Chabad-Lubavitch In Cyberspace   Holidays   Shabbat   Chabad-houses   Chassidism   Subscribe   Calendar   Links B"H

High-Holidays   |   Chanukah   |   Purim   |   Passover   |   Shavuot

Passover   |   Related Dates   |   Passover Schedule   |   Passover-Guide Map



   
Introduction

How To Celebrate

The History of Passover

Thoughts & Essays

Letters From The Rebbe

   Passover Message From The Lubavitcher Rebbe

Purim and Pesach

The Birth of a Nation

A Timeless Lesson

At Home and Away

Counting With Miracles

Striving Higher

Changing the Unchangeable

Liberating Heaven and Earth

Changing Winter to Spring

Seize the Moment

Opposite Extremes

Spiritual Nourishment

Guaranteed Protection

When Private Affects Public

Reclaiming The Fifth Son

Absolute Reliance

Tefillin and Egypt

Enjoyment or Achievement?

Levels of Freedom

Components of Freedom

Sacrificing Slavery

Schooling During Pesach

Passover Anecdotes

Passover Stories

Children's Corner

Q & A

Last Days of Passover

Text of the Passover Haggadah

 
 Components of Freedom  Schooling During Pesach


Sacrificing Slavery

....It is possible that a person will imagine, delude himself and all around him, that he is an independent person, with a mind of his own, his own feelings etc. And when it is pointed out to him that he is very much enslaved and worships the idolatry of the environment and of the nations around - he insists nevertheless, that he is free and independent.

How is such a depravity and such an appalling delusion possible? The answer is that it is the result of "selling" himself into bondage: To ape the thinking of the environment, of the nations of the world ("head"), or to gratify the lust for honor or other cravings (falling under the general caption of the craving for food - "innards"), or to gratify even the lower instincts (symbolized by "legs"), or all of them together - until he becomes no more than "an unborn baby within its mother".

However, having succumbed to self-bribery in the form of envy, self indulgence and pursuit of honor, or, as mentioned above, to the passions symbolized by "head, innards, and legs, "he does not even sense his appalling and miserable slavery of being a "slave to slaves", worshippers of idolatry - to the extent that he deludes himself into thinking that he is a free man.

Comes Pesach and teaches that even when a person finds himself in such a lowly state, there is hope of liberation for him, provided that he remembers what "G-d said to Moshe", remembers the Torah of Moshe, for this will give him the strength to "slaughter" (the lamb), destroy the idolatry, "roast by fire, its head with its legs and its innards" - purifying it all by the fire of the love of G-d, in accordance with the commandment, "You shall love G-d, your G-d, with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your might, arousing in him a burning desire to attach himself to G-d body and soul, as it is written, "My flesh and my heart are consumed, for G-d is the strength of my heart and my lot forever."

The process of liberation is then completed when G-d intervenes to "take unto Himself a nation from the innards of a nation," transforming the individual from one extreme to the other, from the nadir of slavery to true freedom, as it is written: "When you will bring the people out of Egypt, you will serve G-d on this mountain" - Yetzias Mitzraim (the Exodus from Egypt) and true liberation is linked with the service of G-d, or to quote our Sages: "They (the Jews) are My servants (hence) not servants to servants."

(Excerpt of a letter dated 11 Nissan, 5734)
 Components of Freedom  Schooling During Pesach



Current
  • Daily Lessons
  • Weekly Texts & Audio
  • Candle-Lighting times

    613 Commandments
  • 248 Positive
  • 365 Negative

    PDA
  • iPhone
  • Java Phones
  • BlackBerry
  • Moshiach
  • Resurrection
  • For children - part 1
  • For children - part 2

    General
  • Jewish Women
  • Holiday guides
  • About Holidays
  • The Hebrew Alphabet
  • Hebrew/English Calendar
  • Glossary

    Books
  • by SIE
  • About
  • Chabad
  • The Baal Shem Tov
  • The Alter Rebbe
  • The Rebbe Maharash
  • The Previous Rebbe
  • The Rebbe
  • Mitzvah Campaign

    Children's Corner
  • Rabbi Riddle
  • Rebbetzin Riddle
  • Tzivos Hashem

  • © Copyright 1988-2009
    All Rights Reserved
    Chabad-Lubavitch In Cyberspace