While most of us are caught up right now in a whirlwind of activity preparing for Pesach, our focus will shift to a celebration of freedom in just a few short days when we sit down to the Seder. But amidst all the wine, the symbolic foods, and the wonderful moments spent with our loved ones, how many of us have ever stopped to think about the actual meaning of freedom?
Reliving the slavery of Mitzrayim is a tradition that has been carried on for centuries, and one that was designed to be relevant in every generation. While most of us do our best to imagine what it must have been like to live a life where freedom was nothing more than a dream, there are many for whom slavery is not a metaphor, making it all the more important for our community at large to understand the concept of true freedom in contemporary times.
Those who are enslaved by addiction or chained by the horrors of abuse are literally held captive by the circumstances of their lives. Their battle with slavery doesn’t end with the final notes of Chad Gadya and they wake up each and every day trapped by a faceless tormentor whose iron grip knows no mercy, believing that death is sweeter than life. As you immerse yourself in the story of Maggid, don’t just put yourself in the shoes of your ancestors as they toiled in Mitzrayim – imagine yourself trapped in today’s version of seemingly endless bondage. What would you do to break the shackles that hold you prisoner? How would you try to emancipate your son or your daughter if they were enslaved and suffered day and night? Is there anything you wouldn’t do to win your own freedom and that of your children?
Over the past few years, we have seen many Jewish communities starting to acknowledge the slavery of addiction and abuse. In Flatbush, a fund has been created to help those who are struggling get the care they need. Boca Raton, Rabbi Efrem Goldberg has acknowledged the problem in a public forum and is putting together a working group of many organizations, clinics and community members to address these issues. An awareness event to be held in Teaneck after Pesach is another step in the right direction, bringing Northern New Jersey on board as part of the solution to this monumental problem. While we are grateful to see positive strides being taken, we are still light years away from what is really needed.
We need more.
We need more so that we can show the over 350 korbanos who didn’t make it out of their own personal Mitzrayims over the past three years that their deaths were not in vain. It is up to us to honor their memories by bringing true freedom to those who are still suffering. It is up to us to appreciate that this time around, it is we who are living with plagues, only instead of frogs and locusts, we are being inundated with alcoholism, sexual abuse and addiction. And it is up to us to realize that, b’chol dor vador, even today, there are still members of our community who are waiting to for their slavery to end.
When we say V’hi Sheamda at the Seder, let us remember not only the stories passed down to us by our grandparents of the horrors of the Holocaust or persecution in foreign countries, but also the forces of abuse and addiction that seek to destroy us right now. As in past crises, we call upon HKBH to save us, but we need to do our hishtadlus as well. Every community needs to stand up for its members and to combat the dangers that threaten our very existence. By working together, we can overcome these challenges, giving those who are struggling the chance to be free in every sense of the word. As we sit down to the Seder with our families, let’s try to remember the slavery of today so that we can bring the liberation of tomorrow.