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Federation Star
COMMENTARY
April 2022
Just how free are we? Rabbi Fishel Zaklos
W
hat’s the big deal about the Passover story? Why will millions of Jewish families be sitting around the Seder table, yet again, telling the same story? Sadly, history seems to be repeating itself as we shudder to contemplate possible global repercussions of the war in Ukraine while thousands of refugees flee from their homes in fear of death. Is that why we are still making a whole to-do about an exodus story that is more ancient than the civilizations of Rome and Greece? Our sages teach us that the Passover story is not ‘ancient his-story.’ Instead,
it is our story as we fight to break out of our enslavement. Enslavement to what? Aren’t we the freest people in history, living in the freest country? Let’s look at a few examples of how enslavement and freedom can be seen in our lives. Perhaps our enslavement to bad habits and addictions keeps us away from the people we love and helps us avoid dealing with our inner pain and find healing. Perhaps our enslavement to jealousy and belittling the other is an escape from focusing on our weaknesses. Perhaps our enslavement to others’ opinions of us never allows us to soar and truly realize our G-d-given potential as we try to get validation from others struggling with their sense of self. Perhaps our enslavement to materialism and consumerism keeps us focusing on ourselves rather than seeing the other. Perhaps our enslavement to the perspective, ‘If I cannot see it, then it does
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not exist,’ clouds the eyes from seeing the spirituality and miracles all around us; seeing the hand of the Creator is in everyone and everything. Perhaps our enslavement to the ideas of others keeps us from thinking for ourselves. True freedom is when we allow ourselves to search for the truth rather than letting ourselves be influenced by the ideas of others. No, the enslavers are not ancient Egyptians, and the taskmasters are not beating us in the steaming desert, but the enslavement mindset is there. Indeed, it never left. One person could be physically free but mentally enslaved, while another could be physically locked up in prison but mentally free. Think of Natan Sharansky, Yosef Mendelevitch and other famous prisoners of the Soviet Union, who showed the power of their mind and independence while living in unimaginable physical torment. Think of the millions of people in Ukraine. It is both frightening and mind-boggling to observe their courage as we might ask ourselves if we would be
willing to sacrifice everything, including our lives, in order to remain free. Freedom is a state of mind. Maintaining this mindset is their only option. This may be a difficult concept for us, as we live at a distance in relative safety, but it is also a harsh reminder of what we have and to be thankful for. It suggests that we ask ourselves if we have the mindset of liberty. Are we exercising our own free choice, which is the ultimate expression of freedom, or are we allowing ourselves to be enslaved to impulses, thoughts and behaviors against our better judgment? At the Pesach Seder this year, retelling the Exodus story, our stage is different, but the play is the same. Let’s improve the story, giving it a swift happy ending: Ukrainian refugees are reunited safely in their rebuilt homeland, a safe haven, where they, too, can live in freedom. Let’s shower them with blessings and prayers that this becomes not just an imagined fairy tale, but a reality. Rabbi Zaklos Fishel serves at Chabad Jewish Center of Naples.
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eoples’ names are a conundrum. I’m Mark, with a “k,” but a lot of northeasterners insist on writing it with a “c.” It’s the same for my wife, Carol, whose name most folks persist in writing as “Carole,” French-style — possibly the consequence of so many Jews from New York being just down the road from Quebec. And three out of five people hearing me introduced as “Gross,” by some strange Pavlovian reflex, repeat it as “Grossman.” Seriously, the question of namechanging matters immensely to Jews. Even in antiquity, acculturation by our cosmopolitan people led to many Jews adopting “outside” names. Case in point, the second Hasmonean king who ruled Israel 2,100 years ago was a Jew born YoNatan and nicknamed Yannai, whose Maccabean family had struggled against Hellenic culture and, yet, was known throughout his realm in Greek as Alexander Jannaeus. This phenomenon grew exponentially over the ensuing ages, after the global dispersal of the Jews following the destruction of Jerusalem in the first century. The 12th-century Egyptian philosopherphysician Moses Maimonides was Moshe in the synagogue, but Mussa in the street. The 13th-century Iberian rabbi, revered as Moshe ben-Nachman, was known to his Catalan neighbors as Bonastruc ça Porta. And in 17th-century Amsterdam, Portuguese philosopher Baruch de Spinoza was generally referred to by the Latin translation of his name, Benedict. Our “everyday” names tend to reflect a comfortable accommodation to the
numerous cultural settings in which we have found ourselves. Jews with Arabic names, like Bahya; Persian names, such as Daryush; and Russian names, like Natalya, are all Jews. And we all have Hebrew spirit-names that serve as our credentials in the Jewish world. (Mine is Mordechai, as an active memorialization of my dad’s grandfather, from which my “street name” Mark was reverse engineered as an incidental add-on after the fact because it started with the corresponding consonant and happened to be in vogue at the time that I made my début). And yet, there is an uncomfortable level at which our Hebrew names have not only come second but have been kept submerged. Even our “street” names and family names have sometimes been suppressed in the interests of expediency. As author Dara Horn notes, early in the 20th century, “new Americans, living in what they hoped was the first place in centuries where their families could enjoy full and free lives, soon discovered that when they applied for a job as Rosenberg no one would hire them, but when they applied as Rose, everyone would.” Hollywood performers, Winona Ryder and Tony Curtis, are desirable and exciting; Winona Horowitz and Bernie Schwartz — not so much. How far down do we submerge ourselves in the interests of expediency? How much of ourselves can we hide away without losing ourselves in the process? This month, we commemorate the birth of the Jewish people through the Exodus from Egypt. An important teaching of our tradition is that our long-ago forebearers merited God’s redemption from Pharaoh’s brick pits because, in spite of their generations of suffering and oppression, they proudly retained their identity and never changed their names. It was Jacob’s children, Reuven, Shim’on, Leivi and Judah, who came continued on page 9A
