09 Jan PARASHAT VAERA: BEING OURSELVES

Parashat Vaera tells of
the process of Yetziat
Mitzrayim, how Hashem
punished the Egyptians
until Pharaoh finally let
Beneh Yisrael leave.
This story is all about freedom, about our
ancestors’ release from the chains of
bondage and being free. To help us
understand the true meaning of the concept
of “freedom,” let us look at one of the first
mitzvot that Beneh Yisrael were
commanded after leaving Egypt – the
mitzvah of tefillin. What makes this
mitzvah so special, that it was chosen to be
one of the first mitzvot given to our
ancestors when they were freed from
slavery? The tefillin consist of two boxes
– the tefillin shel yad, which is worn on the
arm, and the tefillin shel rosh, which is
worn on the head. The tefillin she yad is a
single box, containing one piece of
parchment, whereas the tefillin shel rosh
consists of four separate compartments,
each with its own parchment. The five
boxes represent the five senses. The single
box of the tefillin shel yad corresponds to
the sense we have in our hand – the sense

of touch – and the four compartments of
the tefillin shel rosh correspond to the four
senses of the head: sight, smell, taste, and
sound. What is all this about? Why do the
tefillin represents the five senses? The five
senses reflect a person’s true self, who he
really is. Our five senses are all our own.
Nobody can touch, smell, hear, see or taste
for us. We do all this only on our own. The
purpose of tefillin is to help us focus on our
unique identity, on who we really are, on
our true selves. When we wear tefillin, we
are to reconnect with our “senses” – with
our true identity. The greatest freedom is
the freedom to be ourselves, without being
tied down to anything or anybody else.
True freedom is the freedom to be who
really are, rather than living to be what
somebody else wants to be. And so as soon
as Beneh Yisrael left Egypt and became
free, they were given the mitzvah of tefillin,
which teaches us how to be truly free. This
can be a difficult challenge here in our
wonderful community. Being part of our
community means that we are very close
with one another, we know a great deal
about what others are doing, we do a lot of
things together, and we are there to help

one another. These are all
beautiful and precious
benefits of community life.
However, this can also
impose an enormous burden
of pressure. People feel
pressured to live a certain
way, to dress a certain way,
to live in a certain kind of
home, to drive a certain kind
of car, to spend vacations in
a certain way – in order to
meet perceived communal
expectations. A well-known
technician in the community
once received a call from a woman in the
community to repair a certain appliance in
her home. He arrived in the evening, and
he saw that there was no car in the
driveway, the curtains were drawn, and the
lights were all turned off. It looked like
there was nobody home. He was very
perplexed, because the woman had called
him to come do a repair. He knocked on the
door, and the woman opened it and quickly
invited him inside. When he asked about
why it looked like nobody was home, she
explained that it was vacation season, and

she didn’t want anybody to know that her
family wasn’t going away for vacation. So,
they parked the car somewhere else and
kept all the lights off. This is the opposite
of freedom. This is a life that is dictated by
other people. In order to truly live, we need
to live our own lives, not somebody else’s
life. Of course, we can and should gain
inspiration, motivation and knowledge
from other people. But this should be for
the purpose of being who we are supposed
to be, in order to live for the unique purpose
for which we are placed here on earth. If
we live this way, then we are truly free.