Cortesy of: © Aish HaTorah, Los Angeles

Rabbi Nachum Braverman

LESSONS OF FREEDOM

Every Jewish holiday is an opportunity for growth and self-discovery; Pesach is the time to learn about freedom. On Seder night, every Jew must feel that he himself has gone out of Egypt. Freedom is not acquired once. It needs to be continually learned and reacquired. You can be free in a prison cell and a slave in a "free" country, for true freedom is internal and the harshest oppression is not outside.

The essence of slavery, Torah tells us, is self-concern. Preoccupation with myself, my success or failure, and with others' respect, robe me of the freedom to choose and act. I am a slave to anxiety and compulsion. A man who can't stop smoking isn't free nor is one who dreads pain and rejection. Heroes make a statement of freedom by their willingness to risk themselves for an ideal. When Natan Sharansky refused to leave his prison without his book of Psalms, he proclaimed his determination to maintain conscience at any price. His freedom is breathtaking. The worst enslavement is not external. It's self-concern.

Throughout the Torah, "leaven" is the symbol of ego. Pompous with air and insubstantial, it looks impressive but yields no nourishment. Ego is a facade without substance, skin deep power. Bruno Bettelheim reports that in World War II, the rich suffered most in the concentration camps because they were crippled by the sudden loss of social position and respect.

A free man is neither fancy nor pompous, but independent of image, wealth and respect.
Matzah is humble, wholesome, and nourishing. It represents freedom. Cleaning the leaven from our homes, we search for the crumbs of ego that enslave.