Welcome to Emotional Wellness Daily.
We continue the discussion that we started before Pesach, about what true freedom means. We can call this class an integration of emotional wellness and spirituality, as we always quote from Torah sources.
Rav Chaim Brisker once made an observation about the Cossacks, a group of people, mainly from Russia, and who gave their services to the Russian Army and had certain privilege and rights that came with that. Each Cossack got a horse, and each one had to guard his horse, clean it, make sure it was healthy, and couldn’t sell it.
As Rav Chaim Brisker pointed out, in truth, rather than the Cossack receiving a horse, every horse got a Cossack. Each Cossack was really serving the horse, taking care of him, feeding him etc. The horses really bought masters for themselves! The Cossack was serving the horse. Rav Chaim said this was a mashal for man's desires. If a person just follows his desires, it ends up that his desires are not serving him, but rather that he's the servant of his desires, and what little intelligence he has is taken over. He says that it's possible that a person lives his whole life in this world thinking that he does what he wants, but in truth, he's just being dragged after his horse. His horse/body tells him, “Eat this. Look at that. Go there.” Therefore, in truth, he's serving his body, day and night, and his true person, his inner self, is just being dragged after desires. A wise man wants to be cognizant of this, so that he is the boss and not the servant. He should be in control and do what he truly wants. That way, he is truly a free man.
I looked up on Cossacks on Wikipedia and saw that it cites Max Vasmer's etymological dictionary which traces the name Cossack to an old East-Slavic word that means a free man. It’s unbelievable how Rav Chaim Brisker hit it on the money, that here we are titling them the free men, but in reality, they're not free men. They are nothing more than servants of their horse.
Rav Yehuda Halevi was a Sephardi who wrote poetry and song and famously authored the Kuzari. He writes in one of his songs, Avdei HaZman/ those that serve the times (which means they're influenced by the winds of the times) Avdei Aved Hem/They are servants of servants. Eved Hashem/One who serves Hashem, Levado Hofshi/Is the only true, free man.
It’s important to know that by following the Torah and keeping our religion, we are the true free people.
The Ibn Ezra, a contemporary of Rabbi Yehuda Halevi says in Bamidbar 6,7, “You should know the people of the world are servants to worldly desires. The true king, who has the nezzer/crown on his head, is the one who's free from his desires. That's why the Nazir is called a Nazir; he has self-control, says the Ibn Ezra.
Rav Yerucham Levovitz writes, regarding this, “Don't think the Ibn Ezra is writing poetic words. These are words to be understood simply, in reality. A person is only truly free when he is in control of his desires.”
The first step towards this freedom is the awareness of what it truly means to be free.