Rabbi Guy Tal: Why I Named My Daughter Herut – On freedom and loyalty to one’s true self

by Rabbi Guy Tal

(AJNews) – There are words whose mere mention suffices to inspire and elevate the soul. The Hebrew word “Herut,” commonly translated into English as “liberty” or “freedom,” has such an effect on me. This word holds such profound significance for us that we decided to name our second daughter Herut.

Generations of slaves dreamed of Herut – countless subjugated people, nameless and faceless, who spent their suffering-laden lives as meaningless property of heartless masters. “Viva la libertad” is still the cry of freedom-seeking revolutionaries today, referring not only to historical slavery, which unfortunately still exists in numerous places.

Herut is an elusive concept, for a person can be entirely free yet still enslaved in his very soul. Herut does not merely mean liberation from external oppression, but from all types of bondage; freedom from societal conventions – those false standards imposed upon us from outside that are foreign to our spirit; freedom from hypocritical false culture masquerading as modern and progressive that attempts to imprison us in the narrow confines of its limited and superficial, rootless thinking; freedom from addictions, bad habits, and internal servitude; freedom from excessive government intervention in private life attempting to impose worldviews rather than merely regulating public order; freedom from censorship disguised as “safeguarding truth and fighting misinformation,” and various other internal and external restrictions and bondages against which the truly free person must resist. In other words, Herut is loyalty to one’s authentic self, to the inner being in all its dimensions – personal, familial, national, and human – and liberation from any foreign influence contrary to a person’s essential nature.

Therefore, Herut is not acquired in a single moment or through swift action. True, complete, elevating liberty develops and is achieved over years, sometimes even generations. Thus, the liberation of Israel from Egypt is described with four different words, four expressions of redemption, corresponding to the four cups of wine we drink during the Passover Seder: Vehotzeti – I will bring you out, vehitzalti – I will rescue you, vegaalti – I will redeem you, and velakachti – I will take you. “To complete this process, we leave a cup for Eliyahu HaNavi, corresponding to a fifth expression of redemption – I will bring you to the land…”

“I will bring you out from under the oppression of Egypt.” Physical suffering does not allow the human spirit to flourish and realize its full greatness. It shortens one’s breath and ability to look upward and soar to the heavens. Additionally, the burdens of Egypt, the crushing labor, were designed to damage one’s ability to live according to their nature, as the Sages explain: “What is meant by ‘all their labor which they made them serve with rigor’? Rabbi Samuel bar Nachman said in the name of Rabbi Jonathan: It teaches that they would switch men’s work to women and women’s work to men” (Exodus Rabbah 1:11). This role reversal between men and women was intended to make people forget their selfhood and essence. Physical suffering combined with self-forgetting and misalignment with one’s inner nature – that is, the loss of freedom – intensifies physical suffering and adds psychological distress.

“I will rescue you from their bondage.” Indeed, even when there is no “oppression of Egypt,” but only “their bondage,” the spirit is not truly free. As long as another person controls you and decides your life, you cannot truly live. “All this I have seen and applied my heart to every deed that is done under the sun: a time when man rules over man to his detriment.” (Kohelet 8:9) The Torah Temimah explains: “It is a time of detriment to the ruler and a time of detriment to the ruled.” To express the greatness of one’s soul, a person must make decisions independently, err and fall, rise and correct, and find his way in the world without the coercion of a foreign ruler.

“I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.” Until now, the verse spoke of redemption from “the oppressions of Egypt” and from “their bondage,” but there is still no promise to leave the land of the oppressors. Commentators offer several possibilities for interpreting this third expression of redemption, “I will redeem you.” The books Aderet Eliyahu and Or HaChaim explain: “This refers to their departure from Egypt,” meaning the physical exit from Egypt itself is part of the liberation process. This does not refer to entering the Land of Israel, as that will be mentioned in the next verse, but merely the departure from enemy territory. Why then, if we are no longer working for Egypt and no longer suffering under their hand, is the physical departure from Egypt considered part of redemption? It seems there is also a need to be liberated from subjugation to Egyptian culture – the strongest and most impressive civilization of that time, so powerful that it didn’t even need external coercion to take root in the hearts of the Israelites, causing them to forget themselves and lose their way. One must escape the influence of Egyptian culture by physically distancing oneself, and this is redemption – “I will redeem you.” Israel cannot acquire true spiritual freedom while under foreign influence.

“I will take you to be My people, and I will be your G-d.” Sforno explains: “At Mount Sinai.” Even after liberation from all types and levels of Egyptian bondage, freedom had not yet been acquired in the hearts of Israel, for if you are free from external influence but have not yet connected to your inner self, you are not truly free. Therefore, the final and essential stage – the ultimate purpose – is connecting to the original Israeli authenticity at Mount Sinai through the giving of the Torah, as the Sages say in the Mishnah: “And it says (Exodus 32:16): ‘And the tablets were the work of G-d, and the writing was the writing of G-d, engraved (Harut) on the tablets’ – do not read ‘harut’ (engraved) but ‘Herut’ (freedom), for no one is truly free except one who engages in Torah study” (Avot 6:2).

Not only do the commandments themselves express the free spirit of the Israeli nation faithful to its authenticity, history, and culture, but so do the sacred traditions and customs hallowed by the self-sacrifice of generations upon generations. From birth to burial, the life of a Jew is accompanied by these sacred traditions that preserve the character and authentic nature of the nation. No reform disguising itself as modern and progressive – but which is actually fraudulent, attempting to pander to fashionable, contentless contemporary trends contrary to the soul of the Israeli nation – can truly withstand the eternal power of the nation, even if temporarily it might achieve one Pyrrhic victory or another.

“No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue that rises against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from Me, says the Lord” (Isaiah 54:17).

I wish for my daughter Herut, for my other children, for myself, and for all of us to discover the true freedom within us, that we might remain faithful to ourselves, to our traditions and to our roots, and not wander astray after fleeting fashions and foreign values.

 Rabbi Guy Tal is the Rabbi at Beth Israel Congregation in Edmonton.