“Come, let us deal wisely with them…” (Shemos 1:10)

When Pharaoh said the above verse, he meant, “Let’s figure out a plan to ensnare the Jews into slavery.” This doesn’t seem to need much explanation, because if Pharaoh hadn’t done it wisely, he would have some kind of revolt on his hands. However, Rav Shalom Schwadron points out something amazing.  When times got rough for the Jews while they were in the desert, they cried out, “Bring back the good times! We remember the fish, which we ate in Egypt for free!” (Cf. Bamidbar 11:5). It seems from that statement that in their minds, the enslavement they went through wasn’t actually so terrible. On the other hand, when Pharaoh died, they cried out to Hashem for salvation (Shemos 2:23). This is indeed enough to confuse anyone.

Pharaoh’s idea was to slowly get the Jews used to a life of slavery, and after they were accustomed to that life, it would become a real way of existence – so much so that the Jews could even become comfortable with their enslavement. When Pharaoh died (2:23), the Bnei Yisrael had a temporary reprieve from their slavery (see Bechor Shor), and during that break, they realized the craziness of their life of slavery and in turn cried out to Hashem. Yet, in their minds, slavery still remained a viable option. There is “the better life” and there is “the livable life”. We see that they saw this as a viable option when they asked to go back to it when they were in the desert.

I would like to point out an observation I have about what is happening nowadays. We have Russians who have moved to Israel for “freedom”, and yet they try to reinstate a Communist party (the opposite of freedom) here in Israel. Pharaoh understood this philosophy and he created a slave state without having to have his slaves locked in chains. In our own exile, we fall prey to this kind of philosophy time and time again. We don’t realize that part of what we call “normal life” actually stems from our entrenchment in secular society.

I’ve never taken a poll of this, but it takes well over 10 – and possibly over 20 – years for Americans in Israel to forget that Sunday in the USA is an off day. In modern Western culture it is a given and it is natural for Sunday to be a day off. You may be acquainted with the “blue laws” which, for example, forbade the sale of alcohol on Sunday because churches were having their services. This is the intermingling of Church and State. One of the great Torah lecturers of our day once said something amazing about life in Israel. How much meaning and attachment do these symbolisms have to people? I was made aware recently that the secular world is trying to abolish the “Shabbat Shalom” thought and replace it with “סופ״ש נעים” (sofash na’im – have a pleasant weekend). On this point, this great Torah Lecturer said that It seems that the secular world is aware that just mentioning Shabbos will keep people connected to the concept of Shabbos. Therefore, by removing the word “Shabbos” from common speech, they think they will gradually cause people to forget that there is even a concept of Shabbos.

How should we react when we hear these attempts to slowly wear us down? Due to the necessity of pikuach nefesh during the Gulf War, we were instructed to leave our radios on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – including Shabbos. I remember the first time hearing on Shabbos the regular Saturday programming, and the announcer say, “Shabbat Shalom!” It struck me as very odd, though I understood that Shabbat in secular society just means “the weekend.” Yet it still hurt to hear these words over the radio on Shabbos. It bothered me that Shabbos was considered a cultural day and not a religious one. Today, they are even trying to uproot Shabbos as part of the country’s culture.

I believe that we should hold our ground and even when speaking to someone secular, we should keep the idea of Shabbos alive to all.

Have a good Shabbos!