Two Minute Torah Podcast

Yitro 5770 by Rabbi Tzvi Graetz

When Israel was in Egypt's Land,
Let my people go,
Opressed so hard they could not stand,
Let my people go

Words and Music of Go Down Moses: http://my.homewithgod.com/heavenlymidis2/moses.html

Hi, my name is Rabbi Tzvi Graetz and I'm the Executive Director of Masorti Olami and MERCAZ Olami, developing Masorti/Conservative Kehilot (communities) around the world.

"And Adonai spoke to Moshe, go to Pharaoh, and say to him,
thus saith Adonai, Let my people go, that they may serve me" Exodus 9:1

Let my people go! The famous slogan that represents the essence of freedom, of the fight against slavery. But when read carefully in the Bible, we see it's only half of the slogan. Let my people go so they may serve me (actual translation means work for me) in the desert. In the famous song that we like to sing, we forget the little but crucial addition in the verse: Let my people go, that they may serve me.

The beautiful slogan declaring that the people of Israel should be freed from slavery to Pharoah, is replaced by a condition, they should be freed in order for them to go and work for someone else. That someone else is Adonai, the God of Israel, and he is going to give the people of Israel a new set of laws and rules to follow, not the ones of Pharoah. These are the mitzvot -the commandments - that are given on Mount Sinai. Wow, what a disappointment for the lovers of a good Hollywood drama. Here we thought the poor slaves were going to become free to do whatever they set themselves to do, and now after this grand escape from 430 years of slavery in Egypt they need to go and work for someone else. As we know, there are many phrases in our Jewish tradition where we say proudly we are Avdei Hashem, the slaves of God. Have we substituted one slavery for another?

I'm leaving this question open for you to decide. But I want to emphasize that there is a very important lesson to be learned here.

On Mount Sinai we accept as a people and as individuals the slavery that we put upon ourselves, and not the one forced upon us by other human beings. It is the joyous slavery of the worshipper, the one who seeks a meaning in life. A life of fulfilling a higher end goal, a life with purpose. One cannot and may not just compare one slavery with the other. The commandments have a reason, they are a way of life for the nation and the individuals. Mount Sinai is where a new form of life is created. When Torah is given to us, a revolutionary phrase of FREE SLAVES is created in the history of the world. May we fight human slavery with all our might, and may we learn to enjoy and love the slavery of worshipping our God Adonai.