On Passover and liberty
[The following is a slightly edited repeat of a previous post.]
Tonight is the beginning of the Jewish holiday Passover.
In recent years whenever I’ve attended a Seder, I’ve been impressed by the fact that Passover is a religious holiday dedicated to an idea that’s not really primarily religious: freedom. Yes, it’s about a particular historical (or perhaps legendary) event: the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. But the Seder ceremony makes clear that, important though that specific event may be, freedom itself is also being celebrated.
Offhand, I can’t think of another religious holiday that takes the trouble to celebrate freedom. Nations certainly do: there’s our own Fourth of July, France’s Bastille Day, and various other independence days around the world. But these are secular holidays rather than religious ones.
For those who’ve never been to a Seder ceremony, I suggest attending one (and these days it’s easier, since they are usually a lot shorter and more varied than in the past). A Seder is an amazing experience, a sort of dramatic acting out complete with symbols and lots of audience participation. Part of its power is that events aren’t placed totally in the past tense and regarded as ancient and distant occurrences; rather, the participants are specifically instructed to act as though it is they themselves who were slaves in Egypt, and they themselves who were given the gift of freedom, saying:
“This year we are slaves; next year we will be free people…”
Passover acknowledges that freedom (and liberty, not exactly the same thing but related) is an exceedingly important human desire and need. That same idea is present in the Declaration of Independence (which, interestingly enough, also cites the Creator):
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
It is ironic, of course, that when that Declaration was written, slavery was allowed in the United States. That was rectified, but only after great struggle, which goes to show how wide the gap often is between rhetoric and reality, and how difficult freedom is to achieve. And it comes as no surprise, either, that the Passover story appealed to slaves in America when they heard about it; witness the lyrics of “Let My People Go.”
Yes, the path to freedom is far from easy, and there are always those who would like to take it away. Sometimes an election merely means “one person, one vote, one time,” if human and civil rights are not protected by a constitution that guarantees them, and by a populace dedicated to defending them at almost all costs. Wars of liberation only give an opportunity for liberty, they do not guarantee it, and what we’ve observed in recent decades has been the difficult and sometimes failed task of attempting to foster it in places with no such tradition, and with neighbors dedicated to its obliteration.
We’ve also seen threats to liberty in our own country, despite its long tradition of liberty and the importance Americans used to place on it.
Sometimes those who are against liberty are religious, like the mullahs. Sometimes they are secular, like the Communists. Sometimes they are cynical and power-mad; sometimes they are idealists who don’t realize that human beings were not made to conform to their rigid notions of the perfect world, and that attempts to force them to do so seem to inevitably end in horrific tyranny, and that this is no coincidence.
As one of my favorite authors Kundera wrote, in his Book of Laughter and Forgetting:
…human beings have always aspired to an idyll, a garden where nightingales sing, a realm of harmony where the world does not rise up as a stranger against man nor man against other men, where the world and all its people are molded from a single stock and the fire lighting up the heavens is the fire burning in the hearts of men, where every man is a note in a magnificent Bach fugue and anyone who refuses his note is a mere black dot, useless and meaningless, easily caught and squashed between the fingers like an insect.”
Note the seamless progression from lyricism to violence: no matter if it begins in idealistic dreams of an idyll, the relinquishment of freedom to further that dream will end with humans being crushed like insects.
History has borne that out, I’m afraid. That’s one of the reasons the people of Eastern Europe have been more inclined to ally themselves recently with the US than those of Western Europe have—the former have only recently come out from under the Soviet yoke of being regarded as those small black and meaningless dots in the huge Communist “idyll.”
Dostoevsky did a great deal of thinking about freedom as well. In his cryptic and mysterious Grand Inquisitor, a lengthy chapter from The Brothers Karamazov, he imagined a Second Coming. But this is a Second Coming in which the Grand Inquisitor rejects what Dostoevsky sees as Jesus’s message of freedom:
Oh, never, never can [people] feed themselves without us [the Inquisitors and controllers]! No science will give them bread so long as they remain free. In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet, and say to us, “Make us your slaves, but feed us.” They will understand themselves, at last, that freedom and bread enough for all are inconceivable together, for never, never will they be able to share between them! They will be convinced, too, that they can never be free, for they are weak, vicious, worthless, and rebellious. Thou didst promise them the bread of Heaven, but, I repeat again, can it compare with earthly bread in the eyes of the weak, ever sinful and ignoble race of man?
Freedom vs. bread is a false dichotomy. Dostoevsky was writing before the Soviets came to power, but now we have learned that lack of freedom, and a “planned” economy, is certainly no guarantee of bread.
I think there’s another very basic need, one that perhaps can only really be appreciated when it is lost: liberty.
Happy Passover!
Despite having Jewish paternal grandparents, I grew up knowing very little about the Jewish religion. When I was about 25 I was invited to attend a Seder dinner. Though sceptical, I found that I really enjoyed it. It is a ritual retelling of an ancient story and participatory theater combined.
In spite of my lack of religious faith, I was moved.
Chag Pesach Sameach!
and
Happy Easter to our Christian cousins!
“Offhand, I can’t think of another religious holiday that takes the trouble to celebrate freedom.”
Hmmm…offhand I’d offer that a good portion of the New Testament disagrees with you.
The Christian celebration of the resurrection, aka Easter, is many things…but certainly the many shades of freedom in the in-breaking Kingdom of God is at its heart.
Oh…and since the edit function has been confiscated by that bunny…let me add:
Blessed Passover & Happy Easter…however one’s inclinations incline. 😉
As I have stated before, I am agnostic. I know I lack the wisdom and insight to know what god is or understand an infinite universe. But I do realize that the foundation, shaky as it is these days, of Western Civilization is based upon Judeo-Christian religions. And I am fond of WC as a becon of enlightenment and the source of the desire for individual liberty.
This time of year is, imo, a time when we rejoyce in the promise of spring, and should be thankful for the fleeting day by day measure of our lives. All born die, that is reality. After my inevitable death I lack the wisdom to know what happens or does not happen next. To those certain in your faith, good for you. For myself I don’t presume to know.
Even though its editorially “warmed over,” it’s still a fine and thoughtful post, Neo. John Guilfoyle’s point is well taken. Search world history and philosophy and nowhere does one find the DNA of pure individual liberty but in the Judaeo-Christian understanding of Almighty God, omniscient, omnipotent, all-loving creator of man “in His image.” The essence of that image — the way we are most like God — is in our precious gift of freedom. Every human being is put free and at risk in the universe. Free to accept and worship God and free to reject or ignore him. In C.S. Lewis’ wise observation, we, each of us, are in fact not bodies with souls, but souls with bodies. These souls — the real “Us” — are answerable finally only to our Creator. This is the reality that has been intolerable to pharaohs, emperors, dictators of every stripe, and why the synogogue and the church are ever the targets for destruction or subversion. Our founding fathers understood who was the “Author of Liberty.” God invented freedom.
Ralph Kinney Bennett:
More often than not, the church has been a partner with the state in subjugating the masses.
RKB and RN, you are both arrogant because you think you know the universal ‘truth’. But you are both mortals, therefore you can not know. You can of course believe what you believe, you can proclaim your superior knowledge and insight, but you can not know with any certainty. Be happy in your beliefs, but you can not know. Send me a text when you are dead and tell me what you know with absolute certainty. Until then, you both might want to rethink about your certainty that you ride the high horse. Oh, a bit of humility might be a good spoonful of medicine, sweet or savory.
Very interesting post and a celebration of “Freedom”.
But is this adult freedom, to act, or childish freedom, from responsibility?
In the current times, too many Dems want the freedom from responsibility, from cleaning up their own mess, the mess from their policies, the mess from their protestors; the cultural support for having a messy room.
And the freedom to act for adults remains constrained by laws. Good laws specify what actions bring punishments, which thus restrict freedom.
Last night we watched a new version of Samson. Was pretty good, with a VERY ripped Taylor James as the lead, who didn’t want to become the leader of the Israelites in fighting for freedom, despite being “chosen” by God, and gifted with super strength. His father was murdered.
Fighting for freedom is often, usually, at least a little costly. Often very costly. The Judeo – Christian West, based on Ten Commandments restrictions on freedom (mostly “thou shalt not”, which allow more freedom), has been hugely successful.
But we need to fight, at least with blog posts (& FB?) & comments & voting, for those who fight for freedom with us.
anyone who refuses his note is a mere black dot,
This is the attitude of the arrogant elite. The populist view is that everybody has value. Christians are pretty balanced on the need to belong: to family, community, nation, yet also the freedom to be yourself. Within wide, but still sometimes bounding, constraints.
We do have to choose to be worthy of being free — and accept the responsibility that comes with adult freedom.
Happy Easter – Happy Passover.
parker,
Is not your celebration of the certainty of your ignorance also a bit arrogant?
You want to keep your Freedom?
You need to be aware of crap like this, about how you can be systematically lied to, and your view of reality manipulated.
Seattle TV station KOMO recently made a devastating documentary titled, “Seattle is Dying,” about how, due to the increasing numbers of addicted homeless people in the city, their presence on the streets, their squatting, encampments, the resulting squalor, and their overall negative impact on daily life, there has been a very visible decline in the quality of life in Seattle. *
It appears that this documentary had great impact.
The story linked below details how a coalition of Seattle philanthropic foundations funded a below the radar disinformation campaign to counter this documentary. **
They did this by using what the report linked below called “ “idea laundering”—creating misinformation and legitimizing it as objective truth through repetition in sympathetic media”— pushing a demonstrably phony “good news” narrative through their silent partners—Academics, TV reporters, government, and these philanthropic organizations themselves.
Here is the key paragraph from the report below:
“The key messages of the campaign include a number of misleading claims, including: “Seattle is making progress to end homelessness,” “1 in 4 people experiencing homelessness in our community struggle with drug or alcohol abuse,” and “[62 percent of Seattle voters believe] we are not spending enough to address homelessness.” All three contentions fail to meet basic scrutiny: street homelessness has increased 131 percent over the past five years; King County’s lawsuit against Purdue Pharma admits that “the majority of the homeless population is addicted to or uses opioids” (not one in four); and 62 percent of Seattle voters agree to the statement “we are not spending enough” only when it is directly prefaced in the polling questionnaire by the phrase “other cities of the same size are spending 2 to 3 times the amount that Seattle is and are seeing significant reductions in homelessness”—itself an unsubstantiated claim. (When the same question is presented neutrally, without the framing, support for “we are not spending enough” drops to 7 percent).”
* See Seattle is Dying here at https://komonews.com/news/local/komo-news-special-seattle-is-dying
** See https://hotair.com/archives/2019/04/19/seattle-elites-coordinated-pr-campaign-response-seattle-dying/
P.S.–Note the third and last point in the paragraph above, and how easily pollsters can elicit the answer they want by how they frame the questions they ask.
This ought to tell you all you need to know about the “accuracy” and legitimacy of many–perhaps most–polls.
Parker. Your first post was, I think, a very thoughtful and intellectually honest one. In your second post you arrogated to yourself the right to call me (and RN) “arrogant” on the basis of my few words asserting my belief as to the true root of freedom. I know little of a certainty; although I am fairly sure (those who know me could attest) that I do not ride a “high horse.” I have tried, through my life, to weigh facts, to evaluate, to regard the value of every person, as I’m certain you have. We have each reached different interpretations, if not conclusions, on “ultimate things.” I have re-read my post over and over. If it is arrogant, or annoyingly assertive, then I failed in my purpose. As to who God is and what he has done, I do not presume to “superior knowledge.” I presume, on the evidence as I see it, to believe.
As Tom Grey points out, with freedom comes responsibility.
Edmund Burke pointed out why responsibility is the other side of freedom’s coin.
“men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites.
Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere, and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without.
It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.”
The Bible records that, after they gained their freedom, the Israelite’s often failed to exercise the self-discipline necessary to acting responsibly, i.e. demonstrating responsibility in accord with God’s laws.
Americans do not currently appear to be doing any better.
Perhaps this provides insight into why mankind has yet to sustain self-governance? Some have speculated that mankind is still in the ‘juvenile’ stage of its racial maturation process.
You humans are living rent free on the Earth, which you do not own because you did not create it.
If you did not build the house, obviously you don’t own the house, especially if you weren’t paying rent on it or giving the builder any credit.
Beautiful post, Neo.
It fascinates me how quickly most all of us voluntarily enslave ourselves for very little in return. A facade of safety, security or a promise of happiness is all most of us need to surrender our independence.
“It is ironic, of course, that when that Declaration was written, slavery was allowed in the United States. ” – Neo
Picking up on this line, because I recently read a relevant article.
https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2019/05/06/the-constitution-was-never-pro-slavery/
MAGAZINE | MAY 6, 2019, ISSUE
The Constitution Was Never Pro-Slavery
By ALLEN C. GUELZO
April 18, 2019 11:14 AM
“It was deliberately written to avoid establishing a legal precedent for ownership of human beings”
The Founding Fathers kicked the can down the road. It was Lincoln’s generations that would resolve the issue or collapse entirely.
If they tried to resolve this ownership dispute, they would be fighting each other, not the British.
They will understand themselves, at last, that freedom and bread enough for all are inconceivable together, for never, never will they be able to share between them! They will be convinced, too, that they can never be free, for they are weak, vicious, worthless, and rebellious. Thou didst promise them the bread of Heaven, but, I repeat again, can it compare with earthly bread in the eyes of the weak, ever sinful and ignoble race of man?
That is why Bolshevisk didn’t actually feed the masses, just themselves.