TELL April-May 2019

cruise, instead it is referencing the
‘state of being’ of a slave once they
have been freed - they were a slave,
and then chofshi, freedom. So why
then in the haggadah and in our
discussions about Pesach, do we use
the word cheirut instead of chofesh?
Rabbi Sacks suggests our texts are
speaking about two very different
kinds of freedom. He begins with
chofeshi, the freedom used in the
Torah, i.e. the freedom which
follows slavery. This freedom he
suggests, has no strings attached.
It is a pure kind of freedom which
removes the person from any kind
of obligation, any form of laws
or requirements. It is a personal
freedom to act, behave, come, go,
be and do anything the person
desires or imagines. So the sense of
freedom is personal and it imposes
nothing upon us. Rabbi Sacks
then suggests that this kind of
freedom is wonderful for individual
people, but apply it to a society,
and it will result in chaos. So,
freedom for a people is different
from individual freedom, and it
therefore needed a different word.
When the first Jews left Egypt, they
were free in a chofesh, unlimited
individual way; they had thrown
off the yoke of slavery, and they
walked through the parted waters
to a life of liberty. But there was
more to come. The Israelites as
a community, were not freed in
order to do as they pleased. If
they were, the community would
have descended quite quickly into
chaos. Instead they were released
in order to follow God, to accept
upon themselves God’s laws and
regulations. Their freedom came
with conditions. That is why
Shavuot, the next festival in the
Jewish calendar, does not have its
own date; it is linked to the Exodus.
The date of Shavuot is 49 days from
Pesach. So, as we count from Pesach
towards Shavuot, we are counting
the days until we receive the Torah
at Mount Sinai; because freedom
and laws, freedom and obligation
are, according to the Torah,
inextricably linked, one cannot
exist without the other. Yet, even at
this point the Torah does not refer
to the Israelites as having freedom
cherut, instead it still speaks of
chofshi. So, when and why did it
change and what is the difference?
Rabbi Sacks goes on to explain
that there is one use of the root
word cherut in the Torah, and
that is in connection with the ten
commandments when it refers to
engraving, etching them in stone.
Later, by the prophet Isaiah, there
is a reference to engraving the
commandments on the hearts of
the people. And it is this root, the
word meaning engrave, which
is the one used eventually to
describe the Israelites’ freedom.
So, what does that tell us?
Like the link with Shavuot, it
tells us that the freedom of which
the Pesach story speaks is not an
unlimited, open freedom - it has
constraints and boundaries. The
Israelites accepted those boundaries
when they received the laws at Sinai
and said, “na’aseh ve nishma”- we
will do them and we will hear them.
They accepted upon themselves
the laws, and the limits to their
freedom. But there was a problem
because their acceptance was not
wholehearted; the laws and their
willingness to submit to them, was
not engraved on their hearts. It was
what they had to do, it was the right
thing to do. Maybe as a sense of
gratitude to God, i.e. You took us
out of Egypt so the least we can do
is accept your rules. Or maybe from
a sense of fear. The midrash says that
God held Mount Sinai over their
heads and said, “will you accept my
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