Overwhelmed by Liberty

"[…] this may appear to be a simple question, but [Louis] Althusser warns us: 'As there is no such thing as an innocent reading, we must say what reading we are guilty of.' "
- Eli Holzer with Orit Kent, A Philosophy of Havruta quoting Louis Althusser and Étienne Balibar, Reading Capital

Seemingly Contemporary Challenges.

"In those months in Berlin I went through moments of profound bitterness. I felt very much alone with my own problems and anxieties. I walked alone in the evenings through the magnificent streets of Berlin. I admired the solidity of its architecture, the overwhelming drive and power of a dynamic civilization. There were concerts, theatres, and lectures by famous scholars about the latest theories and inventions, and I was pondering whether to go to the new Max Reinhardt play or to a lecture about the theory of relativity. Suddenly I noticed the sun had gone down, evening had arrived. From what time may one recite the Shema in the evening? I had forgotten G[o]d — I had forgotten Sinai — I had forgotten that sunset is my business — that my task is « to restore the world to the kingship of the Lord ». So I began to utter the words of the evening prayer. Blessed art thou, Lord our G[o]d ... And Goethe's famous poem rang in my ear: Ueber allen Gipfeln ist Ruh': O'er all the hilltops it is quiet now. No, that was pagan thinking.. To the pagan eye the mystery of life is Ruh', death, oblivion. To us Jews, there is meaning beyond the mystery. We would say: O'er all the hilltops is the word of G[o]d. The meaning of life is to do His will ..."
- Abraham Joshua Heschel: Prophetic Witness

In light of Althusser's statement, what reading are you guilty of?

Tensions - A Driving Force Or An Obstacle?

What actually is freedom?
When did Bnei Yisrael receive their freedom? At what point were they free?
How did they receive it?

פסחים קט״ז ב

שנאמר [וימררו את חייהם וגו׳] בכל דור ודור חייב אדם לראות את עצמו כאילו הוא יצא ממצרים שנאמר והגדת לבנך ביום ההוא לאמר בעבור זה עשה ה׳ לי בצאתי ממצרים.

Pesachim 116b

And it stated: In each and every generation a person must view himself as though he personally left Egypt, as it is stated: “And you shall tell your son on that day, saying: It is because of this which the Lord did for me when I came forth out of Egypt” (Exodus 13:8). In every generation, each person must say: “This which the Lord did for me,” and not: This which the Lord did for my forefathers.

"[…]Of course it is practically impossible for free and fortunate people such as ourselves to envision a life of slavery, but as an exercise in imagining our acestors, place a large square of matzah in your mouth and eat it. Listen to the cacophonous crunches in your ears like the blows of the slavedriver's whip. Feel the searing dryness in your mouth like the thirst of the Hebrew slaves for freedom. And then, with your mouth full of matzah, try to say the Sh'ma, and watch the particles of oppression scatter across the table. Slavery spreads like a spray of shame, which is why, even thousands of years after the Exodus there are so many people enslaved […]"
- New American Haggadah edited by Jonathan Safran Foer

Pessach shows us what we were freed from - but what were we freed for?

Radical Freedom / Spiritual Radical:
Jean-Paul Sartre meets Joshua Abraham Heschel

If existence really does precede essence, there is no explaining things away by reference to a fixed and given human nature. In other words, there is no determinism, man is free, man is freedom. On the other hand, if G[o]d does not exist, we find no values or commands to turn to which legitimize our conduct. So, in the bright realm of values, we have no excuse behind us, nor justification before us. We are alone, with no excuses.
That is the idea I shall try to convey when I say that man is condemned to be free. Condemned, because […] once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does."
- Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism is Humanism

"Freedom means more than mere emancipation. It is primarily freedom of conscience, bound up with inner allegiance. The danger begins when freedom is thought to consist of the fact that “I can act as I desire.” This definition not only overlooks the compulsions which often lie behind our desires; it reveals the tragic truth that freedom may develop within itself the seed of its own destruction. The will is not an ultimate and isolated entity, but determined by motives beyond its own control. To be what one wants to be is also not freedom, since the wishes of the ego are largely determined by external factors…Freedom presupposes the capacity for sacrifice. Man’s true fulfillment cannot be reached by the isolated individual, and his true good depends on communion with, and participation in, that which transcends him. Each challenge from beyond the person is unique, and each response must be new and creative… The glory of a free society lies not only in the consciousness of my right to be free, and my capacity to be free, but also in the realization of my fellow man’s right to be free, and his capacity to be free. The issue we face is how to save man’s belief in his capacity to be free."
- Abraham Joshua Heschel - The Insecurity of Freedom

משנה אבות ו׳:ב׳

וְאוֹמֵר (שמות לב) וְהַלֻּחֹת מַעֲשֵׂה אֱלֹקִים הֵמָּה וְהַמִּכְתָּב מִכְתַּב אֱלֹקִים הוּא חָרוּת עַל הַלֻּחֹת, אַל תִּקְרָא חָרוּת אֶלָּא חֵרוּת, שֶׁאֵין לְךָ בֶן חוֹרִין

אֶלָּא מִי שֶׁעוֹסֵק בְּתַלְמוּד תּוֹרָה. וְכָל מִי שֶׁעוֹסֵק בְּתַלְמוּד תּוֹרָה הֲרֵי זֶה מִתְעַלֶּה, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (במדבר כא) וּמִמַּתָּנָה נַחֲלִיאֵל וּמִנַּחֲלִיאֵל בָּמוֹת:

Pirkei Avot 6:2

And it says (Exodus 32:16): "And the tablets were the work of G!d, and the writing was the writing of G!d, graven upon the tablets," do not read "graven" (harut) but rather "freedom" (herut), for there is no free man

Except one that involves himself in Torah learning; And anyone who involves himself in Torah learning is elevated, as it is said (Numbers 21:19): "and from Mattanah (a place name that means 'gift,' and so can refer to the gifting of the Torah), Nachaliel; and from Nachaliel, Bamot (a place name that means 'high places')."

Freedom, however, is not the last word. Freedom is only part of the story and half of the truth. Freedom is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon whose positive aspect is responsibleness. In fact, freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness.
-Viktor Frankl, Man in Search if Meaning