Pesach's Freedom - Why is it Called Cherus - Rabbi Dovid Gottlieb - Jewish Philosophy

What’s said in this shiur

The opening of this shiur, in Rabbi Dovid Gottlieb’s own words — taken from the captions, so names and Hebrew terms may be approximate.

Okay, we're now on the run-up to Pesach. I want to give an introduction today to >> [clears throat] >> I would say the spiritual theme of Pesach. One of the spiritual themes of Pesach. >> [snorts] >> And then later on the week in the sham we'll start learning the Haggadah. We'll spend a lot of concentrated time on the text of the Haggadah until we get to Pesach. The theme of Pesach is freedom. Now, Hebrew is a language with a very small vocabulary. And that means that words have very rich meaning. In English, which probably has the biggest vocabulary of any currently spoken language or written language in the world, you have many words for close shades of a concept, many nuances. Hebrew don't have that. So, on the odd occasion where you have many different words for the same concept or the same area of concept, that means that it's especially important to the language and to the culture, and that wants you to pay attention to the differences in the nuances of the words. In Hebrew, there are three words that are commonly used in the in connection with with freedom. Two which are classical biblical words, one which isn't isn't interestingly is not, but is used in rabbinical literature, especially with respect to Pesach, and is connected to a biblical word which may give us some insight. The three words are deror, which is a used specifically for people who are released from slavery. The other one is chofesh, which is refers to a person without responsibilities, without claims that are made on him, free from uh claims against his time or his property or whatever. And third is cherus. Cherus, which in our prayers, Pesach zman cherusenu, the time of our freedom, though it is not a biblical word at all. Nowhere is that word used in the Tanakh

Jump to a moment

1. 0:02Okay, we're now on the run-up to Pesach. I want to give an introduction today to…
2. 3:44associates chofesh with death. Yeah, dead people don't have any responsibilities. Not even the libertarians among…
3. 7:31deep ideas here. First of all, let me start with a reflection, which is it's a…
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9. 31:25performance that's typically used to do this is making kiddush Friday night. Wow, that's a big…
10. 35:09somebody asks you at 11:30 a.m., "Where are Because you know, it's there in your mind.…

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