From Bondage to Freedom
The Passover Haggadah
with a commentary illuminating the liberation of the spirit.by Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski
Passover is the story of our freedom from the Egyptian slavery and our exalted rise as a nation to the pinnacle of human achievement. However, not all pain is inflicted by the lash of a taskmaster and not all chains are clamped on by jailers.This Haggadah also addresses those who suffer from the slavery of an oppressive environment or, even more difficult, the sort of obsessive behavior that plagues many or most lives.In this volume, one of our generation’s most eminent interpreters of the Torah’s teachings regarding self-control and self-improvement uncovers the path to personal liberation in the timeless story of the Exodus. Rabbi Twerski has an uncanny ability to know what troubles people and how to provide the balm for their hurt by combining the eternal wisdom of the Torah with the science of the mind.In this Haggadah, he takes each of us from the bondage of our personal”Egypts” to the promised land of self-fulfillment and joy in achieving our personal best.
Publisher: Artscroll, 1995
From the Introduction:
There is a quaint Yiddish song about a ctzazzan (cantor) who chanted a prayer service as an audition for the position in a congregation. The worshipers, who were very pleased with his rendition, expressed their evaluation of his performance in terms most familiar to each. Thus, the tailor said that the chazzan’s melody was as pleasant as a row of neat, evenly spaced stitches. The blacksmith said that it was as pleasant as when one delivers a firm blow with the hammer on the anvil, and the cobbler said it was like piercing a piece of leather with a sharp awl.When analyzing something, we undoubtedly all apply standards which are most familiar to us from the tasks of our everyday life, and I am no exception to this rule.
After twenty-five years of treating some 40,000 alcoholics and other chemically addicted people, it should come as rio surprise that my thinking is influenced by the various experiences, insights, and feelings that I have encountered in my work.
However, in my case, I may have more justification for using the examples of my practice than do the various craftsmen. The melody of the chazzan has little in common with the needle, the hammer and anvil, or the awl. There is, however, great similarity between the problems of chemical addiction and various other inadequate lifestyles.
Essentially, addiction results when one attempts to escape from what one perceives to be a difficult reality, rather than try to confront it and cope with it. This maladjustment can occur just as well even in the complete absence of use of any chemical.
Thus, if we were to take the life history of an alcoholic and substitute any self-destructive, escapist behavior for the word “alcohol,” we would find that many inappropriate lifestyles are virtually identical to that of the alcoholic.
By the same token, techniques which are helpful in overcoming alcoholism can also be effective in correcting any other inadequate lifestyle. I will therefore ask the reader to bear with me in my frequent references to the problems of alcohol and other substance abuse.
I am indebted for the inspiration for the theme of this Haggadah to a young man who underwent treatment for a very severe drug problem.
At his first Seder at home, his father began reciting the Haggadah, “We were slaves unto Pharaoh.” The young man interrupted, “Father,” he said, “when were you ever a slave? I can relate to having been a slave. I was a slave to drugs, andthere has never been so demanding and inconsiderate a taskmaster, soabsolute an enslavement, as addiction to chemicals.“I had no choice whether to use them or not. I did things in my addiction that I swore I would never do, because a slave must do as he is told. I not onlyused drugs when I liked them, but I even used some drugs whose effect Ihated. If there ever was a slave in the world, it was me. I know what it meansto be a slave, and I know what it means to be free.”
This young man’s description of being enslaved by drugs is an example of the slavery of addiction. However, drugs are not the only taskmasters to which many people may be subject. There are people who never use drugs, but are nevertheless slaves to money, or to power, or to acclaim, or to food indulgence, and yes, to cigarettes.
An intelligent person who wishes very much to live and, in spite of his awareness that cigarettes can take his life,smokes them nevertheless, is a slave to cigarettes.
In brief, anyone who loses control over any kind of behavior is a slave.
We should be proud to be free people, and the concept of slavery should berepulsive to us. Like our forefathers in Egypt, we should cry out to God todeliver us from enslavement to any self-destructive behavior.
The Haggadah is a message of hope. If we pray sincerely and truly wish tobe free, God will answer our prayers.
It is not an original discovery of mine that other inappropriate lifestyleshave similarities to alcoholism. The prophet Isaiah, in rebuking people fortheir deviation from Torah observance, states, “They drift albeit withoutwine, they wander about aimlessly without ale” (Isaiah 29:9). Isaiah thuscompares the abandonment of Torah living to the errors of inebriation, thetwo differing only in the use or non-use of intoxicants. In various placesthroughout the Scriptures we find references to inebriation as the prototypeof improper behavior; e.g., Isaiah 19:14, 24:20, 28:1, 51:21; Jeremiah 23:9;Joel 1:5; Obadiah 1:16; Zechariah 9:15; Psalms 107:27; Proverbs 20:1; Job12:25. These abundant Scriptural comparisons of improper behavior to thatresulting from imbibing more than justify my drawing upon my workexperiences to illustrate and clarify other unhealthy lifestyles.
Chemical addiction is characterized by a lack of spirituality, and recovering from these conditions requires the development of spirituality.
Applying thehypothesis that many other inadequate life adjustments are in numerousways similar to addiction may help us realize that in these, as well as inchemical addiction, there is a dearth of spirituality, and that living a more spiritual life can correct many of these other problems of life much as it brings about recovery from addiction. The blatancy of the features of addiction provides us with a valuable analogy which enables us to more easily identify the defects in other inadequate life adjustments, which might be less apparent and might otherwise go unnoticed.This commentary is not a compendium on addiction, but rather an elaboration on the issues of spirituality, and how a lack of spirituality may result in a faulty lifestyle and what steps one may take to achieve spirituality.
It is my belief that the Haggadah, like many other great works of Jewish theology, delivers this important message.
The Meaning of the Exodus
“Remember this day on which you departed from Egypt from the house of bondage, for with a strong hand God removed you from there” (Exodus 13:3).
This is perfectly understandable. The day that a nation was liberated certainly deserves to be commemorated and perpetuated for generations. The United States celebrates its independence day on the Fourth of July, with parades, firecrackers, patriotic speeches, and picnics.
But wait. “Matzos shall be eaten throughout the seven-day period (eight in the diaspora); and no chametz may be seen in your possession nor may leaven be seen in all your borders” (ibicL 13:7).Isn’t this a bit much for an independence day celebration?
Given all the laws and practices that have been derived from the rigid restrictions against chametz, culminating in weeks of preparation and cleaning one’s home to the point of virtual surgical sterility, isn’t this an overkill for a commemorative event?
FD: Pick up a copy, Mr. President. It is a good read.
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