"Protecting Your Freedom" – What Is True Freedom? 5 Points to Ponder

"Do Not Muzzle an Ox While It Is Treading"

There are false claims that the Torah is cruel to animals and lacks sensitivity towards them.

So what is the appropriate attitude according to the Torah towards animals? Let's examine:

·         The Torah prohibits muzzling the mouth of an ox (or any other animal) while it is working in the field and prevents it from eating the field’s produce as it works. The aim of this Torah prohibition is to prevent the animal from the suffering of seeing its food without being able to eat it – “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading” (Deuteronomy 25:4).

·         The Torah forbids cooking meat in milk. One reason for this prohibition is the obligation to behave with mercy and sensitivity, and not to cook an animal in its mother’s milk - "Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk" (Exodus 23:19).

·         The Torah forbids a farmer from yoking together an ox and a donkey to a single plow. The reason is that these two animals differ in size and strength, and therefore the joint plowing can cause them distress and hardship - "Do not plow with an ox and a donkey together" (Deuteronomy 22:10).

·         According to the Torah, if you see an animal suffering, you must help it, even if it belongs to someone you hate - "If you see your enemy’s donkey fallen under its load, do not pass by; you must certainly help with him" (Exodus 23:5).

·         The Torah explicitly forbids a Jew from working their animals on Shabbat - "But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter... nor your ox or donkey or any of your animals" (Exodus 20:9).

·         One should not own an animal of any kind unless he accepts responsibility to care for and feed it - R’ Eleazar HaKappar taught: A man is not permitted to acquire an animal, wild beast, or bird unless he has arranged food for them (Jerusalem Talmud, Tractate Ketubot, Chapter 4, Halacha 8).

·         Halacha obliges a person who has an animal to feed it before eating himself. The reason is that farm animals and pets depend on humans, and cannot obtain food by themselves. One must consider the needs of those who depend on him before his own needs (Berachot 40a; Gittin 62a), as per the verse “I will provide grass in your fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied" (Deuteronomy 11:15).

Friends, the Torah sternly prohibits causing distress to animals. Furthermore, it commands us to strive to relieve their distress (Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, Siman 191). The Torah teaches us to be considerate of the "feelings" of animals, to assist animals in distress, ensure their rest, and show compassion and responsibility towards them.

"Protecting Your Freedom"

During one of the recent election campaigns, I encountered an advertisement from the "Meretz" party that amused me. It stated: "Protecting your freedom" (emphasis in the original).

I wondered: Who is truly more free? - A secular left-wing party, whose platform is the right to live in this land "as free people," or the religious Jews that "Meretz" tries to prevent from "taking over the state through religious coercion," as they put it?

Is a secular person, who does "whatever they want," truly the free one - and the Torah scholar, "bound" by the laws of the Torah, the captive and limited one?

Let's consider: A person who is dragged by his desires and wants is really enslaved to his impulses, and doesn't truly have full control over them. Only one who knows how to restrain themselves and set clear boundaries — what is forbidden and what is permitted — is like a king over himself, as he makes decisions correctly and thoughtfully, without yielding to impulses.

And this is the depth of the Sages’ saying: "There is no free person but one who is engaged in Torah," for a person who studies Torah learns how to control his impulses, thus allowing himself a life of true freedom. Such a person can choose to say: "There is an immodest woman here, so I will not look at her, as it is against Hashem’s will!" or: "I desire to eat cheesecake, but I will abstain because I ate meat two hours ago"... and in all aspects of life.

This is also the secret of freedom. Only a person who can take a beloved trait or thing and decide to use it from now on solely for the honor of Hashem exhibits true control over all his soul’s powers, choosing how to use them.

Without Torah, a person cannot break free from the slavery of the evil inclination. One who clings to Torah liberates themselves from material bondage.

Wasting one’s life on satisfying desires and impulses isn't freedom. If we disdain our freedom and are only occupied with satisfying fleeting, temporary physical needs, we lose the freedom needed to achieve our real goals, for which we came here: to follow the Torah, observe mitzvot and good deeds, work on our character traits and get closer to the Creator...

The Automatic Pump

Did you know that each of us pumps about 1.5 million barrels of blood in our lifetimes? Not only that, but this pumping occurs effortlessly, faultlessly, and with exemplary cleanliness and order!

What are you talking about? Me? When?

The heart muscle is a blood pump: it draws oxygenated blood from the lungs and pushes it to all the organs and cells in the body. From there, it retracts the blood with carbon dioxide and pushes it back to the lungs to expel the carbon dioxide and recharge with oxygen. The heart does this 60-100 times a minute for years of life!

Friends, each of our hearts draws blood and delivers it to tissues. Every contraction of the heart injects a quarter to half a cup of blood from the heart into the arteries. The heart does this 60-100 times a minute, circulating about 7,000 liters of blood daily!

Even though everyone can feel their heart beat, it's not always clear what each beat achieves. Now we know that the heart pumps blood. It’s a wonder how this pump, the size of a large apple, continues pumping continuously more than two billion heartbeats over a lifetime.

And overall, how does this pump know how to pump, and how much blood it has to supply the rest of the body? How does the heart know to adjust the beat's strength precisely for each body part? How does the heart know to increase activity during exertion, and how does it know to return "to routine mode" automatically?

Prayer or Wick

Why does the Creator need us to pray to Him every day, three times? Why can’t we pray once a week or month?

The Creator wants us to establish a connection with Him. This connection brings bounty to the entire creation. According to the Kabbalah, this is the reason for the need for daily prayer - to bring bounty to the world.

According to the plain meaning, it's like a king who sent his son to study at a university abroad, and the son said: "Father, how will I manage there? There are many expenses!" His father replied: "Call me every evening and tell me what your expenses were today, and within 10 minutes I will deposit the money into your account." And so it was. The son called on Sunday: "Dad, I rented an apartment and bought food, costing this and that." Ten minutes later, the money was deposited. On the second day: "Dad, I bought textbooks at such and such a price..."; 10 minutes later, his father deposited the money. Thus, daily, the son would call, and his father would deposit money for him.

After a month, the son called his father, the king, in joy and delight: "Father, I have good news: I have calculated my expenses precisely and made a general summary. Now I’ll tell you the monthly expenses, and from now on you can deposit once a month." His father said: "Absolutely not!" "But why? I know the monthly amount." His father said: "If I deposit for you once a month, how often will you call me? Once a month! But I want to hear from you every day. You are my son! I love you and want to hear your voice every day! Call me daily - you will receive. Do not call - you will not."

This is how Hashem wants the connection with His children, the Jewish people. The word "prayer" is no coincidence the same letters as the word "wick". What is the wick's role? To connect between the candle, the material below, and the flame above, which is spiritual – this is what the wick does. So, too, the prayer – it connects between the person and the creation and the Creator. The more heartfelt the prayer, the more bounty one brings down to himself and to the world.

"70 Faces of the Torah"

"You think this, and the Reform Jews think differently. Who says you are right and that your way is the correct one? After all, there are '70 faces to the Torah', right? There are many ways to interpret the Torah...".

So a friend of mine retort one day during a conversation.

These people interpret the Torah contrary to the Torah! When you tell them: "But it is written differently in the Torah!", they say to you: "70 faces to the Torah"... I don’t understand - can you interpret the Torah against itself? Twist it?

So what does the expression "70 faces of the Torah" mean?

Faces in the sense of "inner meaning". This means that every verse in the Torah has explanations on different levels: Peshat (plain meaning), Remez (hint), Drash (interpretive meaning), and Sod (mystery). Each level contains within it further aspects of internality, endlessly expanding.

The same verse in the Tanakh – like a polished diamond, it has different facets, and from every angle you illuminate it, you receive new colors – so for each verse in the Torah, there are 70 angles, from every angle you illuminate, you receive a new interpretation - provided they all align with the Torah and do not contradict what is stated in the Torah.

The moment it is against the Torah, it is called "revealing a face in the Torah not according to halacha" – interpreting the Torah and its commandments incorrectly.

People permit themselves to say "I think this, and the rabbi thinks that", adding the trump card "70 faces of the Torah"... Apparently, their use of this expression by these deniers, is related to their biased desire to erase part of the Torah's laws and continue to do whatever their heart pleases...