Freedom vs. Happiness

In a recent lecture, Rabbi Kahn made an interesting point. He was talking about the difference between the English name of the second book of the Torah, “Exodus”, and the name the Rambam uses ‘Redemption”. I’ve talked about that before. He contends that both have to do with freedom, but Exodus is just a physical freedom from Egypt, while “Redemption” implies that real freedom requires an existential component (which we got at Sinai and through the Mishkan).

He draws an interesting parallel as way of example; he claims that in the history of the world, there has probably never been a time or place when people have had as much freedom as they do in some places today (like America). Does America being so free mean that people are really liberated?

In terms of existential pain, it seems to be a very sad state of affairs. You’ve probably never had a country with as much mental illness as you have today (by mental illness he means people in incredible amounts of psychological pain). People today have experience their Exodus, but not yet their redemption. They have physical freedom, but have no purpose for it. People are too free that they don’t know what they’re living for.

Physically being free without having some sort of a mandate can be a cruel form of torture. That’s why G-d didn’t only take the Jews out of Egypt, but also brought them to Mount Sinai and gave them their mandate, because without that they would not have true freedom.