As we prepare to celebrate July 4th, this week we will reflect on the themes of liberty and freedom across our tradition.
The introduction of Juneteenth as a federal holiday has raised a question for students of history: When does freedom begin? The Juneteenth holiday, as many of us have learned in recent years, commemorates June 19th, 1865, the day when Union troops freed enslaved people in Galveston and other parts of Texas. Juneteenth is often described as celebrating the ending of slavery in the United States.
Only, the National Museum of African American History and Culture describes the night of January 1, 1863 – almost two and a half years earlier – as “Freedom’s Eve.” The museum explains:
On that night, enslaved and free African Americans gathered in churches and private homes all across the country awaiting news that the Emancipation Proclamation had taken effect. At the stroke of midnight, prayers were answered as all enslaved people in Confederate States were declared legally free.
And, even after Juneteenth – what did freedom look like for formerly enslaved people? The museum describes the Reconstruction period:
The post-emancipation period known as Reconstruction (1865-1877) marked an era of great hope, uncertainty, and struggle for the nation as a whole. Formerly enslaved people immediately sought to reunify families, establish schools, run for political office, push radical legislation and even sue slaveholders for compensation.
Freedom is not a singular moment, but a process.
Our Jewish experience of slavery, freedom, and emancipation is certainly much further back in history and in our collective psyche, though still central to our understanding of identity. And with our story as well, we can ask ourselves: When did freedom begin? Did it begin at the burning bush, when God chose Moses? Did it begin when Moses demanded that Pharaoh set us free? Did it begin on the Leil Shimurim, the “Night of Guarding,” as the Angel of Death traveled through? Did it begin only at the shores of the sea — or not until Sinai? Did freedom not begin until we reached the Promised Land? Are we still in the process of becoming free?
In the space between Egypt and the shores of the sea, as the Israelites are leaving behind what was, God says:
דַּבֵּר֮ אֶל־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵל֒ וְיָשֻׁ֗בוּ וְיַחֲנוּ֙ לִפְנֵי֙ פִּ֣י הַחִירֹ֔ת בֵּ֥ין מִגְדֹּ֖ל וּבֵ֣ין הַיָּ֑ם לִפְנֵי֙ בַּ֣עַל צְפֹ֔ן נִכְח֥וֹ תַחֲנ֖וּ עַל־הַיָּֽם׃
Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, before Baal-zephon; you shall encamp facing it, by the sea. (Exodus 14:2)
Picking up on a bit of Hebrew wordplay, the medieval commentator Rashi teaches:
This [place] is identical with Pithom but now it obtained the name of פי החירת, because there they became בני חורין free-men (חירת is explained as חרות freedom). This was two high, precipitous rocks and the valley between them was called פי הסלעים the mouth (opening) of the rocks.
It is perhaps a reminder to us, even in 2024 in the United States, that freedom is not easily achieved, that it asks us to take risks, and that we should see it – and experience it – as miraculous.
-Rabbi Sari Laufer