Heruthenu (our Freedom) and Biyur Hametz (the Burning of the Leaven) - These two denote the Hag HaGeulah (Festival of Redemption), Passover, “the time when we are free”. What do we learn, throughout the generations, from these two motifs so dependent one upon the other? The answer, always, is that there are two prerequisites for redemption. The first prerequisite is that of personal freedom, the freedom of the body from all alien bondage, from any bondage which imposes upon “G-d’s image” in man to be in bond to any power which diminishes its value, the glory of its greatness, and the splendour of its holiness. Nor is this freedom to be acquired except through the freedom of the soul, that freedom of the spirit from all which deflects it from its straight and steadfast course, the essence of its inner being. But neither of these freedoms are to be attained, by man as an individual, nor by the People - as a whole, categorized by its own unique spirit - except by rooting out (biyur) from within one’s borders all that defers freedom. This is one’s hametz - the leaven - whose damage is most revealed when the light of geulah (redemption) sparkles upon it.
We must learn how to adapt ourselves to that same great spirit of freedom, which shone upon us in those times of illumination, such as came forth like a flash of lightening with the appearance of the first geulah, the geulah of Egypt. Then the King of Kings, the Holy One Blessed Be He, was Revealed to us in His great glory, and brought us close to His avodah (worship [lit. - labour]) which is our complete and absolute freedom, and raised us up from the depths of the alien bondage whose labour is valueless.
The difference between the free man and the slave is not simply a matter of the order to which each belongs, in that by chance one is in bondage to another and one is not. We may find a slave enlightened in being whose spirit is full of freedom; we may find a free man whose spirit is that of a slave. The nature of freedom is that same exalting spirit by which man - as are the People - is uplifted to be faithful to his own inner self, to be faithful to that spiritual quality of “G-d’s image” which is within him. Through this quality it is possible to feel one’s life to be purposeful and of value. But the feeling for the meaning of his life, of one whose spirit is that of a slave, is never illuminated by the quality of inner self. Rather it is to what another finds to be good and beautiful that he looks - that other to whose authority he is subject or under whose moral ascendancy he is held.
“...‘Haruth al haLukhoth ...engraved upon the Tables [of the Ten Commandments]’ Exod. 32:16 - do not read [the word] as haruth {engraved} but rather as heruth {freedom}” (Pirkei Avoth 6:2). It is by the inner light of this freedom of self, that we shall journey forth to stress more and more that quickening inner freedom, which we acquired through the revelation of the Shekhinah (Divine Presence); that freedom which we acquired through that great wonder, unique in the world, which was accomplished for us when G-d redeemed us and our fathers from Egypt, and set us free forever.
Let us all come then, brothers, to the Seder, knowing that we are the sons of kings, and a people whose eternal destiny is freedom. Israel is not a slave, nor the son of a slave, nor is he to be despised, since that time when he has carried on high, from the day of the Festival of our Freedom, the flag of heruth, the banner of biyur hametz. For these two will “come into [our] inward parts like water,/and like oil into [our] bones” (Ps. 109:18), through the power of the steadfastness of that holy and faithful undertaking, the carrying out of the Word of G-d - the Redeemer of Israel forever and ever - Who has commanded us to keep the mitzvoth.
Guard well heruth and biyur hametz, and may you win to a swift and complete geulah.
| HaRav A.Y.Kook, “Our Freedom and Biyur Hametz”, Haggadah Shel Pesah Im Perushei Maran HaRe’iyah Kook |
| Translated by Rhea Magnes |
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