involves garnering the
courage to confront Egypt. To establish an identity
independent of Egyptian culture and values and to truly
be free.        It was for this reason that G-d commanded that
before the Jews leave Egypt they have one personal
confrontation with their immediate masters so as to cast
off their yoke forever. They were to perform the most
courageous act imaginable: taking their masters'
objects of worship, the very symbol of Egypt, and
slaughter it in front of their masters' eyes. To
understand the gravity of the act, it is analogous to
Jewish inmates of a Nazi concentration camp taking
pictures of Hitler and publicly burning them. Through
acquiring the courage to execute the act, the Jews became
free forever.   Often we are not fortunate enough to
witness G-d's hand in history and often we overlook it. In
1948 the Jewish people brought forth a great milestone
when they set up an independent state after 2000 years of
oppression. But it came at a terrible price, that of
thousands of young soldiers losing their lives in
hellish battle. But amidst the tragedy, a hidden
blessing lurked beneath. Perhaps, had the state come
about only through peaceful means and United Nations
resolutions, and had the Jews not been forced to stand up
militarily to those who would destroy them, they might
then have been an independent state, but in name only. The
tough, independent nature of Israelis today is
legendary and largely due to the terrible hardships that
they have endured.      The battle for this freedom
continues til today. Our bodies may been freed from
Egypt, but we fight for the freedom of the soul on every
front. Being immersed in Western culture, among people
who may still sneer when seeing a Yarmulka, among even
Jewish colleagues who are not sympathetic to those who
will only have a drink in a non-kosher restaurant, can
sometimes induce a state of bondage. We don't feel free to
pursue the lifestyle which we truly desire, simply
because we feel a sense of dread and dependency on the
environment which surrounds us.         Witness the amount of
students who come through Oxford and tell me, upon
graduating, that they cannot wear a Yarmulka at their law
or investment banking firms, or even put a mezuzah on
their office doors, because 'it's just not done.' But
this attitude, however legitimate, serves to
perpetuate this kind of captivity and reliance. It
betrays a belief that it is temporal institutions which
sustain us, and not the providence of a benevolent
Creator.

Another Egyptian deity which G-d attacked was the Nile
River. Whereas all ancient peoples naturally looked and
prayed to the A-mighty for their sustenance, because
they witnessed their dependency on rain which fell from
the heavens, in Egypt, where there is no rain, they
worshipped the Nile river which overflowed its banks,
thus irrigating the fields. What they failed to
appreciate was that even this was an act of heaven. We must
not repeat their mistake. Because a paycheque comes from
a firm, who may or may not appreciate Jewish observance,
does not make them the provider for man and thus the first
institution to whom he is obliged. (This is aside from the
fact that virtually every instance with which I am
acquainted, non-Jewish employers and employees show a
great deal of respect to a Jew who insists on retaining his
identity.)      The purpose of religion is to free man from
societal bondage so that he can be free to serve His
Creator. How can we be free to be Jewish if we are totally
dependent on a foreign culture or way of life, if we
believe Judaism to be something only to be practised in
the privacy of one's home, and insisting on leading a
compartmentalised lifestyle? When the Jews departed
from Egypt, it was with heads held high, looking forward
to a glorious future. We are that future and we must regain
that sense of pride in a treasured heritage and a
dependency only on the 'outstretched arm' of our
Redeemer from Egypt.