Freedom Redefined

[00:00:00] It's not good to be a slave. I guess everybody will agree with that. What is the difference between a slave and a free person? Most of people would say that a slave does not have a choice in what he's doing. He's forced to do things. But a free person has a choice and he does what he wants. Now here is a question. In other words, most of people would say that there's like a spectrum. On one end of the spectrum is a slave that is not having any freedom at all and he's told what to do. On the other end of the spectrum is a free person who does what he wants. And obviously there are gradations in between. But I want to ask you, what about a slave who wants to be a slave? And the Torah portion of Mishpatim speaks exactly about this. If there's a slave that his owner wants to free him, he says, now you're going to be emancipated. And he says, nope, I want to stay in slavery. The Torah discourages it, but it allows it. So it could be a slave that wants to be a slave. On the other hand, it could be a free person that doesn't have a chance to do what he wants. So obviously the difference between a slave and a free man cannot be only in what we just said before, whether you do what you want or you do what you are told. And the Torah gives us a very interesting insight. A slave is someone who is being told what to do without an explanation why he needs to do it, without him appreciating the purpose of his work. [00:01:30] A slave in Hebrew is literally means a worker. He is given a task why it's not his business. He does every labor, every job that he is given without him having a buy in, without him appreciating what is the purpose. A free man, the Torah says a free man is somebody who is doing things with a purpose. He does things because he sees what is the end result and he is appreciating it and he's working towards it. This is the difference. It could be that a person loves working without understanding why he's doing it, why it's calmer this way. You don't have any worries. You go to sleep at night without any headaches. You, you don't need to be concerned about what's going to be tomorrow. You will do your work, you'll get your food and that's it. A slave could be a free man and a free man could be a slave. This is why when God is taking us out of Egypt. He tells us, now you're going to be free people. He's giving us so many tasks that we need to do. As a matter of fact, God himself says, now you're going to be my servants. [00:02:35] One second we seems like we are exchanging one slavery for another. We were slaves to the Egyptians and. And now we're going to be slaves to God. Egyptians were telling us what to do, and God is now telling us what to do. We cannot eat this. We cannot work on Sabbath. We have to wear this. We have to do that. There's so many things we need to do. So what is the answer? God is not only telling us what to do. God is imparting us with a mission and a goal. God is telling us, now you are living with a purpose. And God is giving us a purpose to. To infuse this world with spirituality, with Judaism, with godliness. And the purpose is the ultimate perfection of this world. With the coming of Mashiach, that's what we are working on. We are now having a life with a purpose. And this is the difference. A free man is somebody who works with a purpose. A slave is somebody who is just doing a manual labor, manual tasks without appreciating why he's doing it. And yes, it is very possible that today in the world, you'll have people who are not being enslaved by anyone, but they are just doing what they have to do. Why? I don't even know why I'm just doing it. And then you could have people who are burdened by a lot of restrictions and they are told what to do all the time, but they are told what to do, and they're also made appreciate the purpose, why they're doing it. And this is why they're not slaves. It is. Imagine you have a worker here who is really appreciating. You have a worker in your office who is appreciating what you are trying to accomplish here. He understands your strategy, he understands your work. And he's doing this work. And you can tell that he knows why he's doing what he's doing. This person will be doing things with much more appreciation, much more excitement. Or you could have a worker who will be doing exactly the same thing, but he has no clue why he's doing it. He's told to do this paperwork. He's doing this paperwork. Make this call. I'm making this call. Fill out this paperwork. I'll fill out this paperwork. And he has no clue what he's doing. He will feel like a slave. Why because he doesn't know what he's doing. All this is a burden for him. There's a difference. We were given admission, and that's how we were made free people.