Four Expressions of Geulah

At the Passover seder, we drink four cups of wine corresponding to the "four expressions of redemption,” mentioned in this week’s Torah portion. G-d promises the Jews through Moses: "I will take you out from Egypt, and I will deliver you from their bondage; I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. I will take you to Myself …and I will be to you a G‑d..."

To free us, explain the commentaries, G‑d took us out of Egypt. That was the first step. But Egypt was a superpower; indeed, a week after the Exodus its mighty army was chasing after them to bring them back. If Pharaoh's choicest troops had not been drowned in the Red Sea, the Jews would have been subject to Egypt's power wherever they might have been.

Nor was being delivered from Egypt's leadership a long-term guarantee of our freedom. Egypt might rebuild her army, or some other oppressor might rise to take her place. That is why G‑d delivered us from Egypt "with an outstretched arm and with great judgments" inflicting such punishment upon the Egyptians that their spirit was broken, and any future possibility of a "comeback" or a proxy was obliterated.

Still, the people of Israel were not truly free. Even after every force that could possibly enslave us was destroyed, there remained the fact that we were enslavable.

Then G‑d gathered us at the foot of Mount Sinai, betrothed us to His Torah, and took us to Him as his people. In bonding with G‑d, we transcended every human bond. We became inherently, intrinsically free.

In the words of the Maharal, before the revelation at Sinai, a Jew could be a slave. But by taking us as His people, G‑d created a new type of being: a being who is in essence free. After Sinai, the Jew may be exiled, persecuted and oppressed — but these will always only affect our external selves. The soul of the Jew can never be bent, or even constricted. It remains forever united with G‑d, and forever free.

May we merit the coming of Moshiach now, when we will experience the 5th expression of redemption, being brought back home to Eretz Yisrael.

Shabbat Shalom!

Candle lighting time this week is Friday, 4:46 PM (in NYC).