Efrat, Israel - (Exodus 6: 4) "Therefore say to the children of Israel, 'I am the Lord. I shall take you out from under the sufferings of Egypt, I shall save you from their toil, I shall redeem you with an outstretched arm, I shall take you to Me for a nation, and I shall bring you to the land.."

With these "four expressions of redemption," the Book of Exodus emerges as the Biblical Book of Redemption; indeed, the very Hebrew meaning of the name Moshe (Moses) literally means the one who draws forth, the one who takes out, the one who frees from slavery within the context of Egyptian enslavement of the Hebrews. And so when the Mishnah begins to describe the order of the yearly Passover Seder, we find the imperative, "And no one may drink less than the prescribed four cups of wine, even if they must take from the community charity kitchen", with Rashi explaining the source: "Corresponding to the four languages of redemption regarding the exile of Egypt... in the portion of Vaera" (B.T. Pesahim, Mishnah 10, 1, 99b, Rashi ad loc).

The famed halakhic authority and decisor of the last century, Rav Moshe Feinstein o.b.m., even initially requires four cups of wine rather than grape juice. This is because wine actually makes the individual feel "free" physiologically - and the four cups of wine at the seder are not only for the sake of sanctity, memory and joy (as is the case with ordinary Kiddush on the Sabbath and usual festivals) but are also for the sake of freedom!

But what is the precise nature of freedom that we are celebrating on Passover in general and at the seder in particular? Conventional traditional wisdom would maintain that it is the freedom of the Hebrews, the special relationship between G-d and Israel which caused the Almighty to step into history, as it were, and free the children of Israel from their servitude under Pharoah. And it is from this perspective that the great universalist philosopher Maimonides is generally associated with the Biblical book of Genesis - the book he most usually cites as his proof-texts for the views he offers in his Guide for the Perplexed - whereas the more nationalist philosopher Yehudah Halevi is more closely identified with the Biblical book of Exodus - the book most widely drawn upon in Halevi's Kuzari.

However, I would insist that such a distinction does not do proper justice to the Biblical message. Moses' mission, and G-d's miraculous freeing of the Hebrew slaves, was never meant for Israel alone; indeed, if the Almighty had merely desired to redeem Israel because of His special relationship with them, He could have simply air-lifted the Israelites from Egypt without having to upset all of nature with the ten cataclysmic and fantastic plagues, and then with the sensational splitting of the Reed Sea. The Almighty was rather attempting to teach a crucial lesson to Pharoah, and to all subsequent despotic and totalitarian rulers in world history: slavery is a rank evil, no human being has the power to lord it over another human being. Every human being is created in the Divine Image, and therefore every human being has the inalienable right to be free!

It is largely from this perspective that the Book Of Exodus emerges from, and is based upon, the Book of Genesis. You will remember that the Sabbath day, the seventh day wherein all manner of physical work is forbidden and in which the human being has the ability to exercise his existential freedom under G-d, has two distinct but intertwined Biblical significances: firstly, "because the Lord Creator, in six days the Lord made the heavens and the Earth, the seas and every thing which is in them, and He rested on the Sabbath day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the seventh day and sanctified it", (Exodus 20:11); and secondly, the Lord Redeemer, "You shall remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your G-d took you out from there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm; therefore did the Lord your G-d command you to make the Sabbath day," (Deuteronomy 5:16). Clearly, the second reason emanates from the first: the G-d who created every individual in His own divine image decries and abhors the enslavement of one human image of the Divine over another human image of the Divine. Every human being has the right to be free. Hence the second decalogue includes the additional message of the Sabbath:" in order that your (Gentile) man-servant and your (Gentile) maid-servant may rest like you" (Deuteronomy 5:14).

A fascinating support to this universal message of the Exodus may be found in the Jerusalem Talmud (J.T. Pesahim 10,1), where the source for the four cups of freedom wine is not traced to the four expressions of redemption in our Torah portion of Vaera, but rather to the four appearances of "wine goblet" in the dream of the butler which was interpreted by Joseph:

"In my dream, behold a vine was before me... and the goblet of Pharoah was in my hand, and I took the grapes, and I squeezed them into the goblet of Pharoah, and I gave the goblet into the hand of Pharoah... And Joseph said, "In three days Pharoah will lift up your head and restore you to your office; and you shall place the goblet of Pharoah into his hand as you did before when you were his butler.." (Genesis 40:9,11,13).

Now the butler is an Egyptian, who was arbitrarily and unfairly imprisoned by Pharoah; his dream portends his freedom from the enslavement of an unjust despot. I believe that the Jerusalem Talmud - in making this passage from the end of the Book of Genesis the source for the four cups of freedom wine at the Passover Seder rather than the passage from Vaera - is emphasizing the universal message of freedom for all of humanity rather than merely parochial freedom for Israel. In the interdependent global village in which we now live, when the ideal of freedom and world peace is so cardinal at this time, when life - preserving democracy is locked in battle against suicide - bombing fundamentalist terrorists for world hegemony, this interpretation of the exodus has never been so vital!

Shabbat Shalom.