God Invitations

(This post was inspired by one of my teachers Rebbe Shmuel Lewis, the rosh yeshiva at the Conservative Yeshiva.)

Spring is in the air, and with it comes longer days, more warmth, and the knowledge that Pesach (Passover) is right around the corner.

Pesach is about freedom. But, what is freedom?

First–a story.  From the story of Noah at the beginning of the Torah all the way until our day, the dove is associated with peace.  But did you ever wonder what the dove of peace prayed for? In the Talmud, the rabbis give us the answer:

The dove requested one thing from The Holy One, he said: Master of the World, may my food be bitter as an olive but dependent on you rather than sweet as honey but dependent on flesh and blood.

We’ll return to this story in one moment.

When talking about freedom, we have to be careful not to conflate two different ideas: political freedom and social freedom, or freedom of meaning (as I will call it).

Political freedom means freedom from the government (or other groups with power) in order that I may be free to choose how to live for myself.  Freedom of religion is an excellent example here, or freedom of the press.  In fact, the Bill of Rights, is a collection of political freedoms.  They protect us from intrusion on our ability to freely choose how to live our lives.  A society is as free as it is able to provide opportunities for its citizens to choose to live how they see fit.

Freedom of meaning is something completely other.  I hear many say, anything I want to do is valuable simply because I have chosen to do it.  Value or meaning resides in the notion that they are free to choose it.  Sometimes adults feel this way as well.  Why is this a good thing?  Because it was chosen freely.  However, this is not what Torah means by freedom, nor what freedom of meaning is.

For Judaism, freedom means choosing to be responsible for others.  Freedom means deciding to belong to a group, a people, a nation.  Freedom means seeing ourselves as a member of this nation and seeing the fate and dignity of our people interwoven in our own fate and dignity.  Freedom of meaning means choosing to be involved with the needs of others, means seeking justice, love, shelter, food, and compassion for those around us.  With these few years that we are here, choosing to live a life of meaning, of value, of communal needs is the freedom that Judaism cherishes.

This is the way of the free person.  A slave cannot chose to belong to a people, cannot chose to be responsible for another.  We are only as free as we are committed to those around us.

Now we can better understand the prayer of the dove, who sought not the desires of the palate, the most delicious tasting foods possible–she said no to the constant lure of comfort, ease, and luxury.  Instead, the dove sought relationship with the Holy One, dependence on the Source of meaning, and (therefore) a life filled with meaningful acts.

We are freed from slavery to humans in order to be a servant of the Holy One.

Where do you find freedom?  What do you make of the two types of freedom?