The most famous Biblical line from the story of the Exodus is God saying, "Let my people go." It is regularly recounted as a statement about freedom. However, a closer inspection showed me that it's not about freedom at all.
In Hebrew, the phrase is: "shalach et ami vaya-avduni." The translation of "shalach et ami" could be rendered "let my people go," but the sentence is not complete. In all eight instances (with minor variations), the rest of the sentence is "vaya-avduni" which may be rendered as "to serve me."
Implicit in this sentence is the concept that God is not moving the Jews towards freedom (at least in its conventional sense), but is moving them towards a closer relationship with Him. This is consistent with the spirituality of twelve-step programs where freedom from the slavery of addiction is conditioned on moving to a God-centered rather than to a self-centered life.
2 comments:
It does seem as if this message of repurposing the Jewish people is profound. Currently, the atmosphere politically, economically and interpersonally is one of entitlement, not of "highest and best use." The arguments are similar to people who date, articulating what they are looking for without a vision of what they are bringing to the relationship and what value that relationship brings to the larger environment. Politically people argue about what they "deserve" (whether is be statues, noise, safety, education etc.) without concern for costs and contextualizing the benefits. It seems a by-product of the "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness" without a sense of a larger whole than the egoic self.
This prior comment does raise the issue of codependence. By focusing on what I can do for others primarily, I run the risk of codependence with its inevitable blind spots around its own selfishness. Instead, the Hillel framework of beginning with "if i'm not for me, who is?" seems a better starting spot. In light of that, the "let my people go" notion might root in what servitude is best for the individual with the idea that any freedom is an expression of serving something - the freedom to choose what that is.
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