Breaking Free of the Slave Mentality When Moshe stood at the burning bush, HaShem gave him four different promises of redemption to deliver to the Jewish people. In Shemos 6:6-7, HaShem states, And I will take you out of the burdens of Egypt; I will save you from their work; I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and great judgments, and I will take you to Me as a nation. (Vehotzeisi, Vehitzalti, Vegoalti, Velokachti) The Seforno assigns a chronological order to these expressions. The burdens eased when the plagues began and they were saved from their work as they exited the borders of Egypt. They were redeemed when the Egyptians drowned in the sea, and became a nation at Mount Sinai. At the third step of the drowning of their captors, the Seforno comments that this is characterized by the word redemption because from that point forward, the Jews were no longer fleeing slaves. It seems that in order to undergo the complete transformation from slaves to free men, seeing the ten plagues and actually escaping was not enough. There was an additional need for the Jewish people to personally witness their dead captors or they would have still viewed themselves as slaves on the run and not fully redeemed. A persons perception of his own realty is so often based on an inability to let go of a past mindset or ingrained personality traits. How we view ourselves is often the cause of much stress and dissatisfaction and we must work to overcome those toxic feelings and redeem ourselves to be truly free people.
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 19:40:00 +0000
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