A
THREE DAYS JOURNEY IN THE DESERT
Rabbi
Zev Leff
I declare
that I will bring you out of the wretchedness of
Egypt to the land of the Canuanites, Hittites,
Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Yebusites-to a land
flowing with milk and honey.... You and the elders cf
Israel will then go to the King of Egypt. You must
tell him, Hashem, God of the Hebrews, revealed
Himself to us. Now we request that you allow us to
take a three day journey into the desert to sacrifice
to Hashem our God
(Shemos 3:17-18).
The commentators are puzzled by the
fact that when Hashem 1 revealed His plan for the Jewish
people, He immediately told Moshe of their destiny in
Eretz Yisrael, but at the same time instructed Moshe to
ask Pharaoh only for permission to leave for three days.
Many answers have been proposed to this question (see Ohr
Hachaim to Shemos 318). We shall offer yet another based
on one of the unique aspects of matzah.
The matzah, the bread of slavery, is at once the symbol
of our slavery and the symbol of freedom. In the Pesach
Haggadah it is both poor bread" and the symbol of
how Hashem redeemed us in an instant. It could be asked
why a richer, more tasty cake was not chosen as a symbol
of our redemption from the bitter slavery of Egypt. The
answer is that we did not cease to be slaves with our
redemption. As the Gemara (Megillah 14a) says, commenting
on the verse (Tehillim 1131), "Praise God, give
praise, you servants of Hashem"
"Originally we were slaves to
Pharaoh; now we are slaves to Hashem." We did not
emerge from slavery to freedom; we remained slaves with a
new master. The Jew is not free. "Frei" is the
password of alienation from Judaism. The Jew is the model
slave, accepting the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven, and
unequivocally yielding to his master, the Master of the
Universe, Who he serves with unswerving dedication. The
Talmidei Rabbeinu Yonah to Berachos (9b) explain the
halachah that the blessing of geulah (redemption) must be
linked to Shemoneh Esrei, service of the heart. There is
for the Jew no hiatus, no free moment between redemption
and acceptance of God's yoke.
After our redemption, we continued to dine on the bread
of slavery to emphasize that our status as slaves had not
changed. Even the good Land that we were givenis a land
suited to slaves, whether they be slaves to human masters
or slaves to the King of kings. It was first given to
Canaan, who himself bears the curse of eternal servitude.
Our freedom is the freedom to be God's slaves. And it is
this servitude which is the ultimate freedom. On the
Tablets was engraved our freedom "Do not reed
'engraved on the Tablets' but 'freedom on the Tablets.'
" Freedom is total immersion in Torah, total
dedication and obedience to God Himself. Only when the
Jew is able to express his deepest inner will, the thirst
to do God's will, is he truly free. He is no longer a
slave whose inner will is suppressed and stifled by the
"se'or sheb'issa"-literally, the yeast in the
dough, and figuratively, the yetzer hara with its
infinite array of desires and lusts that wrench one from
submission to God's will. Subjugation to the nations of
the world, whether physical or cultural subjugation, is
enslavement, for it suppresses our ability to express our
inner will, to come close to Hashem. Redemption from that
enslavement is totally God's doing. We are passive
objects when God takes us into His jurisdiction. We do
not bring our redemption; we graciously and gratefully
accept it. But we must show ourselves worthy of freedom
by displaying an understanding of the implications of
freedom from outside forces, a desire for the opportunity
to subject ourselves to Hashem.
The Ruler of the World did not need permission from
Pharaoh to take us out of Egypt. Therefore Moshe did not
approach Pharaoh with a request to leave Egypt to settle
in Eretz Yisrael. But, the Jewish people, then under
Pharaoh's rule, had to show that they deserved geulah.
That is why they petitioned Pharaoh for three days in the
desert to sacrifice to God. The nature of these
sacrifices was not clearly defined even to Moshe. As he
told Pharaoh, "For we do not know how we are to
serve Him until we get there" (Shemos 10 26).
Three days after leaving Egypt, Hashem told the newly
freed Bnei Yisrael to return towards Egypt. Return
towards Egypt, give up your newly acquired freedom, cease
running towards safety and put yourselves in the clutches
of your oppressors. Why? Because God wills it. That was
the "sacrifice" after three days in the
desert-not animal sacrifices, but the giving up of the
thing most dear to them, their new freedom. That was the
test of their worthiness for redemption.
We stand today on the brink of redemption and are being
tested to see if we merit God's redemption. We can safely
leave bringing Mashiach to Hashem, but we must merit his
coming. Only by intensifying our commitment to Torah and
mitzvos, by dedicating ourselves to serving Hashem in all
areas of life, by removing the chametz from our hearts,
will we successfully discharge our three days in the
desert.
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