The Freedom to Choose

(printed in the Jewish Press, April 19, 2019)

There is release from bondage, and there is release from bondage

In the run-up to the wonderful Yom Tov of Pesach that is upon us, we prepare in many ways for Yom Tov, cleaning, buying, selling, preparing Divrei Torah for the Seder, and various other ways.  One way that really ought to occupy our time, however, is planning for freedom during zman chairuseinu.
  
Baruch Hashem, for the most part, this does not mean striving for physical freedom for most Jews in the reality of 5779/2019.  Other than waiting for Mashiach, most Jews (at least those not behind tight security in Europe or under siege in yishuvim near Gaza) are free to come and go as they choose physically.  But perhaps a more important area of freedom is that of the spirit. To be able – from a place of knowledge and open-mindedness – to choose to live according to the best and truest values that one can.  

For us, of course, that means the free willed choice to live according to Torah values and not being coerced to live according to the values and cultural mores of an alien belief system.  For too many years, in Eretz Yisrael, that was the case for hundreds of thousands of Israeli children, who were brought up in a system that taught them that Torah and Judaism was a collection of backward and primitive ideas, that perhaps had some values in keeping the Jewish people together throughout the thousands of years of Diaspora.  Any intelligent and enlightened person would realize that in the new Modern State of Israel the holiest thing that could be done with the old Judaism was to dump it in the nearest dustbin, and rather participate in the new Jewish definition of Judaism as the culture of the secular State of Israel.  One of the epicenters of that way of thinking was the crown jewel of HaShomer HaTzair kibbutzim, Ein Charod.

Nestled in the eastern Jezreel valley in the shadow of Har HaGilboa, Ein Charod became the symbol of militant secularism in Israel.  Pork dinners on Tisha B’Av, Yom Kippur completely and specifically unobserved, optional Shabbat where every kibbutznik chose the day of the week that would be their day of rest, and of course, militantly secular education of the children – that was the norm of Ein Charod.   Various great Rabbis tried – the place was visited twice by the saintly Rav Kook zt”l – but it seemed like a hopeless place from a Torah point of view.  Some expressed some hope – the Ponovezher Rav is quoted as having said “Prepare tefillin for the people of Kibbutz Ein Charod!”, but even his most die-hard students thought that the great Dreamer had gone too far.

Fast Forward seventy years.  Over the past decade, several organizations, particularly Ayelet HaShachar, have found a way to penetrate that place.  Two years ago, the Kibbutz dining room that served neveilos, treifos, and pork for decades was converted into a kosher facility.  Ayelet HaShachar helped erect a shul, and now there is a vasikin minyan every morning, besides of course a nice attendance on Shabbos.  And this month an amazing occurrence – Ayelet HaShachar has opened a Mehadrin Matza factory in Ein Charod.  Groups from all over are coming to bake Matzah there, as a non-profit operation – with much of the Matzah going to the hard-hit communities near the Gaza border.  It is an unbelievable achievement!

It is a statement that even from abysmal levels of tumah, from deep and systematic brainwashing of generations of children to an anti-Torah anti observance mindset – our heritage remains deep within the Jewish soul, ready to break out and return home once again.
As the Torah says about Eretz Yisrael and about the Torah – they are a Morasha – legacy that will continue for future generations of Jews, even if the legacy has to skip a generation or two.

It is a statement to all of us that we need not be shackled and bound by past habits and attitudes.  That we have the freedom to step out, and grab hold of Hashem’s outstretched redemptive hand, and let it guide us to meaning and truth-filled lives, until the final redemption, speedily in our days.