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If You Were A Slave (Published by The New Jersey Jewish Standard, April 2014)
by Rabbi Debra Orenstein
I attend a lot of meetings. (Maybe you can relate.) Many are important; few are memorable.
About fifteen years ago, I attended a Passover Seminar at the Los Angeles Board of Rabbis that
will stay with me forever.
Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater discussed modern-day slavery. He invited everyone present to
contemplate slavery – ancient and contemporary, Israelite and gentile – and then to sing these
words as a dirge: “Avadim hayinu lepharoah bemitzrayim. Ata b’nai chorin.” The translation is:
“We were slaves to Pharoah in Egypt. Now we are free.”
It’s a song we usually sing in up-tempo. We treat it as a children’s ditty. The text is a pastiche of
two readings from the Hagaddah. La, la, we used to be slaves. Yai, deedle, dai, now we’re free.
By slowing it down and singing it mournfully, the meaning hit me differently. We were slaves.
We, our entire people, were slaves. I looked around at my fellow escapees, and I observed a few
hard-boiled rabbis crying around the table. Everyone felt the weight of the words. Everyone
mourned that human beings could do this to one another.
On Passover, we taste slavery in vegetables and dipping sauces; we feel freedom in the soft
pillows on which we lean. Through sensory experience and the power of story, the ancient rabbis
constructed an order (seder) meant to spark inquiry. Meanings, not just matzahs, are hidden, and
they can only be uncovered through feats of imagination.
The ultimate feat of imagination is set out as a requirement in Pesachim 116b: “In each
generation, every person is obligated to see him or herself as personally having left slavery in
Egypt.”
Can you truly imagine being a slave? Can you imagine being treated as a beast of burden,
building with bricks in the hot sun, allowed no rest and little food? Can you imagine threats
against your children? Under such circumstances, can you imagine losing connection with your
past and hope for your future? That is what happened to the Children of Israel in Egypt. And that
is what still happens to slaves today in countries across the world, including the United States.
Can you imagine being one of approximately 27 million slaves now in bondage? Can you
imagine enduring your child’s kidnapping, knowing that she is likely enslaved? Can you imagine
being so poor that you feel you must “sell” one of your children to get him an education (or at
least the false promise of one) and to feed the others? Can you imagine generations of debtbondage in your family, all for a fake loan or a paltry sum your grandfather borrowed? Can you
imagine coming to this country with the help of coyotes only to discover that the job they
promised is a lie – and that you are a slave? Can you imagine going to a party only to be
drugged, isolated, beaten, and ordered to make money as a street walker – or die?
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If you can really imagine, then you are compelled to action. But what can be done?
Beginning last spring, I immersed myself in research about human trafficking. I wanted to find
out what could make a difference. The boxes that accompany this article share my best
recommendations – both for the seders and throughout the year.
The Bible commands us: “love the stranger for your were strangers in the land of Egypt”
(Deut.10:19, et al.). It calls Jews to be a “light to the nations” (Isaiah 42:6). If individual Jews
help to free slaves, each one does a mitzvah. When Jews band together to free slaves, we perform
the same mitzvah, while making a statement about our faith, sanctifying God’s name, and, in the
image of the ancient rabbis, “paving a path toward peace.”
That is why my family began a group called “Jews Freeing Slaves” on jchoice.org. It allows
Jews to support the universal cause of human freedom as Jews, by donating directly to antislavery organizations with excellent track records.
Research is vital for measuring effectiveness and discerning the subtle, variable “best practices”
for freeing slaves. But facts and metrics are no substitute for vision. It was one particular vision –
my daughter’s – that gave my good intentions real power.
The breakthrough came when my seven-year-old, who couldn’t investigate, simply imagined.
Specifically, she imagined that I could personally have a hand in freeing 100 slaves within a
year. My mind could easily have dismissed her idea as naïve and absurd, but my spirit felt a
quickening, a sense of rightness. Maybe it was all those years of practice at Passover seders that
allowed me to see into her imagination. I made a solemn agreement with her to do it, if she
would be my partner.
With this article, I am asking you join us. Imagine what we can do together – and, then, let’s do
it.
ACTION STEPS FOR FREEING SLAVES THIS PASSOVER
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DONATE MONEY TO FREE SLAVES o Visit www.jchoice.org and select the group “Jews Freeing Slaves.” This will enable you, in the name of your tradition, to support charities with excellent track records in freeing slaves around the world. o Donate to www.btcte.org (Breaking the Chain Through Education), a non-­‐
profit that rescues and educates child slaves in Ghana (featured in the Jewish Standard on May 3, 2013 and March 28, 2014). © copyright 2014 by ShareWonder Media
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LEARN MORE ABOUT CONTEMPORARY SLAVERY o Visit the “Freeing Slaves” page at www.RabbiDebra.com for articles on the problem – and the possibilities. o Visit FreetheSlaves.net for an introduction to slavery and solutions around the globe. o Regarding slavery in the United States, learn more at www.TraffickingResourceCenter.org o Read A Crime So Monstrous: Face-­‐to-­‐Face with Modern-­‐Day Slavery by E. Benjamin Skinner or any of Kevin Bales’ excellent books, including Disposable People, The Slave Next Door, and Ending Slavery. USE YOUR BUYING POWER o In the words of Kevin Bales, “Stop eating and wearing and driving slavery.” Buy fair-­‐trade goods whenever possible. Inquire into the supply chain of whatever you buy. Support good governance in the countries where you do business. Encourage investment funds to screen out companies that profit from slavery. o When agri-­‐businesses, chocolatiers, grocery chains, or mutual funds are persuaded that their consumers want slave-­‐free products, they change the way they operate. o Can unfair-­‐trade foods be considered kosher? Visit magentzedek.org to learn about a moral certification for kosher foods. PLAN YOUR SEDER o Remember twinning with Soviet refusniks? Jews used to place an empty chair on the bimah at Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, in solidarity with Soviet Jews who were not yet free. Add an empty chair and place setting at your seder table. The vacancy is sure to spark questions, creating an opportunity start a conversation about “invisible” contemporary slaves. o Add a tomato to your seder plate. When someone asks, “why a tomato?” be ready with the answer. Immokalee, Florida, a center for tomato farming, was called “ground zero” for human trafficking in the United States by a federal official. Immokalee was home not just to agriculture but to massive abuse. In 2008, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont reported about farm workers: “the norm is a disaster, and the extreme is slavery.” The situation has improved a great deal in a short time, but clean-­‐up is far from complete and wages are far from fair. Visit truah.org to learn more about the seder plate custom and the workers. o Visit the “Holidays” page at RabbiDebra.com for more ideas on making your seder engaging and relevant – for slavery and other themes. © copyright 2014 by ShareWonder Media