Let us recognize that we are children of royalty, a nation whose eternal destiny is freedom, that Israel is neither a servant nor a home-born slave, nor an object of contempt.
Introduction: In this essay, Rabbi Kook indicates that the disunity and conflict between the religious and secular communities of his time was caused by the introduction of alien ideologies into the hearts and minds of the Jewish People during Israel’s long wanderings in Exile among the Gentiles. This “chametz” must be banished for unity to exist. This cleansing is a gradual ongoing process which continues to challenge us today.
“Freedom and the banishing of chametz — these two symbolize the Festival of Redemption, Pesach, the Festival of our Freedom. What can we learn from these two interdependent concepts? The eternal answer is that there are two conditions required for redemption: One is physical emancipation from any foreign subjugation, from any force which enslaves the Divine Image in man by diminishing its value, its splendid majesty and noble sanctity. But this liberty is acquired only through the freedom of the soul, the freedom of the spirit from all that diverts it from the firm, straight path etched in its essential nature.
“Yet these two types of freedom cannot be achieved, neither by the individual nor by the nation as a spiritually unique collective, without the banishing from one’s domain of everything which inhibits freedom, namely, the chametz in the dough, whose threat is greatest when the light of redemption flickers.
“During such a period of transition, the slumbering forces awaken. Waves of life roar mightily. At this time of agitation, that which is lowly — both physically and spiritually — awakens, as do the most noble of positive life forces. Hence, great caution is required. The pioneers of redemption, the entire generation which is meriting to witness the first bud of the sprouting of redemption, will necessarily contain many thoughts, images, and teachings which tend to destroy, defile, and annihilate all glory and strength in Israel.
“Have not educators and leaders risen in our midst who stand at the helm of education and leadership and offer our children to Molech, who inoculate them with every foreign thought and insipid idea because they prefer alien shoots taken not from the fields of Israel, but from the vines of Sodom and the fields of Gemorrah? What has led us to the black depth of brotherly hatred which threatens to destroy and undermine all that has been accomplished through generations of superhuman toil and self-sacrifice?
It is the absorption of the chametz of alien spirituality which is a hindrance at the time that the flourishing of our redemption is progressing. What has caused the blindness preventing us from looking Heavenward, from seeing how the Rock of Israel leads us on the wings of eagles to the heights of redemption? We must awaken and rise above the lowly bondage to all that is alien, be it expressed in foreign languages or be it expressed in our own tongue but with an alien, poisonous spirit.
Let us go, brothers, to the Seder together. Let us recognize that we are children of royalty, a nation whose eternal destiny is freedom, that Israel is neither a servant nor a home-born slave, nor an object of contempt. So it has been from the day of the Festival of our Freedom, when we raised high the flag of freedom and of banishing the chametz within us by fulfilling the word of God, the Eternal Redeemer of Israel. Preserve the freedom and observe the banishing of chametz and thus speedily bring the complete redemption.”
[Olat Re’iyah II, pp. 2445; Translation by Rabbi Pesach Yaffe]
