On the Seder night, after we hear the delicious four questions from our children and grandchildren, we provide the answer to their questions: We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt. We sing the fairly universal haunting tune to avadim hayinu.

“If the Holy One, Blessed Be He, had not brought our ancestors out of Egypt, we, our children, and our grandchildren would still be enslaved to Pharaoh in Egypt.”

Really? Egypt would still be ruled by Pharaohs in 2017? We would say this after all of Modern Egyptian history i.e. Nasser, Sadat, Mubarak, The Arab Spring, the expulsion of the Moslem Brotherhood government and the Al-Sisi regime? Just this week, an astounding news report was released about a movie that describes a November 1948 lunch that Israeli and Egyptian military officers shared, which included Yitzchak Rabin, then a Lt. Colonel, and Gamal Abdel Nasser, a Major. The Israelis invited their Egyptian counterparts to dine at Kibbutz Gat. (you can read the Reuters report here.) After all the history and bloodshed, we would be subjects of an Egyptian Pharaoh til today?  

Rav Avraham Yitzchak Hakohen Kook understands this in a very interesting way. He suggests that the statement describes the state of the world more than it projects the state of the Jews. Had the Jews never left Egypt, Rav Kook conjectures, the notion of freedom would never have been born. Tyranny would rule the planet and the plague of darkness would rule over the world forever. Moshe’s ‘let my people go so they shall worship me,’ opines Rav Kook, is the precursor to the West’s 18th century embrace of liberty and freedom. Had we not left, all of humanity says Rav Kook, would still be enslaved. Rav Kook wrote the following about the exodus from Egypt:

It is not only the springtime of the Nation of Israel, but the springtime of humanity…Only from one angle can it be viewed as an event that occurred once in the past, remaining only as a memory… But truly… the essential act of the Exodus from Egypt is one which has never ended. It revealed the Hand of Hashem in a way that the whole world could clearly see, as part of human history. It is the bursting forth of the light from the soul of the Living God and operates through the expanse of the entire world. Israel merited this revelation, with magnificence and incipient holiness will cause great lights to shine in every dark place, for all generations (Orot Re’eiyah vol 1 pg. 16).

I love Rav Kook’s interpretation and will never again “blow by” this passage at the seder. We often forget that our Torah is the blueprint for the world and its morality. Perhaps this is a novel interpretation of a rabbinical statement – histakel b’oraysa uvarei alma – that God peeked into the Torah and created the world. Chassidus has more literal takes on this passage, but maybe it means that the destiny of the world and its advancement are based upon elements of Torah. The Judeo-Christian ethic – which we all know refers to Torah values – is the bedrock and ethic for human progress.

Years ago, I had the privilege to work at a Panim, a Washington DC based think tank on Jewish civics. As Education Director, I also functioned as the Orthodox voice and conduit to day schools for the organization’s flagship program, Panim el Panim. We would run 3-day seminars in downtown DC for Jewish high school students, which included lobbying their elected officials, trips to DC attractions, and hearing talks about the issues of the day – always having a conservative and a liberal voice on a panel. One of the tasks of my job that gave me great satisfaction was putting together Jewish sources on the various civic issues. We addressed poverty, civil liberties, war and peace, church and state, abortion… and looked at the Jewish sources for them representing both sides of every issue. We really had it backwards. All the progress of humanity comes from the sources in the Torah, which is truly the blueprint for ethical monotheism and morality.

When it comes to poverty and the underprivileged, the Torah introduced the notion of charity as a form of mandated justice (tzedakah means righteousness), of caring as much for others as we do for ourselves. Although the Torah recognized the reality at the time of owning slaves, our sages mandated that if we own one pillow, it goes to our help, not to us.

War and peace? Our Torah discusses the ethics of war, while understanding the mentality of the warrior. When Rav Aharon Soloveitchik told young air force pilots during the Vietnam War that Torah law absolutely forbade carpet bombing of civilians, he was speaking with Torah letters and verses. Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik asked why the Jews were proscribed to leave their homes the night of the plague against the firstborn.  He answered that Hashem did not want the Jews beginning their emancipated lives in a rage of revenge. The Rav made these comments when freedom movements in Africa were current events. The oppressed turned their weapons on their oppressors and began their life of independence with blood on their hands. Hashem ensured that the Jews would not start this way.

Civil Liberties – the inalienable right of each individual? These ideas derive from Biblical and rabbinic mandates of the uniqueness of each person and the Divine soul we all possess. Human beings are not chattel and objects. Even from the depravity of slavery does the Torah require, as mentioned above, that slaves are treated as human beings, not a common practice in ancient times.

When we spoke about the charged issue of abortion, we reviewed the Torah’s view of the life of a mother, her options of choice, the value of an unborn fetus, and the progressive ruling of the Talmud thousands of years ago to create a prenuptial document to protect wives in the event of divorce, a progressive document we call a kesubah that we still use.

Rav Kook is so right. Were it not for our exodus and subsequent receipt of the Torah, we would still be stuck in the immorality and backwardness of Egyptian culture, which was ancient culture until enlightened times arrived.

I find it astounding how much the Daf Yomi parallels current events. President Trump was sworn in exactly two weeks ago. He’s certainly captured plenty of headlines in the last 14 days. What has been the topic of the Daf Yomi (the first 12 pages of Bava Basra) the last two weeks? Building walls between neighbors, who pays for what, and much of the Talmudic sources on the virtue of civic responsibility and tzedakah. I have found solace and source in these folios as I hesitantly and begrudgingly follow current events. Our nation is facing complicated policy decisions. None of them are simple: feelings are strong and for most actions (not the way the actions are executed per se) there are rationales for the different sides. Starting my day with the wisdom of our sages, based on the values of Torah, inspires and offers clarity and serenity.

In the middle of Parshas Bo, we encounter the first mitzvah given to the Jewish nation: establishing a calendar. In this context, Rav Moshe Feinstein asks why Nisan was set as the first month. Yes, the exodus took place in Nisan, but we would be lacking if we left Egypt and did not receive the Torah. The goal of the exodus is Revelation. The exodus was the means towards the end of Torah. Why then, asks Rav Moshe, do we not begin the cycle of years in Sivan, the month of Revelation?  Rav Moshe answers that the exodus was the preparation for the giving of the Torah and we celebrate preparation. Rav Soloveitchik used to say ein kedusha b’lo hachana – there can be no holiness without preparation.  And that preparation – not just for the giving of the Torah, but for the dignity of man, began on that night in Egypt.