Although freedom can be expressed in simple ceremonies such as reclining as free men, drinking four cups of wine and repeating the mantra “we are free men,” the deeper concept of freedom actually envelops and permeates our essence. Freedom is most often perceived as the absence of slavery—just as slavery can be defined as the absence of freedom. But in reality, the absence of slavery does not in itself create a condition of freedom.

Slavery is a condition wherein one is forever forced to act according to the will of another. Freedom is the ability of man to act and express selfhood.

In order for man to act independently, he must want to express his uniqueness. One who does not possess the desire for independent self-expression and fulfillment—either because his spirit has been broken or because it has never been developed—cannot be considered a free man. He is not free in spite of no longer being physically enslaved; he is merely an abandoned slave—a slave without a master.

a person who is cognizant of his or her uniqueness and individuality can never be enslaved. Conversely, one who does not possess this positive self-image can never be considered wholly free.

Abraham Ibn Ezra describes the situation thus: “At the shores of the Red Sea, the Jews genuinely desired to escape the burdens of slavery; but having lived their entire lives as slaves, they could not simply cast off the ingrained affinity they had for their taskmasters. Only after the generation born in slavery had passed on were the Jewish people able to enter the land of Israel to build a nation of free men.” A slave carries a double burden—he is forced to obey his master and has no will of his own. Thus a person who is cognizant of his or her uniqueness and individuality can never be enslaved. Conversely, one who does not possess this positive self-image can never be considered wholly free.

The same principles that enslave an individual can extend to an entire nation, in our current exile or Galut. Real redemption involves more than leaving exile. Implicit in the state of exile is the destruction and subjugation of the will of a nation and its collective yielding to the dictates of a foreign body.

A group of people who leave their land of their own free will, who determine their way of life according to their own values, cannot be considered as living in exile. They are merely living temporarily in a foreign land. As long as they are at liberty to express their essential being, they are not true exiles. Exile is slavery only when it inhibits and stifles national self-expression and self-determination.

The persecuted Jew has been in exile for countless generations during which he has been required to change his way of living. A nation that was basically agricultural became a nation of merchants; an independent people was reduced to slavery and bowed to foreign rule, tossed about by every ill wind. But with it all—so long as the Jewish people held on to their heritage and spiritual principles, to their internal way of life and mode of behavior—they were not an enslaved people.

...so long as the Jewish people held on to their heritage and spiritual principles, to their internal way of life and mode of behavior; they were not an enslaved people

Whenever the assimilated Jew loses his unique sense of self, he loses his independence. Even if he is granted personal freedom, his national exile is total. His real self no longer guides his way of life. The life of the assimilated Jew is set and determined by foreign influences in both his spiritual and physical life. Even when the assimilated Jew lives in a land where strangers no longer dictate how he must conduct himself, he is in a state of exile. He carries the condition of exile with him in its deepest sense. He is bereft of his true self, the self that leads him to freedom. Outside cultures may not physically enslave him, but they continue to rule him spiritually and rob him of his heritage.

A famous Chassidic teaching states, “It is easier to take the Jew out of exile than to take the ‘exile’ out of the Jew.”