"You Can Take A People Out of Slavery, But Can You Take  Slavery Out of A People?"

April 10, 2000

                        by Rabbi Yitzchak Blau

                        Speculating on the inner workings of Divine providence demands a

                        great deal of caution and humility. Nevertheless, rishonim did

                        sometimes offer suggestions as to why Hashem orchestrated

                        particular historical events. Thus, Ibn Ezra Perush ha'Arukh on

                        Shemot 2:3) ( explains why it was that Moshe Rabbenu needed to

                        grow up in an Egyptian household. If the Jewish people had seen

                        Moshe grown up as one of them, they would not have felt the

                        necessary reverence towards Moshe. The boy who played with

                        their children on the Egyptian sand could not easily be seen as the

                        redeemer of Israel and recipient of the Divine message. Instead,

                        Moshe first appeared to the Jewish people as a mature and awe

                        inspiring stranger.

                        While the explanation mentioned focuses on the needs of the

                        people, Ibn Ezra also offers another suggestion that focuses on the

                        needs of Moshe. The people of Israel had sunk into a slave

                        consciousness that does not conceive of freedom as a possibility.

                        Such a people lack the independence and sense of self needed to

                        stand up to an Egyptian overlord or some Midianites bullying the

                        local girls. Only Moshe, who grew up in the freedom of the royal

                        family, understood that the Jews' situation was intolerable and

                        could be rectified.

                        Ibn Ezra (ibid. 14:13) employs the identical idea to explain a later

                        difficulty. How is it that after seeing the Divine make a mockery

                        out of Egyptian might through ten plagues, the people still appear

                        terrified of their former masters? Six hundred thousand men did not

                        have the courage to fight a people decimated by various

                        calamities? Ibn Ezra says that the people still could not conceive of

                        the Egyptians as anything other than their masters. Two hundred

                        plus years of conditioning could not be overcome in a matter of

                        months. He even goes so far as to suggest that this factor played

                        a role in the next generation entering the land of Israel. As a slave

                        people could not be expected to withstand the rigors of settling

                        Israel, the task fell to their children. (see also Moreh Nevukhim

                        3:32).

                        Indeed, how does one go about transforming a slave people? The

                        first mizvah Hashem gives the people is that of the Jewish

                        calendar: "ha'hodesh ha'ze la'khem". What is the meaning of the

                        word "lakhem"? Ramban explains that the term refers to Moshe and

                        Aaron and it emphasizes that the sages control the Jewish

                        calendar. Seforno explains that the term refers to taking

                        possession of this month as only a free man can. If the last two

                        hundred and ten years of time did not belong to this people, a new

                        era begins in which the months are theirs to do as they see fit.

                        Thus, educating a slave people means bringing them to an

                        understanding that they are in control of their time. Rav

                        Soloveitchik takes this idea one step further. In his essay entitled

                        "Kodesh v'Hol," he explains how memory of the past and

                        anticipation for the future are crucial components of the religious

                        personality. A slave brought up on constant mind numbing routine

                        loses both the sense of a significant past and the notion of

                        aspirations for the future. This obstacle must be surmounted if

                        those who left Egypt are to become a people of destiny.

                        According to the Rav, this precisely explains the notion of sefirat

                        ha'omer. In counting toward the receiving of the Torah, we affirm

                        that the exodus from Egypt comes with a shift in perspective. A

                        people long frozen in a stupor of slavery suddenly recall where they

                        come from and what they are hoping for. Indeed, it is matan torah

                        itself that ends up defining the nature and purpose of the exodus.

                        Both the Seforno and the Rav see particular mizvot as crucial in

                        formulating the change in perspective.

                        Baalei Mussar might point out that one need not actually be a

                        slave to act as a slave to one's desires, vanity or shallowness. Let

                        our sense of a glorious past and our hopes for an even more

                        glorious future shake us out of our own forms of slavery. A people

                        of fate feeling subject to forces beyond their control can seize the

                        initiative and transform into a people of destiny.

                        Rabbi Yitzchak Blau is a Ram at Yeshivat Hamivtar Orot Lev