Yaakov Hibbert Presents… Finding Freedom

The Revelation at Sinai that we celebrate every Shavuos is the culmination of our freedom that started with the exodus from Egypt, that we experienced seven weeks ago. The question is: how does the receiving of the Torah complete our freedom. On the contrary one might think, the Torah doesn’t make us free, it is full of limitations, so many things we can’t do, and many other things that we have to do. This is freedom? Are we really free because we abide to the rules and regulation of the Torah?

Where best to look for our answer, than from someone who willingly chose to undertake to keep the Torah with its 613 commandments – Ruth the Convert. Seemingly she had all the freedom in the world but gave it all up in order to become Jewish. Why would she do this? And in reality we have to ask this question to ourselves, are we willing to accept the Torah, because her “conversion experience” is exactly what we are reliving every Shavuos when we re-accept the Torah.

At the crucial point of her conversion, the point where many of the laws of how to convert people are learnt from, we find that Ruth says, “For where you go I will go, where you lodge, I will lodge;….and your G-d is my G-d”. The Talmud expounds how each of these expressions was referring to a commitment to a specific commandment. Naomi told her about the prohibition of going further than two thousand cubits outside of a town on Shabbos, Ruth replied “where you go I will go”. Naomi told her about the laws of prohibited marriages Ruth replied, “where you lodge, I will lodge”. When told about the prohibition of serving other gods she said, “your G-d is my G-d”.

I heard the most beautiful idea. If she was told about these three restrictions that she cannot do, why did she answer back in the positive, of what she can do? It would have been more correct to reply, “Where you don’t go I won’t go, where you don’t lodge I won’t lodge… and just as you don’t serve other gods I won’t either”?

What Ruth was really telling us in her responses was that all those ‘restrictions’ which can be seen as restrictions, are really not that. Not only do they not restrict you, it is the very restrictions that give the freedom to my actions. It’s only because certain places you can’t go to, that you can enjoy the places you can go to. Only because you can’t be left secluded with some people can I take pleasure in being secluded with others.

To be able to do everything you feel like doing doesn’t make you free, on the contrary you are a slave to your own inclination. The free person is the one who can control his cravings, and truly experience being in control. As one philosopher put it, “Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty”.

A very simple parable explains this idea. A pilot, who has studied a huge thick textbook in order to fly the plane, is surely freer than someone who just walks into the cockpit with no knowledge of what he is doing. The trained pilot is bound by lots of rules and regulations, but he will fly around the world as a free man. The latter will be free from restrictions but is heading for disaster, and won’t even get to fly around and see the world.

We are told how Hashem before the Revelation held the mountain over our head like a barrel and said, “if you accept the Torah good, otherwise there will be your graves”. Why are we told, “there will be your graves” surely it should have said – “right here will be your graves”?

The mountain was held over our heads like a barrel; a barrel is hollow in the middle. Hashem was telling us that to accept the Torah would be like being surrounded on all sides, seemingly confined to the space inside of the barrel. If you accept the Torah – good, you will have to abide and stay within the rules and regulations of the Torah, but if not then – “there” being out there and not confined to the barrel will itself be your deaths. Yes it’s tempting to attain freedom by going out into the big wide world and doing what we feel like doing, but that itself will feel like death – slaves to our inclinations.

Good Shabbos, Good Yom Tov, Yaakov.