OK, now what? The Gemora says that the Egyptians were eager for us to leave in the middle of the night. We actually left in the morning. So as we’re standing in Shul after Hallel, we’re already past the Exodus. There’s another episode of course before we are free of the Egyptians -- we still need to pass through the Sea -- but we are on our way.
At this point in the journey, we understand that the ultimate goal is Har Sinai. But something has to be done before that, and the focus even now should be on that work, which comes from an understanding of freedom.
The redemption from Egypt is commonly understood as an escape. We were confined for centuries in a foreign land by a foreign power. Eventually, that land’s ideals and sense of meaning seeps into our own, all but obliterating our own sense of self. The only way to avoid complete absorption was to escape. The freedom we seem to be celebrating is what the Oxford philosopher Isaiah Berlin used to call “negative freedom,” or the freedom from oppressive constraints.
All of that is true. But it is only part of what happened. The Mishna describes each cup of wine at the Seder as being “mixed” by what seems to be others. That is, the custom is for everyone to have their cup filled by someone else. That is a sign of Cherut, of freedom. But being served goes beyond the lack of constraints. The freedom at the Seder is clearly not just about losing one’s chains.
In point of fact, the shackles of slavery were removed months before the Exodus. The redemption comes in stages. There are four cups because of four phases of redemption. The actual leaving of Egypt is the third stage.
By the time Pesach came, the Jewish people were stepping into a phase in which they could focus on the future. The cups make clear that these steps occured serially. Stepping forward toward the future is another phase because no one busy removing their shackles can focus yet on the next step. Only now can one begin choosing the contours of the next chapter. The freedom, the Cherut, at the Seder is about the empowerment which comes with the occasion to choose.
But the actual choosing is a complicated process. The Talmud says that two things inhibit a person’s ability to choose to do the right thing: 1) the constraints of exile and 2) our own internal struggles. Losing the shackles removes the constraints; that’s obviously an achievement. But our internal struggles are a battle of a different order. A battle just as crucial, for what is empowerment if we fritter it away?
I mentioned in Shul last week something I heard in the name of the grandfather of a teacher of mine. He wrote it up in one of his books on the Chumash but he had said it originally to parents in a school. He was explaining to them the custom to begin to teach children the book of Vayikra instead of Bereishit or Shemot. He focused on the small Aleph at the end of the word Vayikra. He said that the letter Aleph, ineffable as it is, symbolizes Hashem -- singular and unique. The book begins with a small Aleph because it is full of activity not for Hashem but rather for man. He contrasted that with Bereishit and Shemot, in which Hashem’s role is oversized. Only certain very specific people have a role in such a world. Everyone else is much smaller.
But now, beginning with the book of Vayikra, there is a role for all kinds of Jews. Closeness to Hashem is available to everyone. The book mentions “Adam” in the beginning because now everyone has the prominence of the singular human at the beginning of the Chumash. The rabbi summed this up with a phrase (translated from the Yiddish): “A large G-d makes for a small Jew. And a small G-d makes for a big Jew.” Children begin with this book because they have to know how open the world is for their activity and achievement.
The story of the Exodus is full of a big G-d. Redemption came from above. But our role begins immediately. We have 50 days before Shavuot, all devoted to the internal work everyone has to do. The way forward is now clear; we have been empowered to choose well. People can hear the rustling underfoot right now as movement starts to return to the world. Confinement will end soon, and empowerment will return. What's happening to the world coincides with what's going on for the Jews. Our work now is to make sure our internal struggles don’t diminish the moment forward. If it were to diminish our movement, it would diminish us. Hashem has asked us to be bigger than that.
