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Bo(Exodus 10:1-13:16)
Let My People Go
Back in the 1980s, the tag-line for the campaign to free Soviet Jewry came from this week's Torah portion: "Let My people go," Moses said to Pharaoh. However, that's only the first half of the phrase used by Moses. He continued. "Let My people go ... so that they should serve Me [God]." In other words, let them go for a purpose.
In Jewish thinking, freedom alone is not a value. If a man is free and he uses this freedom to hurt others, to abuse his body with drugs, or to waste his life, is such a freedom of value? Better that he be a slave.
Freedom is only of value if there is purpose attached to it. Without purpose, people will be no happier free, than if they were slaves.
Modern Israel has faced many existential challenges throughout its history - wars, terror, UN condemnations. However, in my mind, the greatest threat to Israel today is not Ahmadinejad or Hamas. Israel's greatest threat today lies in its lack of purpose. At least a million Israelis have left the country. Young Israelis are disillusioned. And the universally dirty business of politics is seemingly nowhere dirtier than in the Holy Land. As of today, America is a safer place for Jews and a country where Jews know unprecedented freedom. So what purpose does Israel serve?
Let My people go... so that they may serve Me. Freedom must include a meaningful purpose.
And yet of all nations, for the Jewish people to lack purpose is the most ironic. Our whole history is one of dreaming of a better world and striving toward that goal. From our very inception, the concept of being a 'light to the nations' has inspired and driven us. And we have done so. The values of our Bible have permeated the entire world.
We've had a purpose, and that purpose remains agonizingly within reach. If only we would grasp onto it. A person drowning is tragic. But a person drowning because he is lying down in a few inches of water and all he need do is stand up, is unbearably tragic.
That's what the Jewish people is doing today. We are drowning because young Jews find no meaning in Judaism. No meaning in Judaism?! We are drowning in an inch of water. It's about time that we stood up. And if you're already standing, help someone else get up.
Shaul Rosenblatt grew up in Liverpool. He studied for his smicha at Aish Hatorah in Jerusalem where he met his first wife Elana a"h who passed away in 2001 after a long struggle with cancer. They had four children together and Shaul has a further two with his second wife Chana, who he married in 2003. Shaul is the author of 
(5) Anonymous , January 29, 2009
Rabbi Rosenblatt, Thank you so much for this beautifully inspiring devar torah. Every week I send an e-mail to my campers including a devar torah on the parsha and this week im going to use this one, with one change, I am going to take out the part that attacks eretz yisrael!!! I don’t mean any disrespect, you probably know more torah than I could ever imagine knowing but it seems to me that the point you were trying to make in the devar would have been made in a much stronger way if you used an example about Am Israel instead of writing a whole paragraph of lashon hara about Israel. It is true, Israel does have its problems, I know, baruch Hashem I live here, but I also know that it wouldn’t have so many problems if more Jews used the freedom that Hashem gave us to follow His torah and move here!! Israel serves the greatest purpose in the world, it is a present from Hashem, the place He so lovingly gave us where we can have a more direct connection then anywhere else in the world. The beit hamikdash will be built here, mashiach will come because people move here. Without eretz yisrael it would be impossible for Jews to use the freedom Hashem gave us to its fullest. Thank you so much for the rest of the devar torah Shabbat shalom
(4) Laura T , January 8, 2008
America Not the Bueatiful
Americans are far from perfect and that most likely includes our young Jewish people here. I am a divorced 53 yr old woman with 2 boys, one in the Army now and one going in next fall. The older son tells of how the new 'inductees' feel a sense of entitlement (using their cell phones when they have been banned) and they are a whiny group, complaing that boot camp it "too hard and stressful". My younger son does not have to adhere to deadlines in school because he knows the teacher will take his assignments late for less credit (no matter how much cajoling I do). So this is the society we have produced today.
I admire Isreal and it's committed army with it's code of ethics. Americans could learn committment from our fighting (to defend) friends in Israel. Had I known then, what I know now... l'shanah haba'ah birushalayim
(3) Leo de Jong , January 7, 2008
Your article is negative.
"Young Jews find no meaning in Judaism", but not all of them. "Young Jews in Israel are disillusioned", not all of them. You are generalizing. What is the purpose of the freedom and safety of young Jews in USA? Are they "standing and helpÃng someone else get up?"
In Israel many do, with great courage, and they have no lack of purpose. The main cause why we were driven out of Erets Yisrael was Avoda Zara(paganism);
Baruch Hashem this reason doesn't exist any more. Nobody drives us out of Israel. You should give a positive message to american Jewry as so many other american leaders did, like Rabi Riskin for instance. Believe me, he and his thousands of followers have no lack of purpose
(2) Joey Zabarte , January 7, 2008
The Paradox of Freedom
Dear Rabbi Shaul,
I agree with you totally that freedom must have a purpose. Not just in America or Israel, but even here in the Philippines, so many cry for freedom. But the freedom many desire is to be able to act without the corresponding consequences of their actions. The paradox of freedom is that there can only be true freedom when there are rules to guide us. Otherwise we will have anarchy which is no freedom at all. Freedom must be tempered by discipline and vision or, as you put it, purpose. And, may I add, there is no greater purpose than to worship and serve Him (G_d). Kudos to you, Rabbi Shaul. Shalom!
(1) Michal Evenari , January 6, 2008
Why so hopeless and negative?
Dear Rabbi Shaul, two books you have written, I own. They gave me hope and took away my sadness. This article I find gloomy. Of course you are right.
But where are all the religious ones, who know how everything should be in Israel??? Can it be that they prefer to stay in UK or USA, because all is easier there? I know many Israelis, who work for their country, who had built it, who suffered war after war.
Who gave their lives! (And mothers their sons!) What is really bad, is our political leaders. I do not think they are more corrupt than those of other countries, they are j u s t as corrupt, and Olmert said in an Interview with the Jerusalem Post on the 1rst of January, that we have to internalize that we have to give up part of Jerusalem to the Arabs. That is terrible. But it is easy to sit comfy outside and say: "You are not ok!" There are wonderful Jews in Israel. Not enough, of course. But all the holy ones who stay in the galuth, should join them. Don't you think so? Maybe then they could keep the nonbelieving Israelis from drowning.