Jan. 4, 2024

Defining Freedom: The Ramban's Insights Sefer Shemos and the Journey to Spiritual Emancipation

What is the true measure of our freedom? This episode promises to transform your understanding of liberty, challenging you to consider how your actions can imbue it meaningfully. Join us as we draw from the wisdom of the Ramban, unraveling a perspective that suggests our choices in life are what truly define the freedoms we hold dear. We navigate the powerful narrative of the Jewish journey from the bonds of slavery to the divine connection through the building of the Tabernacle, exploring how each step towards freedom was intricately linked to purpose and directed action.

Uncover the profound connection between our liberties and how we spend our time and energy. We'll inspire you to reflect on whether the pursuits you're dedicating your life to are merely passing distractions or aligned with a greater purpose that transcends the mundane. This discussion isn't just academic; it's a call to action to reassess your goals and how you can channel your freedom into acts of kindness, learning, and meaningful growth. The legacy of the Exodus isn't just about liberation from physical bondage—it's about the spiritual emancipation that comes from living a life with intention.

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Transcript
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Freedom is meaningless, liberty absolutely pointless.

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Quite frankly, even the conservation of our special energies and the saving of time, it's all futile and hevel havolum.

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Why such harsh statements, you ask?

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Well, all of these realities, these entities, time and energy, and freedom and liberty, amongst a couple others, they're all not final destinations, they are not end goals in it of themselves, but rather just rest stops on a highway of life.

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Because it matters what one chooses to do with his liberties and with his freedom.

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That gives it definition.

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And surely you will agree that one who is an avid couch potato and a TV show binger, it doesn't matter how much time he saves if he's just only going to use that time to further engage in wasteful behavior, to save all your energy to play some video games.

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It's hardly productive.

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And all of this comes to mind because it seems to be embedded deep within the Ramban's introduction to the safer that we just inaugurated, the safer Ve'elish Shamos.

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That begins with the Jewish people enslaved in the country of Egypt, that leads us to an epic salvation, a giving of the Torah, a great revelation, the delivering of a halachic manifesto, ultimately culminating with the epic crescendo that is the construction of the tabernacle, which tells us that Hashem dwells within our midst and the Ramban tells us that the safer called safer G'ula, the name for the book of Exodus.

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It must end after the building of the Mishkan, for there is no G'ula if we just are free from Egypt because free to do what?

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And it seems, freedom and liberty doesn't mean anything unless you will engage in productive behavior.

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And in the case of the Jewish people, the G'ula ended when Hashem dwelt and continues to dwell in our midst.

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That is when the book of Shamos will end and the safer HaG'ula will truly become a book of G'ula.

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The life lesson from the Ramban seems to be embedded in his words that our free time, the carving out of extra time, the conserving of our energies, it only seems to matter when we take that, align ourselves with Hashem's holy Torah and then engage in profitable practices.

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Our freedom and our liberty, our choice to do what we want, is only a gift when we align our thinking, our goals and our objectives with Hashem's sacred Torah and choose to engage in the study of Tyrone, in the doing of Mitzvahs, in the giving of charity and giving to others.