{"id":39986,"date":"2018-09-14T15:51:27","date_gmt":"2018-09-14T12:51:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=39986"},"modified":"2022-04-10T15:27:10","modified_gmt":"2022-04-10T12:27:10","slug":"israel-had-to-lose-its-freedom-before-it-could-cherish-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/israel-had-to-lose-its-freedom-before-it-could-cherish-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel Had To Lose Its Freedom Before It Could Cherish It"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[413,354,438],"acf":{"old_id":"39986","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33923,"related_cahpter":"46","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Israel became the people conceived in slavery so that it would never cease to long for liberty","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Torah indicates that there was nothing accidental about the events leading up to Pesach. Centuries before, Abraham had been told by God in the \u2018covenant between the pieces,\u2019 \u2018Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and ill-treated for four hundred years\u2019 (Genesis 15:13). We make repeated reference in the course of the Haggadah to the fact that the whole sequence of events was part of a pre-ordained plan. God \u2018had already calculated the end\u2019 of suffering. When Jacob went down to Egypt he was, we say, <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">anus al pi ha-dibbur<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, \u2018forced by divine decree.\u2019 God himself told Jacob, \u2018Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there\u2019 (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sefaria.org\/Genesis.46.3?lang=he-en\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Genesis 46:3<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) without giving him an intimation of the sufferings his children would endure. The sages say that at the end of his life, when Jacob wanted to tell his children what would happen to them \u2018at the end of days\u2019 the gift of prophecy was taken from him. Without knowing it, the Israelites were part of a narrative that had been scripted long before.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Israel had to lose its freedom before it could cherish it<\/span><\/em><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Only what we lose do we fully pay attention to. Israel had to suffer the experience of slavery and degradation before it could learn, know, and feel intuitively that there is something morally wrong about oppression. Nor could it, or any other people, carry this message in perpetuity without reliving it every year, tasting the harsh tang of the bread of affliction and the bitterness of slavery. Thus was created, at the birth of the nation, a longing for freedom that was at the very core of its memory and identity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Had Israel achieved immediate nationhood in the patriarchal age without the experience of exile and persecution, it would \u2013 like so many other nations in history \u2013 have taken freedom for granted; and when freedom is taken for granted, it has already begun to be lost. Israel became the people conceived in slavery so that it would never cease to long for liberty \u2013 and know that liberty is anything but natural. It requires constant vigilance, unceasing moral struggle. Israel discovered freedom by losing it. May it never lose it again.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":51447,"id":51447,"title":"dt23-slavery","filename":"dt23-slavery-1.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt23-slavery-1.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/we-are-runaway-slaves\/dt23-slavery\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"dt23-slavery","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":51446,"date":"2019-03-17 15:36:36","modified":"2022-04-21 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