Happy Passover

Thursday, April 2, 2015

Why is Passover the Most Celebrated Jewish holiday in America?

Simply put, like America itself, Passover is about freedom.  It celebrates the eternal quest for human dignity and the freedom which is perhaps the greatest expression of that dignity.


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Freedom is not the absence of obligation.  The famous Passover phrase, "let my people go," is abbreviated.  The full sentence is, "Let my people go, that they may serve me." Here we see Isaiah Berlin's famous distinction between being "liberated from" and being "liberated to."  To be liberated from oppression is the beginning of freedom, not its end or aim.  True freedom is abundance of opportunity, not absence of obligation.  A man in a desert alone is not free.  Standing in a developed society with a thousand obligations but also a million possibilities, that is freedom.