The most important event in Jewish history is the Exodus, the freedom from Egypt. We mention it during the Shema Israel, during Kiddush, during many Mitsvot and all the three major Jewish holidays are based on it. There were many miracles that happened when the Jews were leaving Egypt. But what was the most impressive miracle? Was it the Ten Plagues, or the splitting of the sea? Was it in the Man that fell on the dessert on the way to Erets Israel? Or perhaps, was it something which we do not even realize was a miracle to begin with.
In order to understand this miracle, we should think about animals in a zoo. Do they know they are trapped? Well, if they were taken from the wild, then they know what freedom looks like: roaming free in the jungle and hunting. But what about a wild animal that was born in a cage? An animal whose parents and great grandparents were born and raised in captivity? They never lived in the wild and they don’t know any home besides for the zoo. I’m sure they cannot be thinking about going back to the jungle. They do not know any better than the zoo.…
Now, think about the Jewish people in Egypt. They had already lived as slaves for many generations. But in an unexplainable way, they “complained” about slavery. In other words, they realized they were slaves and they realized there is something called freedom! This is a huge deal!
What was their inspiration to strive for freedom?
We can try to look at the reason why slaves in the USA were able to overcome this, and run away in the 19th century. Looking at most of these runaway slaves, almost none of them were slaves born into slavery, without a previous taste of freedom. Most runaway slaves were either taken into slavery after being free for a time, or they have had encountered freedom in a different situation. Like Fredrick Douglas, one of the most famous runaway slaves and a leader of the Abolitionist Movement. He was born into slavery. What encounter did he have in his lifetime that made him fight for freedom? Douglas’ encounter with freedom came through education. At the age of 12, his master’s wife, Sophia Auld, taught Fredrick to read. Douglass described her as a kind and tender-hearted woman, who treated him “as she supposed one human being ought to treat another”. It was this kind and loving treatment that opened Douglas’s eyes. Her husband, Hugh, foresaw the consequences and disapproved of the tutoring, claiming that literacy would encourage slaves to desire freedom.
What was that one thing that kept the Jewish people aspiring and praying to HaShem for freedom?
There is a famous that credits Jewish women for our liberation from Egyopt: “ בזכות נשים צדקניות נגאלו בני ישראל ממצרים” “Thanks to righteous women, the Israelites were saved from Egypt”.
What did the women do in Mitsrayim? Men were at work all day under the sun, getting sunburnt, and getting whipped with lashes, while doing excruciating work. This made them be physically slaves and mentally slaves. They had zero resting time and zero control over their choices.
But, there was one daily space of freedom: when they arrived home at the end of daylight. The Jewish wives wanted their homes to be a slavery free environment, physically and mentally. And they made a huge sacrifice. They would go to the Nile during the day and gather some fish from the overflown shore. Then, they would make a nice delicious real dinner for their husbands, who were eating only Matsa during work. Then the wives would use the fish oil and make a cream for the husbands backs and heal the sunburn and bruises from the whips. When the Jewish men arrived home, they were served a freemen’s dinner, and they were taken care as if they were free men, not slaves. These acts of love from their spouses made them realize that slavery wasn’t how life was supposed to be. Freedom, not slavery, was normal, and they had to figure out how to end it right away. This is when they prayed to HaShem, complained about slavery, and asked HaShem to gran them freedom. The rest is history.
My name is Shemuel Bitton and I am writing up this Halakha of the Day in honor of an amazing organization that has a kind of a similar goal. Chai Lifeline helps out kids with cancer and other illnesses. They do such amazing work helping these families with anything imaginable and one of the most incredible things they do is hosting a camp for all of these kids. In these camps, they allowed these kids to experience happiness and freedom, in others words, they help them to feel better and inspire them to aspire more happy times. These incredibly positive environments give them the extra motivation to fight as hard as possible and to pray to HaShem to get healthy.
I will be running a marathon very soon and would truly appreciate your help to reach my goal and assist this wonderful organization.
Tizku Lemitzvot and may we always be striving for more in life.
https://www.teamlifeline.org/team-lifeline-miami/shmuelbitton
