>> Torah portion

The Freedom
Of The 8th Day

Shabbat Passover Day 8:
Deuteronomy 14:22-16:17,
Numbers 28:19-28:25;
Isaiah 10:32-12:6.

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here is a tension that often
plays out in our daily lives
that parallels the transition
from avdut l'cheirut, from servitude
to freedom, that we experience on
Pesach. Yet, instead of being resolved
as we end the holiday, it becomes more
clearly delineated at the kri'at yam
suf, the splitting of the sea that is the
centerpiece of the celebration of the
seventh day.
After hastily leaving
Egypt and heading toward
the Yam Suf, the Sea of
Reeds (or Red Sea), the
Israelites find themselves
encamped at the water's
edge. The Torah nar-
rates that God once again
strengthened Pharaoh's
heart and he pursues the
Israelites and encroaches
upon them.
As the Israelites see the
Egyptians bearing down
upon them, they cry out to God for
help and then berate Moshe, "would
it not be better to return to slavery in
Egypt than to die in the wilderness?"
In what is perhaps the most power-
ful Divine answer in the Torah, God
says to Moshe, "Why cry out to Me?;
Tell the Israelites to travel!"
A cursory reading of the narrative
leads the reader to conclude that God
was responding to the cries of the
nation and was telling Moshe that it
was time for action and not prayer.
However, the Italian Medieval exe-
gete, Ovadia ben Jacob Sforno, explains
this imperative was in response to the
cry of Moshe to God.
Moshe despaired that the people
had lost all trust in God despite having
experienced the Exodus. They were
still stuck in the stage of avdut (servi-
tude), requiring all their actions to be
scripted and their needs provided for.
They were not ready for the challenges
that cheirut (freedom) would pose.
According to Sforno, God's directive
to Moshe was to inform him that even
at the point of despair and defiance
the people still will have faith and will

trust in God. They were still in the
stage of avdut and needed to be told
what to do.
Today, despite being in the stage of
cheirut, our faith, belief and awareness
of God often oscillate with religious
skepticism. When life goes according
to plan, we do not often think about
each of our choices; conceptually, we
still are in the emotional state of avdut.
When we are faced with adversity,
we challenge God, asking
why we are being challenged
and demanding to return to
our more simple lives. We
have not yet fully advanced
to the state of cheirut.
The Torah informs us
that the Israelites resolved
to enter the sea and exited
at the other end in safety,
witnessing the final defeat
of their Egyptian oppres-
sors.
Those of us familiar with
the continuing narrative know that
this tension continues. The people
gather at Sinai and, after experienc-
ing the Revelation, they sin with the
golden calf. They send their most hon-
orable leaders to spy out the land and
then rebel against the word of God.
This paradoxical behavior is one of the
mysteries of the Bible.
Yet for one day this tension disap-
pears. On the eighth day of Pesach, we
choose to come together as a commu-
nity and stay an extra day in commu-
nion with God and our people.
The Torah reading is a general recol-
lection of the themes of the different
holidays. We recall the pilgrimage fes-
tivals that united the people and were
celebrated with joy. We reconnect to
our past through the Yizkor memorial
service and pledge to move forward in
the spirit of cheirut.
Tomorrow may bring more adversity
and regression to avdut, but on the
eighth day we achieve the pinnacle of
freedom.

❑

Rabbi Tzvi Klugerman is head of school at

Akiva Hebrew Day School in Southfield.

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April 9 • 2015

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