The Meaning of Freedom My life teacher, Rabbi Noach Weinberg, of blessed memory, used to tell me: “a chain is only as strong as its weakest link”. His message was that every human being is living with certain false beliefs and ideologies, mistaken premises and perhaps even some lies that he or she has picked up along the way of life. To the degree that we are able to identify these “weak links” and remove them, we will live healthier and more productive lives. To the degree that we hang on to them, we might possibly miss the point of our own existence and the blessings that life brings. In addition to enslaving the Jews, the Egyptians were into sorcery, witchcraft, idolatry and other occult practices. Sadly, many Jews joined in these practices. We were living there for over 200 years, and as exiles go, many Jews adopt practices of the host country. So not only were the Jews physical slaves in Egypt, the Talmud teaches us that they were spiritual slaves as well. They had sunk to a very low level and had many weak links in their chain. The Almighty, our loving parent, in keeping with His promise to Abraham, came in and redeemed us. He took us from our house of bondage, performed myriad miracles on our behalf, gave us His Torah and eventually brought us to the land of Israel. Had He waited any longer, it would have been too late, as we would have assimilated past the point of any return. Our physical redemption occurred when Gd took us out of Egypt, but our spiritual redemption took place when we accepted His Torah and its values. We Jews have been in exile for a long time. Have we picked up any false beliefs? Are there any weak links in our chain that might be enslaving us? Allow me to tread lightly and respectfully and point out one that is pervasive in the Western world. Money equals success. Who doesn’t want to be a success? Answer: no one. We all want to feel like we’ve accomplished in life and that indeed we are successful people. Well, if you live in a certain part of the western hemisphere, quite possibly you will buy into the belief that if you acquire lots of money, then ipso facto you are a successful person. I have met some very special people over the years who have shared their sadness with me, that they are indeed failures in life because they are not rich. It boggles me every time a person reveals this to me, because I know that for every one who states this, there are so many others who believe it. It’s nothing less than a sickness of massive proportions. Do you want your child to determine his or her self image based on their earnings? Well, if you live in America, it’s quite possible that they already do. This is just one ridiculous, but globally accepted, false belief. There are many others and they are all enslaving. There is an age old custom to burn ones chometz this morning. We take all the remaining bread and leavened products in our possession and throw them in a fire. There is an additional custom to throw a small piece of paper in the fire with the bread. The tradition is to write down all the beliefs that we can identify [our weakest links] that enslave us, and make the commitment to ourselves and to Gd, that as the bread and the paper are burning, we are going to make our best effort to go free. Yesterday we were slaves to beliefs that made our lives narrow [the word Egypt in Hebrew means narrow] and now we are leaving that confinement behind. Passover is the time of our freedom. There are so many blessings that life has to offer each of us if we would just learn the liberating messages of the Seder, like Dayenu. The message of Dayenu is gratitude. Being thankful for what we have is a liberating key to a life of happiness and spiritual freedom. May the Almighty have mercy on us as He had on our forefathers and show us our weak links so that we can burn them ourselves. May we learn to live with gratitude and merit all the rich and bountiful blessings that this world has to offer. Happy Passover.
Posted on: Mon, 14 Apr 2014 18:30:12 +0000