Parshas Bechukosai 5782
As far back as I can remember, I helped my parents prepare for Shabbos and Yom Tov. I have vivid memories of standing in my family’s sukkah as it was slowly being assembled, lending a hand in any way I possibly could. And because these memories stretch back to my earliest years, it occurred to me at some point—perhaps the point at which similar scenes began to unfold with my own children—that the “help” I offered wasn’t really help at all. In those especially young years, allowing me to help was just my parents’ acquiescing to my desire to be part of what seemed like an exciting process.
But while you can pull a fast one on a little kid, assuring them that they really are offering valuable assistance, it is more difficult to play the same game with shrewd and experienced adults. An adult would know that shining yet another flashlight during bedikas chametz is redundant and that neatly lining up the sukkah hardware isn’t actually helping move things along. Why, then, does Hashem bother with the charade?
אֲנִי ה׳ אֱלֹקיכֶם אֲשֶׁר הוֹצֵאתִי אֶתְכֶם מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם מִהְיֹת לָהֶם עֲבָדִים וָאֶשְׁבֹּר מֹטֹת עֻלְּכֶם וָאוֹלֵךְ אֶתְכֶם קוֹמְמִיּוּת
ויקרא כו:יג
I am Hashem your G-d, Who took you out of the Land of Egypt, from your state of slavery. I broke the pegs of your yoke and had you walk upright.
Vayikra 26:13
The pegs of the yoke, Rashi explains, are inserted through the latch on either side of the yoke, keeping it securely fastened to the neck. A person bearing a yoke around the neck cannot actually walk upright simply because these pegs have been broken or removed. It is not until the yoke itself is removed that he is free of its weight and can become walking properly.
Yet as the Torah describes it, this final chore was left to the people themselves. And while a child may get a thrill out of tapping in the last nail in the sukkah, it is difficult to understand what satisfaction an adult would receive by performing a task so easily accomplished without him. Yetzias Mitzrayim was a one-sided affair; Hashem liberated us in miraculous fashion and doing so all on His own. If He was prepared to remove the yoke pegs, why not just remove the yoke Himself?
The answer lies in understanding freedom not only as a state of being, but a state of mind. One can be given their liberty, but until such time as they embrace their new independence themselves, the change in circumstance doesn’t do them much good. They’ll still walk around broken and bent, despite the yoke no longer being around their necks. In that sense, removing the yoke in any meaningful way is not something that Hashem could do for us, but a choice we had to make ourselves.
For all its challenges, there is safety and security in abdicating independence. The physical yoke represents oppression and tyranny, but can also free a person from the mental and emotional yoke of autonomy and decision making. While the yoke is in place, I cannot be held responsible for the shape my life takes. Once it is removed, once it is clear that I have been given the opportunity to develop and thrive, we can easily buckle under the weight of a brand new burden.
Free of any physical yoke, we often adopt a narrative of being restrained by external forces nonetheless. It’s the narrative of inability due to no fault of my own. It’s the insistence that the pegs are stuck firmly in the yoke and prevent me from doing more. “I can’t make the time.” “I just don’t have the discipline.” “I don’t come from that background.” “I don’t have the family support.” “I don’t have those resources.” “I’m just not that person.”
Every one of these claims and the many others that we make are not without a kernel of truth. Every person is challenged by circumstances and uncontrollable setbacks to some degree or another. But in insisting that we cannot achieve more, are we facing difficulties that are actually insurmountable, or are we just tripping over our own feet? What if the talents and abilities to transcend our struggles have actually been provided to us, but we just haven’t thought to fully use them? What if we’ve been telling ourselves that we’re under a yoke for so long, it never occurred to us that the pegs may have already been removed?