This is the season of freedom opposing oppression. The season of heroes and villains. The season of democracy defeating tyranny.
Both in history and legend, in ancient times and modern, here and around the world.
Soon we will celebrate Purim. Esther, heroine of our people. Achashverus, the manipulated king, and Haman, the villain of the story. And the Jews, ultimately triumphant.
Then comes Pesach, the Festival of Freedom. Moses, the hero. Pharaoh, the tyrannical villain. With God’s help, liberation prevails and the nation of Israel comes into being.
In more modern history, that of our own country’s founding, the revolutionaries rebelled against the distant monarch. George Washington, along with many others, led the colonists to the creation of a new nation. King George the III, head of the most powerful nation in the world with an unparalleled army and navy, was helpless to prevent the imperative of freedom.
And just 15 decades ago, Abraham Lincoln, insisting on freedom for all who live in this land, opposed the forces that would have divided our country in order to prevent the freedom of the slaves. But freedom prevailed.
As Jews, we celebrate and recreate, in ceremony and in story, the freedom of the Jews of ancient Persia and the liberation of the Israelites of even more ancient Egypt, the work of Esther and Moses and God. As Americans we recall on Presidents’ Day the achievements of Washington and Lincoln, who led our country to independence and rescued it from division, expanding freedom both at the country’s inception and at its reunification.
And now, in our own time, we are privileged to witness the same imperative of freedom upsetting one monarchy and dictatorship after another throughout the Middle East. These freedom movements are led mainly by the people of those lands acting in concert, with no or few recognizable individual leaders.
In what became known as the Jasmine Revolution, a sudden and explosive wave of street protests ousted the authoritarian president of Tunisia, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, , who had ruled with an iron hand for 23 years. On January 14, 2011, Mr. Ben Ali left Tunisia after trying unsuccessfully to placate the demonstrators with promises of elections.
Within days, protesters began gathering in Tahrir Square in Cairo. “Tahrir” – Arabic for “Liberation.” We then watched in fascination as the protest grew. The protesters would not be satisfied until Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak agreed to leave office.
Mubarak ruled Egypt for 30 years, from 1981 to 2011. During all of that time Egypt operated under an “Emergency Law” that suspended constitutional rights. In the end, Mubarak could not prevail against the imperative of freedom. He left office after 18 days of protests.
Now our attention turns to Bahrain, to Yemen, to Jordan, to Iran, to Libya, and beyond. In all those countries, the people are inspired by the examples of Tunisia and Egypt and are demanding freedom. Perhaps it will finally be so that Israel, founded and operating as a democracy, will be joined by Arab neighbors operating under similar principles.
We ourselves are just beginning to emerge from the restrictions and limitations imposed upon us here by Mother Nature, who brought us one of the harshest winters in memory. As we move finally into the threshold of spring, we have much to celebrate in this season of renewed freedom.
May it only be that the governments that succeed the autocracies in the Middle East will fully satisfy the thirst for freedom we witness in our liturgical and national calendars, in the daily news, and in our abilities now to move about outdoors under warmer skies.
Let it be so, and let us enjoy the spring.
Rabbi Van Lanckton
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