It’s easier to take Jews out of galus than to take galus out of Jews – Chassidic master
Ever been accused of being your own worst enemy? In a world filled with real dangers, from cheating merchants to terrorists, how could such an accusation have any real merit? Easy. As Sol Herzig notes in a column on Aish.com, we are all confronted in our lives by the “…sobering fact that serenity and joy are natural states for all of us…” However, he is quick to point out that we needn’t fear the imminent loss of our treasured discontent, as there are any number of methods we can – and do! – employ to ensure that we remain miserable.
I am not much enamored of pop psychology or “feel good” philosophies that dominate our modern culture. Quite the contrary. The superficiality of much of our times disturbs me more than I can say. But I also know our tradition teaches that God deemed His creation to be good and that we are to enjoy creation and our existence.
Even more to the point, our failure to find joy – to get out of our own way – leaves us vulnerable to real dangers and profound misery. A determined and internalized sense of galus diminishes us and God. It is powerfully true that we as Jews have been victimized too often in history – but we are not victims. We weaken ourselves by continuing to think of ourselves as such.
Even our archetypal experience of victimization – our enslavement in Egypt – needed to be shrugged off before we could realize the promise of freedom God had for us: “…and I shall take you out from under the burdens [sivlot] of Egypt” (Exodus 6:6).
The Hebrew verb li’sbol means “to suffer.” God promises that He will remove us from the burdens, the suffering, of Mitzrayim. Li’sbol also means “to tolerate.” With this understanding in mind, R’ Simcha Bunim comments that despite their backbreaking labor, the Children of Israel came to “tolerate” their situation. Slavery was their natural state of being. They became blind to how terribly bitter it was. As a result, God had to free them not only from their physical slavery but from their tolerance of their slavery.
Tolerance of evil is worse than the evil itself.
How easy it is to become benumbed to our discomfort. So much so that we’d rather continue our misery than subject ourselves to the challenge and uncertainty of change and the hope of betterment.We know from countless studies that long-term prisoners are reluctant to leave their prison cells to face the outside world. So too were the Jews reluctant to leave their prison in Egypt.
As slaves, we didn’t have to think, we didn’t have to risk, we didn’t have to feel honest and true feelings. All was decided for us. No uncertainty. Just burden, to which we became tolerant. We tolerated – invited – the burden of slavery as though it was our appropriate lot in life. If it is possible to become tolerant of sivlos Mitzrayim how much more possible is it to become tolerant of the everyday burdens and challenges we all confront today.
R’ Menachem Mendel of Kotzk proclaimed that the first step toward freedom is the willingness to rebel against slavery. Before being led to Sinai, Bnei Yisrael had to accept God’s great gift of freedom from their tolerance of slavery. This, the freedom from tolerance, is the ultimate foundation for geulah. There can be no redemption until galus is utterly rejected. Indeed, it is this understanding that prompts the Chidushei HaRim to teach us that the pasuk should read, “I will deliver you from being tolerant of Egypt.”