The Paradox of Freedom
It was fascinating to me this year to realize that just as we are getting full swing into the Pesach preparations, and just at the moment in the calendar when Bnei Yisrael in Egypt were preparing their lamb for the first national korban ever, we begin Parshat Vayikra. I never really paid attention to how it all fit together before, but this year I found the confluence of events very meaningful and relevant to my Pesach preparations.
To understand the message of the korbanot, we can start with the first word in the parsha. We generally translate “vayikra” as “and he called.” However, Rav Schorr points out that on the first daf in Pesachim the word is given a more precise meaning. The word “vayikra” appears in the fifth pasuk in the Torah: “And G-d called to the light.” The Gemara explains that this means that Hashem called for the light to come to Him, for the purpose of giving it the task of creating the day. It was a calling to a task, and it is in this same manner that Hashem called Moshe to Him at the beginning of Vayikra. He was calling Moshe to come close to Him and to prepare to hear from Him the commandments of the korbanot.
The korbanot are an expression of kirvah, of giving ourselves over to Hashem. The hakdama, the introduction to the korbanot, uses this language of calling to a task. It is the recognition that we have been called upon to act. Just as we are preparing for Pesach, the holiday of freedom, we hear this message from Hashem that creating and nurturing a loving relationship with Hashem involves obligations and responsibilities.
It is this point exactly that forms the main paradox of Pesach. We are meant to ask what real freedom is. The matza, the main symbol of Pesach, is ambiguous. Does it symbolize our slavery or our freedom? How many of us ask ourselves, as we are scrubbing and cleaning, “Is this freedom? This is much more reminiscent of the slavery in Egypt!”
Rabbi Tatz points out something amazing about the nature of true freedom. It is often the exact opposite of what we think it should be. Because true freedom is the freedom from falsehood, it often involves constraint. He explains by way of a mashal. If we want to solve a simple mathematical question, generally there is only one correct solution. But how many wrong answers are there? Infinity. If we do not care whether the answer is right or wrong, then we are free to answer the question in many different ways. We can say 5 + 5 = 8, or we can say 5 + 5 = elephant. But not if we are concerned with answering correctly.
Truth is a tremendous constraint. The true way to behave in any situation may be very limited. At times there may only be one right thing to do. On the other hand, the wrong way to behave is unlimited. This was the cultural situation in Egypt. Although we were slaves, Chazal tell us it was a society in which all sorts of immorality was tolerated. Leaving Egypt meant going from slavery to freedom. It also meant that we went from the potential freedom of Egyptian society, to the constraints of the truth.
In many ways, Judaism is a religion of obligations. Every society has rules, and every rule can be looked at in two ways. Each right that one person claims is also another person’s obligation. For example, my right to property is your obligation not to steal. The question is, how does a society frame this? The constitutions of modern Western Democracies have a Bill of Rights. However, the Torah frames each of our rights as an obligation. We do not have a right to property, instead we are commanded not to steal.
On the surface we may find this to be restricting, but the Torah is deep. Its goal is to make us into givers instead of takers. For that, our concern has to be our obligations and not our rights. Although it may not be obvious, this is the real key to happiness in life. Rav Dessler used to express this point at every wedding he officiated, saying: “Filling your hearts at this moment is a wonderous desire to give pleasure and happiness to each other. Take care, my dear ones, that you strive to keep this desire to give pleasure and happiness to each other. Take care, my dear ones, that you strive to keep this desire always as fresh and strong as it is at the present time. You should know that the moment you find yourselves beginning, instead, to make demands upon each other, your happiness is at an end.” A marriage where each spouse is always trying to give to the other is a marriage filled with joy. Giving builds joy and love throughout the home.
Pesach is our time of freedom to be in a relationship with Hashem and to live in the truth. However, having everything comes through giving everything, and freedom comes through constraint. Judaism is the religion of obligations, but it also the religion of true joy. Hopefully, we can remember this as we clean and enjoy our preparations for chag.