Actualizing the Time of Freedom

In the liturgy, Pesaḥ is referred to as “the time of our freedom” (zman ḥeiruteinu).

            We may note that in fact, Pesaḥ was the time of our freedom only potentially. Israel achieved its freedom only fifty days after leaving Egypt, when we stood at the foot of Mount Sinai and accepted Torah, as our Sages taught: “none is free, save he who deals (osek) with Torah.” [Eliyahu Zuta, 17] Had Israel not accepted Torah, the exodus from Egypt would have been a meaningless and purposeless act.

            Based upon this, we can stress that it was the actions of the Israelites who left Egypt which actualized Pesaḥ as the time of our freedom.

            We can also note that freedom is a privilege, and we realized that privilege only when we accepted the obligations of Torah and mitzvot. The Torah’s approach is consistently that privilege stems from accepting responsibility.