Clarity about Freedom in Nissan

By Rabbi David Jaffe

Image description: Blog post image that shows text on top of a photo of a flowery meadow at sunset. Text reads: Nisan 5785, by Rabbi David Jaffe. The Kirva logo in white is above the text.

Yale professor, Timothy Snyder, writes that authoritarian regimes excel in distorting the meaning of words to the point that those words lose any meaning and can be manipulated for any purpose. The contemporary use of the term “antisemitism” is a good example, which he explains in a recent blog. I’ve experienced this sense of distortion and confusion with the arrests and threatened deportation of university students because of their views on the Israel-Hamas war. It seems it is now a U.S. foreign policy goal to fight antisemitism. Well, that sounds good. But then, that goal is being pursued by violating the civil and human rights of foreign students, who are in the country legally, because they expressed anti-Israel speech in the context of protesting the war in Gaza. 

I personally may disagree with some of what I’ve heard these students express and want universities to do more to address Jewish safety on campus. But it is specifically as a Jew that I feel a deep unease when my government weakens such a core tenet of liberal democracy as the protection of free speech and makes all minorities and people with disfavored opinions vulnerable. I feel way less safe as a Jew now than I did when a relatively unknown student like Rumesya Ozturk published a relatively unread opinion piece about Israel. So the effort to fight antisemitism by my government makes me feel way less safe as a Jew. How is that fighting antisemitism? Pretty confusing, right?! 

The truth is that our current leaders are manipulating Jewish fears that can arise when some read or hear verbal attacks on Israel. They do this to push through a much broader agenda to limit civil rights and speech unfavored by the administration by first going after the most vulnerable - foreign students. The term “antisemitism” is being used as the point on a spear to attack the foundations of liberal democracy, like free speech and the independence of universities, which ultimately makes all minorities, including Jews, less safe. Antisemitism is real and needs to be addressed by universities and anywhere it arises, but this is a distortion that’s making Jews, and so many others, less safe. As Jews and Jewish organizations, we can’t let ourselves get trapped in a false binary that says to fight antisemitism, democratic principles must be weakened.  

Whether regarding antisemitism or any other term distorted beyond meaning, we can all benefit from a spiritual practice that supports us in staying grounded in what we know is true. This is the opportunity offered to us by Nissan and Passover. Based on Chassidic sources, each month has a related spelling of the Tetragrammaton - the four-letter name of God Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh. Throughout the year, these four letters are rearranged in every possible order based on a verse from the Torah. For example, the letter combination for the month of Av is based on the first letters in the verse, “Look and hear Israel today” - Heh-Vav-Yud-Heh. The combination for Nissan, our current month, is Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh based on the verse, “Yismachu HaShamayim V’Tagel Ha’Aretz - The heavens will rejoice and the earth will sing praise.” 

The Divine name letter combination for Nissan is straightforward. The message of the verse is straightforward - God created the world and all creation recognizes this fact and sings to their creator. So much in Judaism, and in the world, is complex with hidden meaning. Not Nissan and the liberation message of Passover. God created the world and created humans to be free. The exodus of the Israelites from bondage in Egypt is a message to the world that humans are not to live under the tyranny of other humans. Period. Full stop. 

It was this clarity that enabled an enslaved people to believe they could be free. And it is this kind of clarity we will need to not be fooled by the distortion of language currently used to consolidate power in the hands of a few. For all its problems, liberal democracy strives to distribute power among the many, which is a political arrangement that more closely aligns with Divine intentions for human freedom than the authoritarianism that is currently on the rise around the world.

We need Nissan-level clarity about human freedom and distribution of power to interrupt this slide toward authoritarianism. May this month of liberation and celebration of Passover ground us in this clarity. 

Chodesh Tov and Chag Sameach,

David