HOUSE-BOUND

There is a gap between Liberation and Exodus. After the tenth plague struck, Pharaoh implored the Israelites to leave immediately. Nevertheless, the Exodus did not take place untilthe morning. Indeed the Israelites were commanded: “And no person shall leave the entrance of his house till morning.” (Shemot 12:22)

The late Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik (Festival of Freedom, pp. 31-32) sees a profound significance in the fact that the Israelites did not rush into liberation mode but had to wait, patiently, until day broke.

History, he says, records many instances of slaves’ bloody and ruthless insurrections against their masters. Ancient Rome experienced two or three grim confrontations with slaves who set themselves free. European history knows of the Peasants’ War in medieval Germany and the bloody Cossack uprising in the Ukraine. The accounts of these revolts are chilling in the extreme. The newly-liberated slaves were eager to settle scores of cruelty. Horrific massacres took place, satisfying a brutish drive for vengeance.

The events of the Arab Spring just over ten years ago, in parts of the Middle East have shown, in many cases, little difference between the standards of the oppressors and the standards of those who have thrown off the yoke of their erstwhile masters.

It is precisely to counter such savagery that the Israelites were ordered to remain in their homes. The Egyptians were hysterical in the wake of the last plague: “And there was a great outcry in Egypt, for there was no house in which no one was dead.” (ibid. 30) The Israelites were now the masters and the Egyptians were the subordinates. Yet, there was no rampage of the Israelites, beating-up their former taskmasters, torching their houses, revisiting, on the Egyptian women and children, the horrors that had been done to them. Instead, the Israelites remained in their homes. They had the determination to resist the bloodlust.

What were they doing? With mindfulness and gratitude, they were sitting down to the first Seder. They were eating the Passover lamb and reciting the Hallel. It was, says, Rabbi Soloveitchik, an event unique in the history of revolutions.

May their moral courage inspire us in our lives.