Ask most citizens of the western world today, and they will readily tell you that they are free.  Chances are that they will be surprised at the very question; slaves and slavery belong to the past.   Today, we are free agents, at liberty to do nearly anything we please, within the limits of the law, of course.

The concept of freedom is apparently the function of the individual's heart.  Each man, and his freedom – according to his philosophy of life.  Modern man will tell you that nothing is more basic to him than his freedom. 

On Pesach (Passover), we seat ourselves around the Seder table and declare: "We were slaves to pharaoh in Egypt, and the L-rd our G-d took us forth from there.  Had G-d not brought our forefathers out of Egypt, we and our children and our children's children would all be enslaved to pharaoh in Egypt yet today."

There remains a question to be answered: What difference did the Exodus make to the Jewish People, if, in the long run, other tyrants would take the place of pharaoh to oppress them?   Their independence proved to be only temporary, so why do we celebrate it so?

If we view Jewish history over its span of thousands of years, we find no lack of volunteers for the role of tyrannical anti-Semite.  Nebuchadnezzar, Achashverus, Haman, and a string of many others – right down to our times, with Stalin and Hitler.  Each one, in turn, took up where the other left off. 

Why, then, is the Exodus from Egypt considered so significant?  Jewish history spans thousands of years, during which we have been rescued from dozens of minor and major enemies, but none is celebrated to the extent that we mark our release from bondage to pharaoh.  Why is this so?

The Exodus differed from our subsequent bouts of subservience to foreign masters in one, significant point: It was followed by the Revelation at Sinai.  When the People of Israel accepted the Torah at the foot of the mountain, they pledged their allegiance to the Creator of the World.  From that moment on, their spirit could not be subdued no matter how cruelly they might be oppressed physically. 

It was not only for the economic benefits of their labor that the Egyptians enslaved the Hebrews.  Hiring trained professionals would have produced a better end product.  Pharaoh sought to dominate the minds and hearts of the Jews.  Such is the lot of the slave; all his thoughts and feelings must be attuned to his master's plans for him.  Some masters achieve this end through aggressive measures.  Cruel, oppressive measures obliterate any trace of individual character which the slave might retain. 

Other masters aim to achieve the same goal through more subtle methods.  They prefer carefully controlled, systematic brainwashing to brute force, hoping to dull the subject's personality to the point that he is no longer capable of using rational thought.  In this state, the slave is no longer capable of analyzing what is being done to him. The victim does not realize that his thoughts are not his own and that his emotions are those of others.

In ancient times and during the Middle Ages, the first method was the more common.   Slaves were kept busy during most of the hours of the day so that they would have no time to reflect on their situation.  They were humiliated and their personality trampled upon.  Any spark of independence was extinguished before it might catch flame.  The slave had no opportunity to develop his mind or to learn to think for himself.  At the same time, heartless taskmasters punished their charges cruelly for any deviation from the patterns of conduct dictated by the slave owner.  Not surprisingly, the end result was huge flocks of human beings no more capable of critical thought and analysis than the flock of sheep they resembled.

In modern times, society censures such practices.  "Civil rights" has become almost a holy mantra. Aggressive coercion is no longer an acceptable method of achieving one's ends. Nowadays, society no longer tolerates the buying and selling of human slaves. 

Nonetheless, slavery has not disappeared from the face of the earth; it has merely assumed a different form.  The media, together with Madison Avenue, literature, and the movie industry, subtlety numb the public's intellect and instill their own set of values in the collective heart of western society.  It is no longer up to me to decide what I need in order to feel good; Madison Avenue's largest advertising agencies will let me know what I need to eat and to drink in order to "feel good" and to "feel good about myself."  Furthermore, they'll also be so kind as to inform me what I need to purchase in order to be one of the crowd, or, better yet, one step ahead of the others.  Making others jealous of my possessions is touted as a virtue rather than a vice.  The private citizen cannot control what enters his mind, conscious or subconscious.  How much more so, what enters the mind of his children.

In the times of pharaoh, the Egyptians enslaved the Hebrews emotionally by assigning the men to do women's jobs, and vice versa.  The resulting humiliation and frustration were intended to cripple the victims emotionally. 

It was obvious from the start that the Egyptians' motivation was not pure economic gain.  This reversal of roles between men and women would only not increase the slaves' productivity, but hamper it.  From here we clearly see that the goal of the Egyptians was to control the Hebrew minority in their midst through cruel oppression no less than to enrich their economy with inexpensive labor. Their evil decrees were intended to repress the nation as a national entity, crush their independent spirit and replace it with a slave mentality. 

In more recent times, we find a similar policy in the attitude of the nazis to the prisoners in their labor camps.  Often the starving inmates were ordered to drag heavy stones from one location to another.  Then, when their task was complete, the commandos ordered them to carry the same stones back to their original location.  The message was clear: you are our serfs, our playthings.  You belong to us, body, mind, and soul, to do with as we please, with no regard for your pain, discomfort, hunger and thirst, or exhaustion. 

Similarly, they deprived their victims of their names, and replaced them with numbers.  Human beings, with names and addresses, are assigned numbers by issuing an ID card to each one; the nazis numbered their herds of victims the same way that one numbers cattle, with tattoos on their flesh. 

A human being suffering such treatment can easily be drained of his character.  At that point, the taskmaster is free to replace his victim's personality with whatever qualities he chooses. 

But the Jew cannot be manipulated this way.  With the Exodus and the Revelation at Sinai, the Jewish People gained everlasting freedom.  Ever since, over the millennia that followed, no nation can rule over their spirit, no matter how it may crush and torture their body.  The inner ego and soul of Israel cannot be tampered with; it is bonded to G-d, and remains His alone.  Even the nazis, may their name be blotted out, did not succeed in obliterating the lessons engraved on the heart of Israel at Sinai.

Victor Frankl, well-known psychiatrist and author, who survived World War Two despite three years in concentration camps, relates his experiences during his internment.  When he arrived in Auschwitz, the Germans confiscated his lifework, a manuscript detailing his scientific research and findings.  They tossed the efforts of years and years to the flames without a second thought.  Frankl felt as though his personality had become just so much ash, to be scattered by the wind, together with his manuscript.  Only his body remained; his character had been destroyed and no longer existed.

This feeling was further re-enforced when he was selected to remain alive as a laborer.  He and his group were sent to the showers.  When they came out, each one was shaven, removing further signs of their individuality.  Now they were just so many two-legged cattle that could hardly be distinguished one from the other.  It appeared that they had undergone a compete metamorphosis of the personality. 

To further degrade them, the guards purposely distributed uniforms that did not fit the prisoners.  Short men were given large sizes that dragged on the ground, making those wearing them appear ridiculous, while tall men were forced to don outfits with short sleeves and trouser legs, in an effort to humiliate them further. 

When Frankl had donned the jacket and trousers given to him, he slipped a hand into a pocket, and found a slip of paper.  The previous "owner" had gone to the gas chambers, but he had left something behind for posterity. On the slip of paper Frankl found the eternal confirmation of Jewish faith, the words of the Shema: "Hear, O Israel: the L-rd our G-d, the L-rd is One." 

At that moment, writes Victor Frankl, he was infused with strength.  He regained his personality in an eternal instant, so much so that he survived the torture and rigors of camp life, and helped others do so, as well.

The enemy may beat us and humiliate us; he may torture our bodies, even murder us, and burn our bodies to ashes.  But the Jewish soul that was born at Sinai will never be his.