Your attention, thank you for your patience. As we just heard, the subject is freedom and slavery. Obviously, this is not a civil rights discussion, but this is a discussion of the Torah outlook on what it means, what slavery, what freedom means and what slavery means, etc., etc. Now, the positive side of freedom and the specialty and importance of freedom versus the negativity of slavery and the problems that there are in slavery, is actually a foundation in Yiddishkeit. It's a foundation in the Jewish religion. We know that the Jewish religion, or even the Jewish nation, is based on the concept of freedom. We became a nation at the time when Hashem took us out from Egypt and made us a free nation. It all started at that time. We know that the time of Yetziat Mitzrayim, when the Jews left Egypt, were taken out of Egypt, is referred to in Tanach, in Yechezkel, as the birth of the Jewish nation. So, actually, the Jewish nation was born out of the concept of freedom. Till then, they were slaves in Egypt, and then Hashem performed all kinds of miracles and did all kinds of extraordinary, supernatural things in order to take them out and make them into a free nation. So, the concept of freedom was the beginning of our nation and the beginning of our religion, because this led up to מתן תורה when God gave us the Torah, which was really the purpose of Yetziat Mitzrayim. The whole reason why He took us out of Mitzrayim was in order to take us and give us the Torah. And it all was based on the concept that He freed us, took us out from our slavery, and made us into free people. As Aseret HaDibrot, the Ten Commandments, start with that statement. Hashem, so to speak, identified Himself, introduced Himself by saying, אנכי השם אלוקיך אשר הוצאתיך מארץ מצרים, \"I am Hashem, your God, that took you out of מצרים, מבית עבדים, from being in a house of slaves.\" That's how He started off Aseret HaDibrot. So, the concept of going out of Mitzrayim, which is freedom, is the basis of Yiddishkeit. And this turned into a foundation into our daily life as Jews. We know that a Jew is obligated constantly to feel as if he went out of Mitzrayim that day. The Talmud tells us בכל דור ודור, in every generation, and in Tanya he adds that not only every generation, but בכל יום ויום, every day, חייב אדם לראות את עצמו כאילו הוא יצא ממצרים. A Yid has to see himself as if he went out of Mitzrayim. You have to imagine, every day you have to relive as if you were freed from slavery, as if you went out of Mitzrayim. We say this in the Haggadah, too. So, the concept of going out of Mitzrayim is something that is expected of us to feel every day. There is a mitzvah, one of the 613 mitzvot, one of the positive mitzvot, is זכירת יציאת מצרים, to remember Yetziat Mitzrayim, to remember the time we were freed from slavery. And this is a mitzvah once a year we have a special, we make a special fuss over it, which is on Pesach, but actually every day there is a mitzvah for us to remember Yetziat Mitzrayim. And not just every day, but twice a day: once in the morning, and once in the evening. We are obligated in a form of a מצות עשה, in a form of a positive commandment, to remember Yetziat Mitzrayim. And where do we do that? In which way do we remember Yetziat Mitzrayim every day? It is through the mitzvah of קריאת שמע. When we say Kri Shema, that's where we mention Yetziat Mitzrayim. We know that Kri Shema has three portions to it: שמע and ואהבת, which is the first portion, והיה אם שמוע, the second portion, and the third portion, which is ויאמר השם אל משה דבר אל בני ישראל ואמרת אלהם ועשו להם ציצית. And the reason that we say that third portion is only because of the last pasuk. The last verse is, אני השם אלקיכם אשר הוצאתי אתכם מארץ מצרים, \"I am Hashem, your God, that took you out of Mitzrayim.\" And the reason we say that portion is just to mention יציאת מצרים, and we do that twice a day. In reality, we do it more than twice a day, but the mitzvah is twice a day, and we do it in Krias Shema that we say in the morning, in davenen of Shacharis, the morning prayers, and we do it in Maariv, in the evening prayers. Then, by Krias Shema shel hamitah, when we go to sleep, we do it again. Not all customs say that portion in Krias Shema shel hamitah, but many do. But basically, the mitzvah is to do it twice a day. This shows that it is a very important mitzvah. We do it twice a day, and to which mitzvah did we connect it? To the mitzvah of Krias Shema. Now, we know that שמע ישראל and the mitzvah of Krias Shema, of saying שמע, is the foundation of Yiddishkeit. If someone will ask, could one tell us which is the most important verse, the most important pasuk in the whole Torah? Everyone is gonna answer: שמע ישראל השם אלקינו השם אחד. Hear, O Israel, God, our God, God is one. And in that parashah, in connection to Krias Shema, we put in the mitzvah of זכירת יציאת מצרים, to show that the to remember יציאת מצרים, to remember our freedom from slavery, is very important, and it's the foundation of Yiddishkeit. Actually, many individual mitzvot are based on being a זכר ליציאת מצרים, on being a remembrance of יציאת מצרים. The mitzvah of Shabbos, everyone knows Shabbos is one of the most important mitzvot, the most the fundamental mitzvot in the Torah, so we know Shabbos is זכר ליציאת מצרים. We say it in the Kiddush, we say it in davenen, it's the zecher to remember Yetziat Mitzrayim. We know that Shabbos is זכר למעשה בראשית, we know Shabbos is a remembrance of the creation of the world. That's the reason we keep Shabbos. Hashem told us, just like He created the world in six days and the seventh day He rested, so He wants us to work six days and the seventh day to rest. So, basically Shabbos is a remembrance of מעשה בראשית, of the creation of the world, and we mention that in davenen too. But at the same time, we also add that Shabbos is זכר ליציאת מצרים, it's to remember Yetziat Mitzrayim. The mitzvah of tefillin is connected to Yetziat Mitzrayim. When the Jews went out of Mitzrayim, that's when He gave us the mitzvah of tefillin. The mitzvah of tzitzit, it says, is a remembrance of Yetziat Mitzrayim. The mitzvah of פדיון הבן. Many, many mitzvot. Actually, the Chinuch, the Sefer HaChinuch, famous sefer who writes who actually writes all the תרי״ג, 613 mitzvot, describes them, and gives some details about every mitzvah, and gives the reason behind the mitzvot, writes that the concept of Yetziat Mitzrayim is a great pillar and a great foundation in our religion. So this all shows that we are basically based, founded, the Jewish religion and the Jewish nation is basically founded on the concept of freedom.

We also see that the Torah, which is the Jewish religion, doesn't really really encourage slavery, even in the simple sense. We know there is an idea of an עבד עברי. There is a concept of a Jew being sold as a slave to another Jew, that's called an עבד עברי, a Jewish slave. But we know that the Torah does not encourage it, and the Torah says a person should really not do that. Only, only if he's desperate, if a person, a Jew has no money and has no choice, that's when he should sell himself as a slave. And even then, the Talmud tells us it's not a real slave. He's basically a worker, not a slave. And there are so many obligations upon the master, the Jew that bought him, what he should do to this slave that he really is not a slave. The Talmud says: כל הקונה עבד לעצמו, כל הקונה עבד עברי כאילו קונה אדון לעצמו. If a person buys a Jewish slave, he basically buys himself a master, because you got to behave to him in a very special way, you got to serve him in a very special way. You can't take for yourself things that you can't give him. If you sleep with a pillow, he must sleep with a pillow too. If you have a blanket, he has to have a blanket, you can't not give him. And therefore the halacha is, if a person owns only one pillow, you can't sleep on a pillow and he shouldn't, so give it to him! And that's the din, you have to give it to him. So really, he's not really a slave. But even that little bit of slavery that is there, he could only sell himself for six years, just for a just a minimum amount of time that he should be able to get some money. And if he wants to stay longer, then we have to make a hole in his ears, to remind him that this is wrong. And even then, he only stays up to Yovel, up to the year of Jubilee which is the 50th year, which could be very close, doesn't mean 50 years from when he sold himself, the 50th year, which basically is a very short amount of time many times. And then the pasuk says, all slaves have to go free: וקראתם דרור כל הארץ, you should call out freedom for the whole land. Actually, I think that's the verse that's written on the Liberty Bell, taken from this parsha. So the Torah does not really look at slavery in a positive way. Even buying a non-Jewish slave, an עבד כנעני, which is a slave, a real slave, we find in the Torah that the way the Torah wants us to behave with our slaves is not the way slavery was looked upon in the goyishe world. The Rambam says a Jew is asked not to harm his slave, not to hurt him, even though we consider the slave קנין כספו that he is his property, but nevertheless it says behave to him like a mentsh and you have to treat him like a mentsh and you have to do everything in a nice way. As a matter of fact, it comes out from halacha that when you buy yourself a goyishe slave, he becomes basically a member of the family, that's really what he is. He is semi-Jewish. A goyishe slave is partially Jewish. He is obligated to perform the mitzvot like a woman. That means he has mitzvot like a woman. For women, the women don't have all the mitzvot like the men have for good positive reasons. The same reasons apply to the slave, so basically he's Jewish. So really the concept of slavery is not something that the Torah encourages and the Torah looks with a positive eye. But when we start looking at the reason why the Torah says do not sell yourself as a slave, mentioned before that a Jew should not sell himself as a slave, as an עבד עברי, and if he does, it's only for six years, and if he wants to stay longer we have to make a hole in his ear. What is the reason we make a hole in his ear? Look let's look at that. The reason is, it says we tell the person, your ear that heard from Hashem, heard God saying, עבדי הם, you are my slaves, and here you went and bought yourself another master, and you became a slave to another person? That ear should be bored for hearing this, for doing this when you heard the opposite. So what comes out from here, that the reason Hashem does not want us to sell ourselves as slaves is not because the Torah is against slavery, on the contrary, Hashem says you're my slave! How could you go sell yourself to somebody else, you're my slave. So basically the Torah says you are a slave, the Torah says yes, the whole Jewish religion, you are my slave. When Hashem took us out of Mitzrayim and he made us a free nation, he took us out of slavery and made us free, why did he take us out? So it says he took us out from מצרים כי לי בני ישראל עבדים to make us his slaves. Before you were the slaves of Paro, and now you are my slaves. On the פסוק אנכי השם אלקיך אשר הוצאתיך מארץ מצרים, where Hashem says I took you out of I am God your God that took you out of מצרים, מבית עבדים, Rashi says I took you out of Mitzrayim from being a slave שתהיו משועבדים לי, you should be a slave to me. So basically, if you look at it, it seems like the Torah doesn't look with a negative look to slavery, on the contrary, Torah says that's the whole idea, you are my slaves. And it seems that Hashem really tricked us. He took us out of Mitzrayim telling us you're going to be free, and what did he do? Just took a few days and he's turned us into slaves again! He just took us out from slaves of Paro, he said I'm going to be your boss and now you're my slaves. How does that fit? Hashem made us his slaves, so it's we're not free people. So really he's just exchanged being slaves for some for one person and now we're slaves for somebody else, so we're basically back to slaves. So the Torah it seems like does look at slavery positively, being slaves of Hashem. What does that mean? But the truth is, it is not so. It's understood, but we have to have the explanation how.

The truth is that when Hashem made us his slaves, this is a complete different concept of slavery. In truth, it's not slavery, it's the greatest freedom possible. The Talmud tells us אין לך בן חורין אלא מי שעוסק בתורה. There's nobody as free as a person who studies Torah, which means not only studies Torah, actually sits on the books and studies Torah, but a person who is involved in Torah, a person who keeps mitzvot. There's nobody as free as a person who is religious and keeps mitzvot and studies Torah. This the expression in the Talmud is there is no one as free, אין לך בן חורין אלא מי שעוסק בתורה. עוסק means involved in Torah. Involved, doesn't say לומד תורה, learns, involved. Involved means that not only he learns, but his whole involvement is Torah. It's usually in some sefarim it says that the word עסק is usually used for a business. Business is an עסק. By a and a business a person owns a business, he doesn't just sit in the store and just has a few hours where he works. When he's in the store he works, and then at night when he closes, he thinks what he's going to do about the business, then he goes out and makes advertisement and goes out and tries to get customers, he's completely involved. In Torah the same, עוסק בתורה means means somebody who's completely involved. His whole being is in Torah. So what does the Talmud tell us? That there is nobody as free as a person who's involved in Torah, which means he study Torah, listens to the Torah, does mitzvot, and the more you learn, and the more frum you are, and the more יראת שמים you are, the more God-fearing Jew you are, the freer you are. Now what does that mean? How are you free? If it would say אין לך קדושה אלא מי שעוסק בתורה, there's no one as holy as somebody who studies Torah or is involved in Torah, that would make sense, because we know Torah is very holy, it's the wisdom of God, the mitzvot are the will of God, we could understand why that person who studies Torah is very holy. But what does the Gemara mean that there's nobody as free as somebody who studies Torah or someone who's involved in Torah or someone who does mitzvot? It's the it's just the opposite. The more you learn, the less free you are, the more you're under a different control, the more you're frum, the more you're under the control of something and you accept the yoke of somebody else. We even use the term constantly in the Gemara, in Shulchan Aruch, always, about a person being doing the right thing and being religious, we use the term you have to have קבלת עול מלכות שמים, you have to accept the yoke of the kingship of God. When we use the term yoke, it's exactly what they mean: you have to accept the yoke, like an ox that goes that you plow and that plow the fields, you put a yoke on his head to show that he can't do anything, he can't turn right or left, he just does what you tell him, becomes like a robot, and he's completely under the control of the person. So we say here that you have to have קבלת עול מלכות שמים, you have to have the acceptance of the yoke of God. So the more frum you are, you accept the yoke, so the less free you are. Actually, in Yiddish, when somebody's not religious, the term is ער איז אַ פרייער ייד, which means he's a free Jew, because if he doesn't have תורה ומצוות, he's free, could do what he wants. But if you're religious, then you're so limited, you're so restricted, that you're not free to do what you want. Every move that we make, we have a restriction, we have someone telling us do this, don't do this, do this, don't do this, and we have to do what we're told. So obviously we're not free. I think in Hebrew it's the same. In Hebrew, a non-religious Jew is called a חופשי. You have the יידן who are חופשיים, who are free, and then you have יידן who are not חופשיים, who are not free. So we, people who are frum, are not free. And the more frum you are, it seems like the less free you are. It says a person who's very, very big yirat Shamayim, not only is he guided by the Torah when it comes to doing mitzvot or not doing aveirot, restricted of when you what you have to do, what you can do, but even when we deal with things which are not connected to a mitzvah or an aveirah, our own normal, daily needs. We have a pasuk that says בכל דרכיך דעהו, in every one of your ways you should know Hashem. כל מעשיך לשם שמים, it says in Pirkei Avot, whatever you do you should do for the sake of Hashem. כל מעשיך, whatever you do, your actions, not mitzvot, that's beside the point. Even if we sit down to eat, what's there to eat? What's, there's nothing holy about eating. You have to eat l'shem Shamayim, do it for the sake of Hashem. It's such a restriction, it's such a limit, it's such a slavery so to speak. And here on the other hand we say אין לך בן חורין אלא מי שעוסק בתורה. There's nobody as free as somebody who studies Torah, somebody who's involved in Torah, someone who is frum is free. And the frumer you are, and the more you're limited by what you're doing, and the more you restrict what you're doing, the freer you are. Why is that? Then we go a step further. We know that by Chassidim we have a concept of not making a move without asking the Rebbe. Now it's harder, like after ג תמוז, but in the normal circumstances, you ask the Rebbe what to do. And that's even worse. Not only things that the Torah limits you and tells you what to do, you're limited and you're you're you're you're restricted, here you're even more: there is nothing that you do without asking the Rebbe. And ask the Rebbe, what should I do? Should I do this? Should I do even things that normally there is nothing in Shulchan Aruch, nothing in Torah about. So that shows even more how much we're enslaved to something. The truth is it's not that way, because as we see, it says אין לך בן חורין אלא מי שעוסק בתורה, there's nobody as free as someone who's involved in Torah. And we learn it out from a pasuk where it says by the לוחות, it says חרות על הלוחות, it was carved out on the לוחות, and the word חרות, if you read it differently, if you change the vowels, it's חירות. חירות is freedom. And חירות על הלוחות means that the לוחות, which is the Torah, Hashem gave us the Torah, that's when he gave us freedom. In other words, He took us out of Mitzrayim, took us out from slavery, but it seems like He took us out from being slaves to Paro and made us slaves for Himself. But making him slaves, making us slaves for Himself, that is the true level of freedom that He gave us, and that's what really freedom is about. How is it? Let me explain what the real meaning of freedom is, and then we'll see that this is the real freedom.

A simple example of somebody who is not free is somebody who's in prison, let's say, a prisoner. Now, what is the difference between a prisoner and a person who's outside in the free world? Many things and most of the time he does the same thing that we do. He eats and he sleeps, drinks and he reads, and he does all kinds of things. And many times there are people sitting in prison and they do the same thing that we do. The difference is he is limited and we are not. He is told when to eat and when not to eat. He is told when to drink and when not to drink, when to read, when not to read. He's I don't know he's told where to go and where not to go. So basically the concept is that he is limited. He's limited to something, he's under a control of somebody else, of others, and he is not in the control of himself. That's really what it is. He's not the boss of himself, he's not in his own control. There are others that control him, that tell him what to do, which is a limit. If you're in your own control, you could do what you want, you could go where you want, you're your own boss. And if you're a prisoner, you're not your own boss, you are limited to when and what and how to do. A person knows in his mind that something is good, knows in his mind that something is bad, but can't control his inclination, his desire, and he does something that he knows is bad, that person is not free. That person is not in his own control. He can't control himself. So there is something that took over him and is controlling him. There is his let's call the evil inclination, or let's call his desire and his inclination is controlling him. He knows this is good, and really if it's good you should do this, he knows this is bad and you shouldn't do it, and nevertheless my heart has a desire and I want to do it and I can't control myself. I do what my heart tells, so my heart is in control, knowing that this is no good. This is a prisoner. This person is a prisoner. This person is not free. The person might walk around and do what he wants and do everything his heart desires, thinking, \"I'm free. After all, I can do whatever I want.\" But what you do is what your heart tells you, knowing it's wrong, and you'd like And many times people even feel, \"I would like not to do it, and I just can't help myself.\" If you can't help yourself, that means that you're not in control, that means that there is somebody else controlling you. That's not freedom, that's slavery. They tell a story of this person who was a very rich person, and he had a mansion, and he was once standing outside his mansion with a whip, whipping his slave. Obviously, he didn't do something that he asked him to do. And someone walked by and over and saw it and overheard him screaming at him, \"You're my slave! You're my slave! You have to listen to me!\" So, he walks by and turns around and says, \"You're more slave than he is.\" He says, \"Why? I'm the boss.\" \"You can't control your anger. You're a slave to your anger. You can't control yourself, so you're a slave. A slave means you're under someone else, something else, some other control. That's what it is, you are a slave.\" That's what the Gemara says, that רשעים הן ברשות לבם, they are in the רשות, in the control of their heart. צדיקים, לבם ברשותם. Tzadikim, their heart is in their control, and רשעים, they are in the control of their heart. Their heart controls them. Actually, it says in the Zohar that the word כלב, which is a dog, is sometimes used for evil people. And it says why? Because the word כלב is made up of two words: כולו לב. It's fully completely heart. Now, someone would think if you're full of heart, it's very good, you're very heart, הארציקער מענטש. No, it means that fully in the control of the heart, not in the control knowing that something is wrong, but you can't control yourself, so the heart is in your controls you. That's why we know that in חסידישע ספרים it says that the first foundation of serving Hashem and doing the right thing is to follow the instructions of מוח שליט על הלב, that the brain should control the heart. following the חסידישע approach to serve Hashem, the alef beis means the alphabet, the first beginning is this concept. Even tell a story: Rabbi Moshe Meisels, he was once of the, one of the big chasidim of the Alter Rebbe, so he said, \"The alef beis of chassidus saved my life.\" And they asked him, \"What do you mean?\" So there's the story is a long the long story, going to make it short: this Rabbi Moshe Meisels was knew a lot of languages, he was very very talented. So when there was the war between Russia and Napoleon and France, we know that the Alter Rebbe helped Russia. He felt that Russia should win and it would be better for the Jews spiritually that way. So not only did he pray for Russia's victory, but he also actually tried to do what he could for Russia. That's why he got later a medal. He was considered a special citizen or whatever. One of the things he did, he sent this chasid who knew a lot of languages to become a spy for Russia. And this he since he knew a lot of languages, he became an interpreter for the French. So finally he worked himself up so much that he became he started working in the in the office of the generals, and he would pass on information somehow to the to the czar about what their plans are. So once when he was sitting there while they were planning an attack, and he was sitting on the side doing his work, and a few generals were sitting over a map, and he sat on the side doing what he was doing, but paying attention to what they're saying in order to be able to pass on the information. In middle the door slammed open, just slammed open, and Napoleon walked in. That was his style, he didn't ask to knock on the door, just slammed and walked in. And he walked in and he saw him standing there. So right away he looks and he says, \"He's a spy!\" And he walked over to him and put his hand on his heart to see if his heart will beat fast. So Rabbi Moshe Meisels said, \"I learned in chassidus the concept of מוח שליט על הלב, that the brain should control the heart. So I physically controlled my heart, and the heart did not beat faster.\" And Napoleon saw that he didn't obviously he wasn't scared, so he let him go. So he said the beginning, the alphabet of chassidus saved my life. This is the beginning of serving Hashem, is realizing that מוח שליט על הלב, that you have to control your heart. And if you control your heart, knowing because your brain knows something is no good and you don't do it even though your heart desires, then you are free. But let's go a step further.

The truth is if you follow your brain, it's still not complete freedom. Because as we said before, freedom means when you're not limited. You have no boundaries. The person's mind, the person's intellect is also limited. You are limited to what you understand. You can't go beyond what you understand. That's what happens usually. So this person is a lower level, can't go beyond his heart. This person is a higher level, so he could go beyond his heart, but he still can't go beyond his brain. Because and his brain is also limited. The best proof his brain is limited, that what I understand is good, somebody else might think is bad. So it's limited to my understanding, but it's not in truth unlimited because it's limited to the human being. The Torah is unlimited. The Torah is the wisdom of God. So the Torah, seeing that the wisdom of God and God is unlimited, the Torah is unlimited. Even though the Torah is put into limited things, the Torah tells us do this, do that, and all kinds of things that are limited, but in essence, we know that in the Torah is hidden the essence of Hashem, which is unlimited. So if a person follows the Torah, then this person is connected to the true infinity. And the true infinity, that is the true freedom. Not in the physical sense of freedom, as people think freedom means I could walk around wherever I want, but in the true meaning of freedom, which means going out of boundaries and not being limited, this is only if you connect yourself to Hashem. So if a person studies Torah, and his mind understands the word of God, which is unlimited, when he does mitzvot, which are in truth unlimited, they are limited things, because we are in a limited world, but in essence, they are unlimited. The truth is if someone doesn't believe this, then it's a different story. We're not discussing here trying to prove that this is true, that mitzvot are unlimited. That's a different if someone needs proof for that, that's a different discussion. We are at a stage further. We know what the Torah is and we know what mitzvot are, so we know that they are essentially unlimited, even though they're put into a levush, into a garment of limitations, because every mitzvah is limited, physically. But in essence it has the will of Hashem, and the will of God is unlimited. So when a person understands Torah, and the more he understands, the more he's connected to the Torah, the more connection he has to infinity, to being unlimited. The more a person knows that he gives himself over to the mitzvot, then the more he is connected to infinity, to being unlimited. The more he does his mind is only does only what the Torah wants, then he is unlimited. When a chasid goes to the Rebbe to ask the Rebbe what to do, it's because he believes that the Rebbe knows according to the Torah what is right for him to do. The Rebbe has the proper wisdom of what the will of Hashem is. So when you go to ask your Rebbe, it's not because you are limiting yourself and now you are really in slavery, you are under the jurisdiction of this person or the jurisdiction of this Sefer, of this book, of this code of law, it is because by doing that, you realize that this is the true infinity, this is the true thing which is unlimited, and therefore you will be connected to unlimited. So it comes out that really, the more you learn, the more cherut you have, the more freedom. And again, there are two types of freedom. There is what we call שם המושאל and שם התואר. שם המושאל means who could give me the English translation? A borrowed term, I guess, that's the words for it in Hebrew, a borrowed term. And then you have שם התואר, the true description. In a borrowed term, cherut, freedom, in the simple sense, means what people