Service of G-d or Bondage to Man?

A Torah Thought for Parashat Yitro 

By Moshe Feiglin

“I am Hashem your G-d Who took you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.”

(From this week’s Torah portion, Yitro, Exodus 20:2)

Values always come on a ladder. They have no significance if they are not set out in the proper order of preference; what is more important, what comes first and what is the foundation for all the rest.

The first commandment of the Ten Commandments in this week’s Torah portion is the starting point and the foundation for the entire structure of values that follows. There is a G-d Who redeemed us from slavery to humans. We serve Him and Him only. Throughout history, despots who desired to rule the entire world have found themselves in serious conflict with the Nation of Israel. From Pharaoh to Ahashverosh, from Hitler to Stalin – these despots concluded that they must destroy the Jews, simply because the Jews cannot be enslaved: They already have a King, “I am Hashem, your G-d.”

Many values are held aloft in our world: Equality, liberty, liberalism and more. They are all fine and good. But usually, they are not founded on the first of the Ten Commandments. “My (Nile) River is mine and I created myself,” said Pharaoh, just one example of a king who thought he was a god. The more that a leader puts himself at the focal point, the more he diminishes G-d and attempts to “replace” Him, the more that slavery takes root until the entire state becomes one large concentration camp: a “house of bondage”.

The danger of enslavement has greatly increased in modern times. The state’s ability to control and revoke its citizen’s liberty is very enticing to a regime that has no G-d. The excuse will always – always- be security. “We must revoke your liberty so that we can protect you.”

Do we really need to be biometrically marked like animals just to counter the plague of forged identity cards? Is there no technological solution better than a simple photograph that can easily be removed and replaced? Of course there is. (Smart chips are already in place in all sorts of identity cards, and they are extremely difficult to forge.) But the prime motivation for the Orwellian biometric law is the abrogation of liberty; to entice us all into a house of bondage – in the name of security, of course.

Wherever G-d has been completely removed from the picture – in atheist or communist regimes – human life and honor have no value at all. In China they raise people in locked farms so that they can sell their organs for transplants.
So when you hear someone talking about lofty values, be sure to check his entire message. Who is his G-d? Who works for whom? Does he work for G-d, or vice versa?

Shabbat Shalom.