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The Truth Will Set You Free!
By Binyamin Zev Kahane
Translated by Yaakov Ish Tam
Every Jewish child today knows the alternate name for Passover: The Festival of Freedom. This name has become widely accepted in recent years, especially today, when the concept of "personal freedom" has been placed on a pedestal in western culture. However, like most of the values, which have found their way into western culture, the Jewish concept of freedom couldn't be further away. In fact, it is the exact opposite of the western variety.
Letting Loose
While it is certainly true that during the holiday of Passover the Jewish people gained their freedom, it is no less true that at the exact same moment they became slaves!
In the words of the Rabbis: "When G-d redeemed the seed of Abraham he didn't redeem them as children but rather as slaves… The Jewish people began to stray from the yoke of Mitzvot. G-d said to them "You are my servants!" For this reason I redeemed you: that I will decree and you will obey! (Sifri Shelach 115)
For a Jew, freedom does not mean "letting loose". It does not mean what the Hellenists of the Israeli judicial system have recently decided: that every person has the right to be a homosexual and pretend to be a "spouse" in order to get a free ticket on El Al, that it is permitted to blaspheme against G-d with a mouth full of shrimp, and all the rest of the sick perversions which the leftists have included in their new basic law: "The law of human dignity and freedom", "Freedom of commerce" etc.
He who decides his own fate is free
True freedom requires self control! Freedom is when a person overcomes his internal adversaries, which prevent him from doing what he believes, and knows is right. To be free is to overcome the false conventions of society which restrict a person; to overcome one's animal desires which are so strong and difficult to suppress. Who can be called a free man? Someone who isn't subservient to of all of these forces; someone who is "enslaved" to the truth- the truth which will set him free.
We see from this an amazing thing: True freedom is servitude to the truth! This was the intention of Chazal when they said that our going out to freedom was when we became slaves to Hashem- completely dedicated to our mission. This is exactly what Yehuda HaLevi meant when he said that "Slaves of time are the slaves of slaves, only slaves to Hashem are truly free! In other words, a man can be as rich as Korach, spend 365 days a year on vacation in the Canary Islands but he is still a slave. A slave to his whims, to his urges and desires which control him against his will. A man can be highly respected, with everyone bowing down before him but remain a slave. A slave to the false system of morality which elevated him to the height of his position. Such a man is the wretch of humanity, he wants so much to have the strength to act differently but he can't, he is enslaved, enslaved to himself!
On the other hand, a Jew can be dirt poor and even an outcast from society but be free. How? When he acts in accordance with his conscience, when he says what he feels in his heart, and decides his path and his fate himself. He knows that being enslaved to falsehood can bring him to a much greater level of wealth and prestige in society, but on the contrary, he who lives a life led by others isn't really alive at all.
The free slave
Anyone who ends up behind bars for his activism on behalf the Jewish People and the truth, actions which often don't find favor in the eyes of the authorities, knows what it means to be free. He learned that although I sit in prison, I am not chained, I followed the correct path, without making excuses, and I didn't bind myself with the chains of fear and the service of evil. He looks at the jailer who closes the door on him and realizes that HE is the real prisoner and I am free! Whoever reads the stories of the prisoners of Zion in the former Soviet Union discovers people who sat for many years in jail under harsh conditions- their spirit was their strength and they couldn't be freer.
G-d took us out of Egypt against our will. And he also forces us to be free, by the fact that he commands us to be His servants, slaves to our mission. Therefore it is very important that we don't get confused when the beacons of "democracy" and Hellenism speak in the name of "freedom". They are speaking in the name of animalistic hedonism which leads only to servitude, depression, and destruction of the moral fabric of society.
During the festival of true freedom, it is incumbent upon us to sharpen our swords and fight a "war of independence"- against those who want to force upon us a freedom of abomination
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