Passover 5770

            
We Were Slaves; We Are Liberators
 
As the Seder commences we read, "We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt and God our Lord took us out of there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm.  If God had not taken our ancestors out of Egypt, then even we, our children and our children’s children would still be enslaved to Pharaoh in Egypt.”

I have always been puzzled by this assertion. As a description of what would have been, it seems so unlikely. Would we really still be slaves to Pharaoh? Would history not have inexorably led to a dissolution of empires and to the freeing of slaves?

The Haggadah’s answer is a resounding NO! The statement above constitutes not simply a depiction of what would be had God not rescued us, but a declaration that the idea that all people should be free would never have been known, would not have been accepted as a “self-evident” principle, if God had not taken our ancestors out of Egypt. Even today, the notion that all humans should be free is not understood by everyone. Slavery persists. The abuse of entire populations by despotic rulers, who believe that it is their right to lord it over their people, is widespread. White slavery, human trafficking, is universal.

In fact, well into the modern era (to this very day) societies are stratified in a hierarchical mode that is grounded in the assumption that the powerful and wealthy are naturally superior, hence, entitled to dominate and even oppress those who are of inferior stock. This was the order of the world from time immemorial. And, it was only the subversive Biblical teaching that all humans were created in the image of God that inspired a revolutionary idea: that all humans deserve to be free in God’s world.

No one knew this until the Exodus announced that the Creator is committed to human freedom. “I am the Lord,” begin the Aseret Ha Dibrot (the Ten Commandments), “who took you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage.” Why is it necessary for the verse to add “the house of bondage”? Don’t we all know that Egypt was the home of slavery? Indeed, we do. But the phrase is intended to proclaim that, “I, God, am the redeemer of the slaves.” And since we are obligated to emulate the Divine, then we, too, must redeem the slaves so that all people will be free. It is our legacy. It is the most far-reaching innovation introduced into the history of human civilization. It is absolutely transformative. Accordingly, Heine wrote that “Freedom has always been spoken with a Hebrew accent.”

However, lest we rest on our laurels and grow prideful, the Haggadah reminds us that being the source of a revolutionary idea is not enough. Because we, the Jews, who were once slaves and have now been blessed with power and influence sometimes seem to forget who we were – especially lately. Therefore, we commence our celebration of liberation by reminding ourselves of our lowly origins and by impressing on all those who are participating in the telling, that in every generation we are obligated to always be among the liberators and never among the oppressors. That is our destiny. That is our heritage. That is the Torah that has been passed down to us and that we must transmit into the future.

On this ‘z’man cheiruteinu’ (festival of freedom) may we stand with the generations in assuming our role as the bellwether of freedom.

Chag Sameach.

Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller
Executive Director