A Sephardi Sage’s Timely Thoughts on The Festival of Freedom

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חג פסח כשר ושמח

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From your friends at

The American Sephardi Federation

In honor of Passover, the ASF’s Sephardi World Weekly is pleased to offer the following “Letter from the Land of Israel”:

The holiday of Passover is often called “The Festival of Freedom,” and it’s easy to understand why. Commemorating Israel’s emancipation from Egypt’s “House of Bondage,” the story speaks to a timeless and universal desire for freedom, and it’s no wonder that so many liberation movements throughout history have seen an image of their own struggle in the story of Israel’s salvation.

It’s also no wonder that Passover resonates so easily with contemporary sensibilities. “Liberty” is one of the cornerstones of the modern liberal democratic ethos, from the American dedication to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” to the French revolutionary devotion to, “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.” Therefore, you’ll find secular Jews, and even non-Jews, eagerly participating in a Passover Seder, whereas many of those same people have zero interest in Jewish holidays and remembrances with particularistic and religiously classical characteristics, such as Shavuot (the celebration of the giving of the Torah) and the 9th of Ab (the mourning for the destruction of the Temple). 

Because freedom is so widely celebrated in Western societies, however, if we’re not careful, we’re liable to read popular notions of freedom back into the Jewish tradition, and in so doing, the full range of meaning of the idea in its Jewish context will accordingly be obscured. It’s thus important that we examine the idea of “freedom” free from the blinding effects of contemporary preconceptions.

A rich exploration of the idea of freedom in a Jewish context can be found in the writings of the Chief Rabbi of Salonika (1921-1923) and the first Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Israel, R’ Ben-Zion Meir Hai Ouziel (1880-1953). R’ Ouziel dedicated a number of Passover essays to examining the various dimensions of the meaning of freedom, or in Hebrew, herut, and even though we can’t give a full account of his thinking in this brief article, we can touch on a number of ideas that will hopefully provide food for thought as we enter the Passover holiday.

Continue reading below…

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R’ Ouziel accepts the idea that freedom from oppression is the most basic prerequisite for freedom, but, he claims, that’s only a partial form of freedom. Inner cultivation is necessary for becoming fully free: “Going out of slavery isn’t truly freedom unless the slaves are also saved from the inner feeling of inferiority.”

Why does R’ Ouziel claim that a human being who has no master and who, on the face of things, appears to be free, is not truly free if he or she hasn’t shaken off feelings of inferiority? Because the feeling of inferiority leads to slavishly imitating the ways of others, and in slavishly imitating others we make them masters over ourselves. R’ Ouziel punctuates his point by adding that, “Slavish imitation is greater than chattel slavery.” If that sounds exaggerated, or even preposterous, a little later in the century the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., would highlight a “type of slavery which is probably more prevalent and certainly more injurious than physical bondage, namely mental slavery.”

For R’ Ouziel, authentic freedom requires the kind of inner strength that grows out of a strong sense of identity. In this context, R’ Ouzeil cites the teaching of the sages that the children of Israel were redeemed from Egypt in the merit of four things: they didn’t change their names, they didn’t change their language, they didn’t reveal their “mysteries” (i.e., their deepest teachings and beliefs), and they maintained sexual modesty.

Why were these four things so essential? Regarding the importance of preserving one’s language and one’s name, R’ Ouziel writes: “Language and names are clear signs and true testimony of a nation’s freedom of soul, a freedom that cannot be taken away by changes in fortune or changes in values.” However, he adds, names and language are only external expressions that are ultimately animated by hidden powers, namely, deep beliefs and family modesty: “[t]he ‘mysteries’ weren’t openly revealed because there is no appropriate way of expressing these depths” while “Faithful sons who are conceived in sanctity and born in sanctity… are capable of keeping their language and names.” According to R’ Ouziel, keeping one’s deepest thoughts hidden and preserving sexual modesty are the powers that animate more external expressions of freedom.

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Nina Simone’s Eretz Zavat Chalav U’Dvash

The first biblical reference to Israel as a “land flowing with milk and honey” occurs in Shemot (Exodus) 3:8, within the promise of the liberation of the Hebrew slaves from Pharaoh’s bondage. Here, Nina Simone, “The High Priestess of Soul” and a Civil Rights Activist, gives verve to that verse.

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R’ Ouziel’s teachings regarding the prerequisites for freedom might sound strange to modern ears, as they run against the grain of some conventionally accepted manners and mores. This is especially true when it comes to preserving “mysteries”—who even talks this way anymore?!—and sexual modesty, for the reigning ethos in Western culture is “to let it all hang out,” as it were.

On the other hand, R’ Ouziel’s teaching regarding the connection between feelings of inferiority and slavish imitation should also sound deeply familiar to those living in societies governed by public opinion and dominated by celebrity culture. And perhaps the acuity of R’ Ouzeil’s timely observations regarding the roots of slavish imitation should make us wonder if his untimely thoughts on freedom can also teach us something important?

While the classical Sephardic tradition is worldly and sophisticated, it is also, on occasion and in some fundamental ways, fruitfully and blessedly untimely. Hopefully, R’ Ouziel’s untimely thoughts regarding the prerequisites of full freedom can serve as a leaven for our own as we sit down around the Seder table this year to celebrate “The Festival of Freedom.”

Happy Passover!

The American Sephardi Federation

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Photo credit: “Historiated initial-word panel with gold letters: Avadim at the beginning of the passage, ‘We were slaves to Pharaoh,’” The Barcelona Haggadah, Catalonia, Spain, c. 1340 (Image scan courtesy of The British Library)

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