In the daily Ma’ariv (evening) service we recite, “Who struck with His anger all the first born of Egypt and removed His nation Israel from their midst to eternal freedom.” Did the exodus from Egypt truly bring us “eternal freedom”? True, we have never again been enslaved as a nation, but do foreign oppression, anti-Semitism, and religious and physical persecution constitute eternal freedom?

The answer lies in the understanding of what the liberation from Egyptian bondage really means. We can sum it up in one sentence. Not only did the Jews have to be taken out of Egypt, but Egypt had to be taken out of the Jews. The Egyptian society that the Jews were enslaved in was in all facets of life the opposite of the holy life that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had instilled in their descendants. Under the duress of their Egyptian slave masters the Jewish People worshipped the Egyptian gods. Many assimilated and did not want to leave Egypt even after G-d wrought the miraculous plagues upon the Egyptians. These Jews perished and those who remained and were about to leave Egypt still needed freedom from the shackles of spiritual slavery. They attained this liberation with the exodus from Egypt because they became the Jewish nation – a nation that has an everlasting unique bond with the Almighty and the eternal spiritual strength to rise above the negative influences of the mundane world.Now this nation’s charge became to utilize this special strength.

Although the influential grip of a mundane world is very hard to shake, we must also remember that we are not enslaved to society. Of course, there is no guarantee that we will never sin , but we are endowed with a unique power to rise above the negative influences of the world. The Jewish nation will never be lost for we are free – free to serve Hashem under any conditions through the unique powers that He instilled in every single Jew when He took our ancestors out of Egypt and made us His nation.

How do we activate these unique powers? By studying and following the word of G-d – the Torah! Hashem declared from the Burning Bush as He charged Moshe to lead the Jewish people out of slavery, “and this is your sign that I have sent you. When you take the people out of Egypt you will serve Hashem on this mountain” (Ex. 3:12). That mountain was Mount Sinai – the mountain upon which Hashem gave the Torah to the Jewish people. The potential for freedom came with the exodus from Egypt. The actualization of that freedom comes about through the Torah the Jewish people would receive.

The commentary of Oznaim L’Torah, (Shemot 12:39) on the words, ולא יכלו להתמהמה – “and they were not able to wait,” makes the following incredible observation. The commentaries explain that the Jewish people had to be rushed out of Egypt because remaining any longer would have caused them to sink to the fiftieth level of Tumah, spiritual impurity. They would have become so spiritually compromised that they would have sunk to the point of no return and would have remained in Egypt forever. Now we present day Jews have lingered in Galut (The Exile) for over two thousand years yet we continue to survive as the nation of G-d and have been guaranteed a final redemption. What makes us different from our ancestors in Egypt? The difference lies in the nature of our nationhood. If a nation’s existence is based on language, culture, names, and mode of dress, which the Jewish people in Egypt uniquely possesed, there are no guarantees that the essence of that people can survive. But receiving the Torah guarantees that we will never lose the spark that makes us G-d’s chosen people.

Every year we celebrate our eternal freedom on Passover. As we conclude that celebration we look forward to Shavuos, the celebration of our eternal freedom attaining its fullest potential through the receiving of the Torah.

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach!
Yitzchak