In Every Generation One Must Look Upon Himself

as if He Personally Has Come Out of Egypt

It’s very hard for a free man to suddenly have to envision himself as if he himself left Mitzrayim. This is certainly no simple matter. In fact, I would even suggest that this is probably the most difficult requirement to fulfill on the Seder night. In our time and age of luxury and riches, true slavery is a difficult thing to imagine.

Yet, we are definitely required to do so. We must perceive ourselves vicariously as if we - not our father or grandfather or some great-great-great grandfather - was actually liberated from Egypt. Nu, I’m asking you? You’re sitting in the luxury and freedom of your house or apartment, fully decorated with wall to wall carpeting and chandelier, and you’re asked to perceive yourself as having been freed from slavery. How are you supposed to accomplish that? You were never in Mitzrayim, even on a tour. You don’t have the faintest idea of what it looks like now, and certainly not what it looked like thousands of years ago. The only thing you may have seen of Mitzrayim was a picture of the pyramids in the social studies book!

At first glance it may seem that the requirement is not to envision ourselves actually being slaves in Mitzrayim, but rather to envision that we were freed from the Golus Mitzrayim on account of our ancestors’ liberation.

Let’s explain.

The Negroes were slaves in America until Lincoln freed them. The Negro today may feel indebted to Lincoln, not only for what he had done for his great grandfather, but even for what he has done for him. If Lincoln hadn’t freed his great-grandfather, he’d still be a slave this very moment. This means, that he owes Lincoln a debt of gratitude not only for what he had done to someone else, but for what he has actually done for him personally. (One must assume that if Lincoln didn’t free them, they would have remained slaves forever.)

Our gratitude to Hashem should not only be for what he has done for our ancestors in the past, but it must be a personal debt of gratitude for having taken us out.

We do realize all too clearly that if Hashem would not have freed our ancestors then we would still be there to this present day. We are well aware that we were freed just in the nick of time. Another moment, and we’d have to stay there forever. The Matzoh on the table reminds us of the great speed with which we hurried out. Every second counted. Therefore, the freedom granted to our ancestors was in reality a freedom also granted to us. We’d still be there today, wouldn’t we! This makes it the night to celebrate our freedom as well.

Even though at first glance the above allegory would seem to make sense, yet upon careful examination, we will see that it still falls far short of our actual requirement.

If we take a careful look into the Rambam, we will see that he adds two very important points. Firstly, he says that we must imagine that we ourselves were slaves (not only our ancestors). Secondly, we are required to visualize that right at the present moment we are being liberated from slavery. This is not something which occurred thousands of years ago to our ancestors, but is being re-enacted and happening right this very moment as we sit and celebrate at the Seder table. This certainly is no easy requirement and will need a vivid imagination.

A slave is someone that is forced to do the bidding of others rather than be free to do as he chooses. Seforim explain that often we become slaves to our own passions and desires. We are forced to do the bidding of the objects all around us. We want a more beautiful house, a more beautiful car or to go on a vacation; and, therefore, we are forced to work much harder in order to afford all these additional luxuries in life. We are then considered enslaved to our constant worldly pleasures which we so desire. We become slaves to our house or car or any of our other desires. Instead of putting all our efforts into trying to serve Hashem as best as we can we become our own slaves. Yet one must realize that Hashem took us out of Mitzrayim and gave us His Torah in order to become His servants.

True freedom is only to the one who studies the Torah. That’s because the Torah teaches us how to overcome our personal desires and live a life in the service of Hashem. The Torah teaches a person to stop being a slave to himself and rather turn all desires into doing the bidding of Hashem.